title: What's wrong with XOR encryption?
body: <p>I wrote a short C++ program to do XOR encryption on a file, which I may use for some personal files (if it gets cracked it's no big deal - I'm just protecting against casual viewers). Basically, I take an ASCII password and repeatedly XOR the password with the data in the file.</p>
  
  <p>Now I'm curious, though: if someone wanted to crack this, how would they go about it? Would it take a long time? Does it depend on the length of the password (i.e., what's the big-O)?</p>