What does a DES key look like?

[Osprey]

By that I mean, in text. How would one type it?

And older thread here seemed to indicate it was 8 pairs of hex digits. Is that accurate?

[Wowbagger]

Yes, a standard single DES key is 8 hex digits, with each byte of the key having odd parity - in other words, each pair of digits must have an odd number of "1" bits.

For example, the "standard" calibration/test key of 70707070 - each byte (70) has 3 one bits (0x70 = 01110000 binary).

A key of 70707071 would be invalid, since the last byte has even parity.

[/\/\y 2 cents]

ahhh...I see said the blind man....good question and response!

Next question:

What would an AES key look like? (may be a dumb question that I can use a bit of math + the above explination to figure out since it goes from 128 to 256 bit)

Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

[Osprey]

Actually, it'd be a bit different. DES is 56-Bit, isn't it?

[mr.syntrx]

Yes, DES uses 56 bit keys.

An AES key is just longer. A 128-bit AES key might look something like this: 9C4253EE14200E4A812475EE95AA3BCB.