# Format of NONCE in Initialization Vector (IV)

When we talk about a Number used ONCE (NONCE) in Initialization Vector (IV), is it required to use numbers only? Is is possible to use letters or special characters?

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An IV or nonce is a sequence of bytes, the concept of letters doesn't make much sense here. So what's your question? Are you talking about the ASCII representation of those bytes? Or the hex representation? –  CodesInChaos Jul 10 '12 at 11:30
It's just a string of bits, how you wish to interpret it is entirely up to you and irrelevant to the actual underlying cryptographic operations being performed (personally I like to use hex. representation for visual inspection as it's easy to compare bitwise, great for debugging) –  Thomas Jul 10 '12 at 11:40

No. In the context of the Initialization Vector of a cipher operated in some mode, the most significant property of a cryptographic nonce is that it is not reused. It often matters that it is random and unpredictable (e.g. with CBC). It is immaterial that it represents a number or anything else under some particular encoding.

If an IV is chosen at random, it would be bad to restrict it to represent a number (say, restricting each byte to be a digit according to ASCII), in particular because it would dramatically increases the odds of reusing the same IV.

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Removed "standard and best" about random nonce. It is good practice, but other forms of NONCE are also standardized, and "best" is subjective. If a message already has a unique identifier, it is questionable if it is best to use a random instead of the UID. –  Maarten Bodewes Aug 10 '14 at 16:49
@owlstead: I'm OK with you change. However, using an UID as IV can be bad: in CBC mode, if the UID is predictable, encryption can be broken under CPA; in CTR mode, if consecutive UIDs differ only in the same low bits that are changed by counting, some keystream is reused. $\;$ In my opinion, the simplest (thus often the best) is: if the key is used for a single session, use implicit zero IV; otherwise use a random IV. –  fgrieu Aug 10 '14 at 23:41