(or Advanced Encryption Standard), a symmetrical block-cipher algorithm with a 128-bit block size, and key sizes of 128, 192 or 256 bits.
1
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1answer
131 views
How to choose between AES-CCM and AES-GCM for storage volume encryption
We are using the encryption built into Solaris 11 ZFS, which offers the choice between CCM (CBC counter mode) and GCM (Galois counter mode). What are the pros and cons of choosing each of these cipher ...
1
vote
3answers
66 views
OpenSSL AES 256-bit Key Management
I am using C and OpenSSL to encrypt files. After experimenting with the OpenSSL command line utility, it makes you enter a passphrase that can be any length, but uses that to create a 256-bit key.
...
0
votes
1answer
99 views
brute force attack on KDF vs KEY
if we believe 256bit keys are secure in AES against any brute force attack, is that possible we use a KDF (convert user's weak entered password in truecrypt into a fixed AES key) with too much round ...
-2
votes
0answers
53 views
Is the likelihood of a birthday collision linear (evenly distributed) for all ciphers? When are they not?
When discussing the Birthday Principal, in combination with the pigeon hole principal, it was argued that an uneven distribution of birthdays (bias for September and any Tuesday of the year) made ...
-2
votes
2answers
87 views
Is triple des similiar to RSA in that they message size is limited to the key size?
Is triple des similiar to rsa in that the message size you can encrypt is limited (unlike AES)?
Yes you can break the message size into parts and apply it, but I'm not interested in doing that so I ...
1
vote
0answers
122 views
Calculating PGP Symmetrically Encrypted Packet data
I have been trying to create a properly encrypted data packet using the format described in RFC 4880. However, I have been unable to verify any of my outputs due to the lack of examples to draw from ...
4
votes
1answer
98 views
Why should I use an Initialization Vector (IV) when I have unique keys?
I took a look at this question. My question is not the same.
I've unique keys encrypting (in CBC mode, AES-256) each plaintext, i.e. I do not use a key to encrypt more than one plaintext. Is it ...
1
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2answers
57 views
IV Security Clarification
After doing lots of reading on SO and other websites relating to AES cryptography, I am trying to understand the security issues surrounding IV's.
There seems to be a lot of confusion and ...
1
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1answer
89 views
How insecure in practice?
I am in attempt to understand relative insecurity of certain encryption schemes. Particularly of interest is DES and RC2. I know AES is better and should be used to encrypt. But practically, if ...
0
votes
2answers
86 views
The security of the AES secret itself
I am writing an application, running on a server, where multiple users access data from a database which is AES encrypted with a master secret. The master secret itself is initially randomly ...
1
vote
1answer
88 views
How to verify a shared secret using only AES?
I have two devices that need to verify that they both are in possesion of the same secret key. One of the devices is a very limited embedded device that only has AES128 available, no SHA or other hash ...
1
vote
1answer
126 views
How much data can I encrypt with AES before I need to change the key in CBC mode?
In my cryptography class, the instructor suggested that in order to give the attacker a minimal advantage of $1/2^{32}$, we have to change the key after $2^{48}$ blocks are encrypted.
It seems that ...
3
votes
1answer
66 views
When truncating an AES MAC value by “w” , how do I justify that “w” is still negligible?
I'm taking an online class on cryptography at corsera.org / Stanford, and the professor is explaining that it's OK to truncate an AES MAC to $w$ bits as long as $1/2^w$ is still negligible (say $w ...
0
votes
2answers
102 views
Generate fixed length cipher text from arbitrary length plaintext
Using an encryption algorithm like AES, is it possible to generate a fixed length cipher text no matter how long the plain text becomes?
2
votes
1answer
1k views
How to solve MixColumns
I can't really understand MixColumns in Advanced Encryption Standard, can anyone help me how to do this?
I found some topic in the internet about MixColumns, but I still have a lot of question to ...
1
vote
3answers
466 views
Is AES really used for Top Secret stuff?
I've read almost everywhere that AES-256 can be used for Top Secret material (in the US). Is it really used or is it some kind of decoy to hide the more advanced algorithm they might use ?
1
vote
3answers
743 views
Does encrypting twice using the same block cipher produce a security weakness?
If I use the output of a cipher, for example a block cipher such as AES and encrypt it again with the same algorithm, I read that this introduces weaknesses into the overall security of the system.
...
2
votes
2answers
113 views
Does knowledge of original file size provide a cryptographic weakness?
I'm encrypting files using an AES-256 CBC cipher and an SHA-256 HMAC every 64KB in the file. Since AES CBC needs an amount of input bytes to be divisible by 16, I use PKCS#7 padding to bring the ...
2
votes
1answer
131 views
Winzip AES256 vs PGP
If I use the AES256 option in Winzip to encrypt a file, is it any less safe or less secure than using pgp encryption?
3
votes
2answers
192 views
AES - plaintext is smaller 128 bit - how to expaned?
we are currently developing a little AES implementation in a crypto-course at university.
As far as I know, AES uses 128 bit blocklength, so all data that will be encrypted will get split up into ...
0
votes
2answers
170 views
What's the difference between AES and earlier block ciphers?
Is there any difference except speed and key and block size from user's point of view?
Or does AES have something that ideal block cipher doesn't have?
-2
votes
3answers
119 views
how much is secure to encrypt a password using itself (as encryption key) for storing it on a unsecure media?
I want to store a password securely on a storage (suppose in a usual unencrypted file).
I use this password as AES key to encrypt itself (using AES-ECB) & then store it on the media (the password ...
1
vote
1answer
122 views
Encrypt a single file, chunk-by-chunk, each chunk using different key (AES)
Encrypt a single file, chunk-by-chunk, each chunk using different key.
I am a security newbie (only took 2 security courses before)
But currently I am using this encryption method for my Android ...
1
vote
2answers
148 views
Is it worth applying a MAC on data in a HSM?
I'm building a basic HSM out of an Arduino, and am using the following scheme to store data:
Master symmetric key $k_m$ stored in firmware (secure bit set to prevent trivial extraction).
Secondary ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Counter Mode: static IV but different keys [duplicate]
Given we are using AES counter mode, suppose we randomly generate several keys, all of them are using same IV (say, zeros). Does this lead to any security issue?
I know that in CTR mode, same key-iv ...
1
vote
2answers
123 views
risk of attacker decrypting RSA ciphertext without public or private key
As I describe in my previous question I am trying to decide if it's worth it for me to use the Offline Private Key Protocol in creating some long term private archives, instead of just going with a ...
3
votes
1answer
85 views
implementing long term archive encryption
Let's say I want to create private archives for the long term (e.g. more than 30 ). The archives' sizes could be anywhere from 1 GB to 30 GB. As far as I understand I could go down two ways:
The ...
3
votes
2answers
330 views
How were the number of rounds for different key sizes of AES selected?
The number of AES rounds increases with the key length. Why increase the number of rounds at all, and how were these round counts chosen?
1
vote
1answer
158 views
AES AddRoundKey
Looking at the first step of AES encryption I see that we XOR the key with the plaintext block. Why is the actual key involved at all, why not just use the round keys derived from the key schedule?
5
votes
2answers
202 views
Is encrypting a single 128 bit block with AES ECB “safe”
I want to encrypt a small piece of data that is less that 16 bytes in size (think SSN), and I'll be using a 256bit encryption key. The typical suggestion is to never use ECB, but if there is just a ...
2
votes
1answer
110 views
Can prepending “junk” be equivalent to an IV when encrypting using CBC?
We are encrypting a small positive integer (1-1000) with a constant key using AES256 encryption. We are considering two approaches to make this secure; use an initial vector (which we then need to ...
10
votes
2answers
3k views
How long does it take to crack DES and AES?
Suppose that a single evaluation of a block-cipher (DES or AES) takes 10 operations, and the computer can do $10^{15}$ such operations per second.
How long would it take for to recover a DES key, ...
4
votes
1answer
220 views
Why exactly is Blowfish faster than AES?
I've not been able to understand exactly the reason behind Blowfish being faster than AES. Is it dependent on the block size? Or is it processor dependent? (if Yes, then lets assume that AES ...
1
vote
1answer
111 views
Proper uses for CTR and CBC AES block cipher modes
Assuming the following:
Key is randomly generated is being used (32 bytes+)
IV is also randomly generated
Crypto random key generator is used
Data being encrypted contains common bytes like ...
1
vote
2answers
251 views
AES+CTR+HMAC Encryption and Authentication on an Arduino
In my project we would like to encrypt and authenticate the the communication channel between our server and our Arduino nodes, which relies on an underlying TCP channel.
We have chosen AES in CTR ...
1
vote
1answer
119 views
AES Message Authentication Vulnerability
My securities instructor recently posed this question to the class and I am bending my brain in half trying to figure it out.
Suppose $y_1 = AES(K, x_1)$ and $y_2 = AES(K,x_2)$, and suppose you ...
2
votes
1answer
110 views
Does the IV need to be known by AES (CBC mode)?
I was thinking about this today and thought I should ask. I think I understand IV's enough to say that they are basically the same thing as Salts when talking about hashes. They are there to improve ...
0
votes
0answers
96 views
How secure is this perl script to use an AES encryption on files? [closed]
I am not entierly sure if it is appropriate to ask such a question here, but then again, I don't know a better place. If it is the wrong place, let me know, and I will remove it.
Could someone share ...
3
votes
2answers
139 views
RSA digital signature vs authenticated cipher
I want to provide both confidentiality and integrity for data at rest (many large files stored on disk).
I plan to encrypt the data using AES, which will cover the confidentiality requirement.
So ...
2
votes
0answers
110 views
Single-purpose symmetric encryption scheme for single files
I'm writing a simple password manager program that will encrypt/decrypt a single file (it's size will most likely stay under a few K). This is my initial file format design:
...
2
votes
1answer
248 views
Is AES-256 a post-quantum secure cipher or not?
We know Grover's algorithm speedup brute-force attacks two time faster in block ciphers (e.g brute-forcing 128 bit keys take $2^{64}$ operations not $2^{128}$).
That explains why we are using 256 bit ...
0
votes
1answer
180 views
What is the probability of breaking the AES algorithm?
I am doing a project which requires the encryption to be done using AES. Is it really possible (technically) to crack AES?
If yes, please tell me:
What is the probability of breaking AES?
How ...
1
vote
1answer
91 views
Partial decryption of large file in AES-GCM (or other modes)?
Lets assume
a 4gig file that is internally made of 1 million pages of 4k bytes each (page).
the file was originally AES-GCM encrypted
these pages (or entire file) lives across the internet i.e. ...
1
vote
2answers
240 views
Would a “Triple AES” (in the sense of how Triple Des works) serve for a dramatic increase in safety?
The system requires to be as paranoid as possible regarding security. One of the few contemplated changes to the current design is to use multiple encryption. First proposal was to use Serpent on top ...
1
vote
1answer
105 views
Is this method for exchanging private key using RSA sound?
Bob know's Alice's public key, and he wants to make sure he's connecting to the one which has that key. Furthermore, Alice wants to verify when she gets a connection from Bob who'll give his public ...
1
vote
2answers
270 views
is AES secure for java application licensing
I have to license a java application and want to code a quick implementation, the scheme I came up with is:
1) The Application calculates a string X which we assume to be the md5 sum of the ...
1
vote
2answers
170 views
Deriving HMAC key and cipher key from passphrase? [duplicate]
I'm encrypting a file with AES-256 in CBC mode. I needed to add an HMAC for authentication and validation of the file contents and passphrase, so I used a SHA-256 HMAC over chunks of my file ...
2
votes
2answers
158 views
Is storing original file size in an encrypted file header a bad idea?
I'm encrypting a file using AES-256 in CBC mode. I'm padding to the 16-byte input multiple by using the PKCS#7 limit. The problem I'm currently having is that if I'm transferring or reading the ...
2
votes
2answers
205 views
Validating successful decryption in AES
I have a program which uses AES-256 in CBC mode to encrypt and decrypt files. As I have quickly realized, AES will even use an incorrect passphrase to decrypt data, which leaves me with no way to ...
1
vote
1answer
145 views
AES key/ciphertext space sizes
This is giving me a brain ache now... If I have AES-128, block is 128 bit, then every plaintext (128-bit) can be encrypted to some ciphertext that is also 128-bit. This is the block size. But: 128-bit ...
