Encryption is the process of transforming plaintext using a cipher to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing the key.

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How to decrypt AES in CBC

i am having problems understanding how CBC works! I know that it is a chain and the IV is XORed with the PT but then what? I mean we encrypt it with key k and the result is the CT which we use for the ...
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414 views

Calculating the inverse modularity of the determinant for Hill cipher

I'm trying to decrypt a message encrypted with Hill Cipher, but I don't understand how to find the determinant so it solves the equation det * 1/det = 1 mod 26. The determinant for my key matrix is ...
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168 views

Stretching passwords for encrypting small files

I would like to know how to store a sensitive file; a credential of sorts. I want to password-protect it, obviously. It would be appropriate - in my application - to prompt the user for the password ...
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Is TOTP or a timestamp encryption a better timestamp-based authentication token system?

Are there advantages to using TOTP over encrypting a timestamp with a shared secret, in cases where the readability or ease of typing the token are not important?
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460 views

How will Cryptography be changed by Quantum Computing?

I realise this isn't a 'yes or no' question, and I apologise for asking something that could be seen as a discussion thread, but I had to ask. I'm currently doing an EPQ in CS (specifically how QC ...
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217 views

How to encrypt data and know it will be secure for at least a few decades?

I want to encrypt a small amount (few kilobytes) of data and be fairly confident it will be secure against brute force decryption and advances in cryptanalysis for at least a a few decades (or more). ...
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256 views

Is this a good way to encrypt a file?

I need to encrypt a file, distribute it over an insecure channel, and decrypt it later. Using a symmetric-key algorithm. Here's what I intend to do: Get a password P from the user. Generate a 16-byte ...
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746 views

Is there a way to make RC4 (ARCFOUR) secure, or is it completely broken?

I need a method to authenticate a process with another in order to establish interprocess communication between them, to prevent malicious processes from trying to hook onto the system. Currently I ...
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283 views

How to submit a new method of encryption?

I came up with a truly new method of applying modulo-2-addition encryption function in stream ciphers which is inspired by a mechanism used to prove a mathematical theorem. How can I determine whether ...
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124 views

Is it OK to use a data-encryption key for key wrapping, too?

Our industry (area of cheap networked devices) has a standard that defines the usage of keys for both authentication and encryption using EAX mode of AES. This standard does not define key management, ...
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255 views

Self-expiring symmetric keys, or: cryptography in absence of secure deletion

I can encrypt some data D using a random symmetric key K, obtaining a ciphertext C, and then encrypt K with my public key Pub and obtain H. So far so good: I can only decrypt C if I have H and my ...
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What is the effect of the different AES key lengths?

How does a changing key length affects the ciphertext, not only in case of AES, but in general? I know that the key spaces become much larger and the number of rounds in case of AES changes, but is ...
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247 views

Difference in one time key and one time pad and many time key

These terms are confusing me. One time pad is when you use one key for one message. That is what One time key is. Secondly, what is the connection of many time key, can i use one time pad many ...
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249 views

Can I use PBKDF2 for authentication and decryption?

I want to store a hash for authenticating a password. I also want to use the same password for decryption. Can I use PBKDF2 for both? (I plan to use different salts for the authentication and the ...
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263 views

How to implement order preserving encryption or order preserving hashing

Does anybody know any free implementation of either order preserving encryption or order preserving hashing? I've found some codes like CMPH but I need to dynamically add new DATA and that's why most ...
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4answers
237 views

What is the actual difference between security through obscurity and true encryption?

In an abstract sense, aren't both the same? Don't their definitions boil down to the following? security through obscurity: trying to make sure some information cannot be obtained without knowing ...
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95 views

Digital Certificate Chain Verification

Does a certificate contain the complete chain of all certificates up to the trusted root certificate, or does the program that verifies certificates have to fetch each parent certificate individually ...
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327 views

AES CCM vs CCMP

Are the terms AES CCM and AES CCMP are equivalent, or is there any technical differences between the two?
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279 views

Which block cipher modes of operation allow a predictable IV?

Recently I found out that in the modes CBC and PCBC the IV may be passed in cleartext but never must be predictable. However for this part of my app I rather have the IV be predictable and unique ...
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362 views

Why can't the IV be predictable when its said it doesn't need to be a secret?

I heard multiple times not to reuse the same IV and IV should be random but doesn't need to be secret. I also heard if the IV is something like sequential numbers or something predictable I should ...
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760 views

Secure private key storage

I'm developing application in Java that has to store RSA keys in software for foreseeable future (that is, at least 10 years). The two most common standards of storing private keys are PKCS12 and JKS ...
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111 views

How to turn adversary against encryption of zeroes into adversary against random bits?

I recently read the article Nonce-Based Symmetric Encryption by Rogaway, where he presents two different notions of indistinguishability, which he calls ind$ and ind, respectively. Here's the ...
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160 views

Is it possible to match encrypted documents using user-defined search terms?

Suppose I am storing a number of encrypted documents in a database. I would like to make it possible to identify the subset of documents whose contents match user-specified search terms without a) ...
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110 views

Aes encryption -The relevance of static matrix in mixcolumns operation

Can someone explain to me the relevance of the static matrix used for the mixcolumns operation in aes encryption.i.e the relevance of why the byte is multiplied by 2 + next byte multiplied by 3 + next ...
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182 views

Is there a way to break this encryption?

I was wondering about making up a simple system to encrypt a file: ...
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142 views

Generating a cryptographically secure, many-time use, symmetric encryption key

I need to generate a 256 bit encryption key described by the adjectives in the title. Currently I intend to create the key using this RNG. Is this a secure manner of creating the key, given that it ...
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Can I jettison MAC if I already have SHA1(M)?

I'm currently using SSL with AES-CBC and HMAC for a file transfer containing string M. Now suppose Alice already knows SHA1(M) (and the adversary does not), and she downloads M from Bob using only ...
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397 views

Format-preserving encryption implementations

I'm looking for a general, free implementation of Format-preserving encryption as described in this article and on wikipedia. Possibly in a well established cryptography toolkit. My intention is to ...
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Is there any recent cryptographic algorithm especially designed for low-level processors?

Most modern algorithms require relatively large amount of resources. Is there any recent (and freely usable) encryption/decryption algorithm which is specially designed for low-level microcontrollers ...
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320 views

How to hack the new save encryption on ipad for uplink? [closed]

The new iPad version of Uplink appears to be using some new saving mechanic than the PC/Mac Version. Macs and PCs use 'RedShirt' but the iPad appears to instead be using 'SAV62' at the start of saves, ...
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134 views

Textbook RSA to Realworld RSA

Is there a paper or link where it explains , how the plain vanilla Textbook RSA is actually implemented in practice with all the padding and stuff ? basically i want to know the intricacies of ...
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80 views

Using “Additional Authenticated Data” as a secondary key

In implementing a cipher in GCM or CCM mode, you are provided the option to add "Additional Authenticated Data" (AAD). This AAD is required for decrypting the cipher text, and seems to be used when ...
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112 views

How to communicate authentication tag for GCM?

I have written some code to do AES in GCM. I currently manually append the tag property to the ciphertext, is this the proper way to communicate the authentication tag?
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Is the encryption of a hash a good MAC?

At university we were told that it is a bad idea to implement a MAC by simply concatenating a key with the data to sign and to run it through a hash function (e.g. $s = ...
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AES GCM implementation in c#

I am implementing an AES cipher in GCM mode in c# and have a few questions. My code is based on the code found here for reference. I'll copy in the relevant portions. ...
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Which of these 3 AES 128 symmetric encrypt/decrypt routines is most secure?

I am developing a symmetric en-/decryption routine written in c# for a database containing user-specific, sensitive information. I have narrowed down the implementation to 3 different approaches, ...
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210 views

I need an opinion of encryption method I thought of in High school

First, I'm really not into cryptography, but have some basic knowledge. This was a thought experiment (and later exercise for my programming skills), but even though it was long time ago and I tried ...
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415 views

Is this design of client side encryption secure?

I want to build a secure file storage web application. Users should be sure that server doesn't know how to decrypt files so encryption should take place at client side (i.e. in Javascript) and TLS ...
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160 views

Using a derived key for CMAC

Consider the following authenticate-and-encrypt scheme that uses AES-128 in CBC mode for encryption and AES-128 - based CMAC for authentication: Two keys are derived from the master key k (16 byte): ...
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How are state wiretaps obtaining plaintext from encrypted transmissions?

According to the US 2011 Wiretap Report, encryption — on the off chance that it is encountered — has been no hurdle to retrieving the content of a conversation. Public Law 106-197 amended 18 ...
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How do I protect user data at rest? [closed]

I want to encrypt the username, email, and password fields in the database AND encrypt user files at rest. How can I do this? I am aware of software such as Gazzang and since there is not cost ...
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Getting started [closed]

I'm looking for a good place to start in cryptography and places to go to get free books etc on the topic. I have been looking online but I always get stuck at some point or another. I need something ...
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551 views

What is the difference between these AES encryption methods

I am using AES encryption (Rijindael) with Base-64 encoding in Obj-C and VB. I am currently using the following two projects to achieve this: Obj-C: ...
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RSA Signature - Multiple Use Weakness

I cite from Fundamentals of Computer Security (Chapter 7 on Digital Signature, Paragraph 7.3 on RSA Signatures, page 289): Multiple uses of the RSA Signature scheme tend to weaken it. The way out ...
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228 views

Is ECB mode secure if plaintexts guaranteed to be unique?

I've got a scenario where I need to encrypt many small (16-byte) plaintexts. I want to use AES-128 in ECB mode. Notably, each plaintext is guaranteed to be unique, though each may differ by only a few ...
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481 views

Why is ciphertext from low entropy plaintext not compressible?

This comes following a discussion with a colleague. My plaintext file plain consists of a about 100,000 lines of "all work and no play...". It's size is: 2.2 MB. ...
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How can the Schmidt–Samoa cryptosystem uniquely decrypt large messages?

Suppose I choose $p=7$ and $q=11$. This gives a public key of $p^2·q = 539$. However, decryption occurs using a modulus of $p·q=77$. If a person chooses to encrypt $500$ using my public key, how ...
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278 views

Can I pre-define the points in Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm

With Shamir's secret sharing is it possible to pre-define the points returned by the algorithm? For simplicity if I have (k, n) where k=2, and n=4, and I have the points X,Y,Z, and Q. Can I create ...
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Difference between encrypting something and hashing something

What is the difference between encrypting something and hashing something? in what situations would I want one or the other?
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Looking for cipher that uses one ciphertext

I'm new to Cryptography so please free to edit my question for clarity and add the appropriate tag. I'm trying to research if the following is possible. Suppose John has a message that he ...