Encryption is the process of transforming plaintext using a cipher to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing the key.
53
votes
5answers
6k views
Should we MAC-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-MAC?
Most of the time, when some data must be encrypted, it must also be protected with a MAC, because encryption protects only against passive attackers. There are some nifty encryption modes which ...
27
votes
4answers
5k views
What are the practical difference between 256-bit, 192-bit, and 128-bit AES encryption?
AES has several different variants (AES-128, AES-192, AES-256), but why would I use one over another?
16
votes
6answers
894 views
Is there a secure cryptosystem that can be performed mentally?
I, myself, do not plan on getting into a situation where I would be unable to use a computer in order to communicate securely. However, I can think of many practical situations in which mental ...
3
votes
3answers
4k views
RSA encryption with private key and decryption with a public key
Does the encryption with a private key and decryption with a public key works in RSA? Is it done when we use RSA for sender authentication ?
Thanks.
4
votes
5answers
318 views
Using CBC with a fixed IV and a random first plaintext block
What if, instead of using CBC mode in the normal way with a random IV, I used this approach:
Use a fixed IV (like a block of 0's).
Before encrypting, generate a random block and prepend it to the ...
20
votes
3answers
3k views
How can I use asymmetric encryption, such as RSA, to encrypt an arbitrary length of plaintext?
RSA is not designed to be used on long blocks of plaintext like a block cipher, but I need to use it to send a large message.
How can I do this?
4
votes
3answers
542 views
Is it feasible to build a stream cipher from a cryptographic hash function?
A few years ago I devised a symmetric-key system that worked like so:
...
2
votes
2answers
152 views
Algorithm Design for only Mutual Information Sharing
Bob and Alice each have a bit string they want to keep private. They each want to know what the bitwise AND of their two strings would be without telling the other or anyone else listening to their ...
20
votes
5answers
6k views
Is Convergent Encryption really secure?
Recently a company called Bitcasa demonstrated a product of cloud storage. they indicated that they would use "Convergent Encryption" to secure your data and de-duplicate, essentially one copy of the ...
7
votes
3answers
509 views
Using a Non-Random IV with modes other than CBC
The weakness CWE-329 is an interesting problem with CBC mode. However, does this same weakness affect the other modes of operation that rely upon an IV such as: PCBC, CFB and OFB? My gut feeling is, ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Why RSA encryption key is based on modulo(phi(n)) rather than modulo n
While calculating RSA encryption key we take modulo(phi(n)) rather that modulo(n). I couldn't understand why its so?
2
votes
0answers
190 views
How do I encrypt with the private key? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
RSA encryption with private key and decryption with a public key
This wording is creeping everywhere (e.g. there): "I encrypt with the private key" and even sometimes, ...
1
vote
2answers
361 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
218 views
What is the theoretical and practical status of mental poker?
I'm able to find a lot of scattered papers on the development of mental poker since RSA proposed the initial solution but no recent report (i.e. after 2005) on what is the status of the problem, eg:
...
6
votes
2answers
339 views
What's is the main difference between a key, an IV and a nonce?
What are the main differences between a nonce, a key and an IV. Without any doubt the key should be kept secret. But what about the nonce and the IV. What's the main difference between them and their ...
3
votes
3answers
565 views
Why is the IV passed in the clear when it can be easily encrypted?
The initialization vector (IV) is exclusive or'd against the plain text before encryption for the first block sent in order to prevent an attacker from learning that duplicate message blocks are being ...
12
votes
3answers
792 views
Is the CBC weakness in XML Encryption a new discovery? Are other applications vulnerable?
The RUB in Germany reports that XML encryption is broken. This is essentially the W3C standard for protecting XML documents from prying eyes.
Does this mean that an attacker can only see a single ...
11
votes
4answers
4k views
Should I use ECB or CBC encryption mode for my block cipher?
Can someone tell me which mode out of ECB and CBC is better, and how to decide which mode to use? Are there any other modes which are better?
7
votes
4answers
292 views
Can I determine if a user has the wrong symmetric encryption key?
We're using the Objectivity/DB object database with a custom encryption plugin that encrypts serialized objects on disk. Encryption uses AES with a shared secret key held by all users. I would like to ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
What's the fundamental difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA?
What is the difference in the purpose of DH and RSA? Aren't they both public-key encryption?
4
votes
2answers
225 views
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 = ...
4
votes
1answer
237 views
CBC key lifetime, or, “how big is too big?”
IPSec recommends rekeying SA's figuring in both time and amount of data sent. Even when using AES-256 in CBC mode, the key and IV commonly get re-negotiated after 100MB.
My case isn't using IPSec, ...
4
votes
1answer
580 views
How can I encrypt + authenticate short strings into similar short ciphertexts?
I wish to manipulate short ASCII strings (namely unpredictable domain names) into a form which cryptographically assures authenticity and confidentiality, for use in the local part of email addresses. ...
3
votes
2answers
113 views
CPA Secure Chosen plaintext scheme
The example for IND-CPA secure schemes given is generally:
for a random r,
Enc_k(m) =(r|| E_k(r) XOR m) where E is a PRF
But does the role of r and k really matter--i.e. isn't this equally ...
3
votes
3answers
818 views
How does the key schedule of Rijndael looks for keysizes other than 128 bit?
It said in Wikipedia that:
[....] Rijndael can be specified with block and key sizes in any multiple of 32 bits, with a minimum of 128 bits. The blocksize has a maximum of 256 bits, but the ...
3
votes
2answers
7k views
How secure is AES-256?
The cipher AES-256 is used among other places in TSL/SSL across the Internet. It's considered among the top ciphers.
In theory it's not crackable since the combinations of keys are massive.
Although ...
3
votes
3answers
266 views
Does the XML Encryption flaw affect SSL/TLS?
A "practical attack against XML's cipher block chaining (CBC) mode" has been demonstrated:
XML Encryption Flaw Leaves Web Services Vulnerable.
Does this weakness of CBC-mode which is used here also ...
2
votes
1answer
380 views
Advantage of AES(Rijndael) over Twofish and Serpent
I'm trying to figure out a suitable encryption technique and after reading a bit, I figured the current AES 128-bit encryption is suitable for what I'm trying to do. However, this is more due to the ...
2
votes
2answers
701 views
How can I do a brute force (ciphertext only) attack on an CBC-encrypted message?
Given a CBC ciphertext and IV, how can I find the encryption key?
We are limited with an 8 chars key, each char in the range of [a..h], so I can generate every possible key (these are only $8^8 = ...
2
votes
3answers
328 views
Trying to find a different DES encryption system explanation
I need a mathematical explanation of what does the DES encryption system really do.
This means I need more explanation than the one that offers FIPS, which is more an explanation for computer ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
ECKS-PS algorithm: searching in encrypted data; bilinear maps
I have found an encryption algorithm named ECKS-PS (published in the paper Efficient conjunctive keyword search on encrypted data storage system) that allows an user to search in encrypted data. All ...
0
votes
1answer
412 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
389 views
Removing Padded Value in Decrypted Message
How to remove padded value in Decrypted Message?
I am using AES Algorithm..
ex:
this is the decrypted message..
"abcdefghijklmn "
there is a 2 space in that decrypted message which is equivalent ...
6
votes
2answers
375 views
Hash decrypts key, key decrypts cipher… why?
I noticed recently that a couple of pieces of encryption software (TrueCrypt being one of them) don't directly use a hash of the password as the key for the block cipher. Instead, they generate a ...
10
votes
2answers
408 views
Encryption scheme for social-network-like data sharing data via untrusted server?
I am thinking quite a lot lately abut the problem of secure, privacy-preserving social networking. Distributing the network among trusted, preferably self-hosted servers (like Diaspora, GNU Social ...
16
votes
3answers
2k views
Identifying encryption method from encrypted string
Is it possible to identify the encryption method or atleast rule out some, by looking at the encrypted text?
For example, if you have 3 encrypted strings where the first 10 characters are the same on ...
12
votes
3answers
869 views
Hashing or encrypting twice to increase security?
Over on the bitcoin forums I asked why the bitcoin client computes SHA-256(SHA-256(x)) as its cryptographic hash for a variety of purposes. The leading theory--since the bitcoin author has ...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
Why do we use encrypt-decrypt-encrypt (EDE) in 3DES, rather than encrypting three times?
I'm wondering why we use encrypt-decrypt-encrypt sequence in 3DES with three keys instead of three times encryption with three different keys?
7
votes
1answer
449 views
Replacing the Rijndael S-Box?
The Rijndael S-Box design generates a permutation cycle of type $2+27+59+81+87$. What effect would replacing that permutation with a cycle of type $256$ have on the security of AES?
4
votes
4answers
1k views
How can one securely generate an asymmetric key pair from a short passphrase?
Background info:
I am planning on making a filehost with which one can encrypt and upload files. To protect the data against any form of hacking, I'd like not to know the encryption key ($K$) used for ...
1
vote
2answers
175 views
One-way function and factoring
I am confused about the hardness of the one-way function behind cryptography -- if someone could factor the large number produced back into two primes quickly then the one-way function would be ...
5
votes
1answer
258 views
If the PSK is known, is it possible to decrypt traffic from other clients in a WPA2 wlan network?
If in a public WLAN WPA2-PSK is used, but the PSK is more or less publicly available, does this mean that an attacker with that PSK can easily decrypt wlan traffic from/to other clients of that WLAN?
...
3
votes
3answers
303 views
How can two different passphrases unlock the same content?
I have heard that in enterprises it is common that the IT admin has a master passphrase that can unlock any content that an employee encrypts.
It would be temping to think, that the IT admin's ...
2
votes
1answer
570 views
What is the difference between CBC and GCM mode?
I am trying to learn more about GCM mode and how it differs between CBC. I already know that GCM provides a MAC which is used for message authentication. From what I have read, and seen code ...
2
votes
1answer
601 views
Sending KCV (key check value) with cipher text
I was wondering why it is not more common to send the KCV of a secret key together with the cipher text. I see many systems that send cipher text and properly prepend the IV to e.g. a CBC mode ...
1
vote
2answers
362 views
Why is asymmetric cryptography bad for huge data?
I've been told that asymmetric cryptography requires that the message to be encrypted be smaller than its key length.
Why is this?
I know about hybrid encryption, which uses symmetric encryption to ...
1
vote
2answers
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) ...
1
vote
1answer
909 views
Cipher Feedback Mode
I can't understand what CFB really is. It said in Wikipedia that CFB is same as CBC, but I find that CFB is more difficult than CBC.
Can someone explain to me how CFB works. Such as how ...
1
vote
2answers
720 views
How to perform file encryption using 128-Bit AES?
I am confused, how can I encrypt a file using 128 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard?
Do I need only to encrypt the file name and it's content or is there something that I need to do to encrypt it? Is ...
10
votes
3answers
541 views
Is CBC really dead?
I developed a p2p-app in C# which sends and receives encrypted text messages (50KB). For encryption, my app uses AES 128 bit in CBC cipher mode. For each message it uses a new randomly-generated IV.
...
