# All Questions

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### What's the consequence of having a short initialization vector (IV)? Is one mode better in that case?

I've read lots about null length IVs being bad for most modes. In a scenario where passing a 128-bit IV along with each message isn't feasible, how would generating the IV from a smaller passed-along ...
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### Seemingly simple decryption question

Forgive the very novice question, but... Given an algorithm which, upon inputting an unchanging 4-character string, generates a variable 6-character string, but having no idea what the algorithm is ...
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### How does compression before encryption leak info about the input?

Apparently current best practices recommend that you do not compress before you encrypt. For example in this blog entry (*): http://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-cryptography/ It ...
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### What is Attribute Based Encryption?

Can someone explain what attribute based encryption is? I was searching for a book or something that can help me in this regard but so far I have found none. Google also returns practically nothing ...
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### Proof of Communication

I desire an algorithm in which Alice sends a block of data $X$ to Bob, with proof that the data was both sent and received. Ideally this would take the form of a public-key signature of the block $X$ ...
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### Why does DES use exactly 16 rounds?

Why does DES use exactly 16 rounds and not more or less than 16? What is the significance of using 16 rounds?
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### Is it secure to derive an AES key from a MAC?

I'm working on a project where we need to encrypt a large number of files and store them on the cloud. And I'm wondering if the following process would be secure (we have a “Hardware Security Module” ...
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### Security implication of exporting private key [migrated]

I have a key pair stored in GPG Keyring. If I export it to an ASCII Armored format, am I removing any layers of security as long as the exported key stays on the same server as the key ring itself? My ...
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### Keep GPG revocation certificate in safe place? [migrated]

Do I have to keep the revocation certificate of my GPG key in a safe place or may I place it in e.g. Dropbox to have it ready on all my machines? I know that, if compromised, the certificate can be ...
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### Why are MACs in general deterministic, whereas digital signature constructions are randomized?

The fact is I'm not quite sure if my question statement is true, however all the MAC constructions I know of (e.g. CBC-MAC, CMAC, HMAC) are deterministic, whereas many constructions for digital ...
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### How are secure hashing and encryption algorithms proven?

Given that: You should always use proven secure hashing and encryption algorithms, rather than attempting to write your own. What's the process for criteria for an algorithm being proven? Is ...
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### Which causes longer “break” time (in general)?

In general (if possible to determine) which would make an output harder to turn into plain text with a computer? Extreme Length (minor complexity change) Extreme algorithmic complexity (minor length ...
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### Maximum password length in PBKDF2

Haven't found any clear cut answer in Google so its up to you guys: DK = PBKDF2(PRF, Password, Salt, c, dkLen) Here, what is the upper limit of password length? ...
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### Convergent Encryption: integrity and authenticity

I have one question about convergent encryption. Suppose I use AES-256 in CBC mode. I need a 256 bits key and a 128 bits IV. If I use SHA-256 to hash one file, then I can use directly that hash as ...
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### CBC-MAC key can be added to ciphertext?

I use AES both CBC and CBC-MAC to encrypt some stuff. I generate one key for CBC and one different key for CBC-MAC. Does the second key (for CBC-MAC) need to be secret? How to join such key with the ...
1k views

### Cryptography vs Security

This may sound a little bit of basic but here it goes… Which of the following is correct? “Cryptography is under the security field”, or “Security is under the cryptography field?” Cryptography ...
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### How can one design a good block cipher? [on hold]

Are there any other methods for designing a block cipher than Substitution and Permutation Network (SPN) and Feistel Network?
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### Is this a plausible PBKDF?

Background: Hello, I'm working on a hobby project in which I might want to implement a key derivation function within a somewhat resource limited embedded system. For standard crypto functions, I ...
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### What are the practical differences between 256-bit, 192-bit, and 128-bit AES encryption?

AES has several different variants: AES-128 AES-192 AES-256 But why would someone prefer use one over another?
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### Variants of AES?

Would variants of AES provide the same level of security as AES, say by just replacing the S-box with another one, MDS matrix of Mixcolumn, etc.?
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### ECC cryptography with shorter signature when not needing high security?

I am new here and fairly new to cryptography, so if I say something wrong, let me know. I am trying to set up a system where a user can receive a temporary license key over the phone, put it into ...
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### Design of S box [on hold]

What is the method to replace AES s box?. Is it possible to generate all the S box ,permutation of 0 to 255 using GF 256 logic similar to AES
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### mixing SPN and Fiestel

Shall we design a block cipher by mixing a SPN and Fiestel together?Is it possible to combine the logics of AES and DES resulting into a good block cipher
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### Diffie–Hellman Ephemerality Nomenclature

Below is a short excerpt of available DH cipher suites available on a machine. I understand EDH is ephemeral DH, and that ECDH is for Elliptic-Curve DH which is computationally faster. ECDHE is both ...
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### Private Key - Memory Lifecycle

I often heard about private key storage, but rarely about key life cycle in memory. For example, when SSL is used from one peer, the private key is used to sign messages or decrypt other peers' ...
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### Digitally sign and verify a file using private/public keys and OpenSSL API [on hold]

I am signing a file using a private key and want to verify it using a public key. Until now I am only able to verify it with the privatekey/certificate file. This is how I generate the keys: ...
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### ElGamal signature scheme: Why is r included in s

In the ElGamal signature scheme we calculate a signature for a (hashed) message $m$ as $r \equiv_p g^k$, $s \equiv_{p-1} (m - xr) k^{-1}$ and verify it by checking $g^m \equiv_p y^r r^s$. Here ...
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So these days I see everyone using AES-GCM. What are its advantages over simple CTR+HMAC modes? Is it speed? Or ciphertext length? And what are the security tradeoffs, both in terms of practical ...
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### Do I need to prepare plain text before encryption?

When I want to encrypt chat messages (in ASCII) before sending, whether it brings some bit of security if I add some extra bytes to the message or shuffle it in some way? I can even try to make data ...
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### How to generate ECC (160 bits) Keys with OpenSSL? [on hold]

I want to generate RSA Keys at 1024 bits with OpenSSL. I can do this with the following commands: To generate RSA Key at 1024 bits: ...
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### Detect desynchronization in HOTP authentication [duplicate]

In HOTP authentication, is there a way for a system to detect that the token has been desynchronized? If so how does it know that the OTP was generated from a desynchronized (but valid) token and is ...
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### Can anyone help me decrypt this? [on hold]

We were told that GREENENVY was a hint but I don't know how to do anything from there. AU/W/ACBXMSN/IEHOFIE/NZ
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### IND-CCA2 secure schemes without Plaintext Awareness?

I have been reading up on IND-CCA2 security and was wondering: Are there efficient IND-CCA2 secure schemes that do not require plaintext awareness? I'm guessing yes - could someone point me to these ...
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### Regular MACs vs Carter-Wegman MAC

Carter-Wegman MAC variants (VMAC, UMAC etc) are known to be very fast and efficient when compared to MAC algorithms that are based on block ciphers and compression functions (like HMAC, CMAC etc). ...