# All Questions

42 views

### How to protect key in software

I need to encrypt/decrypt data from my software by AES, the problem is how to make the aes key secure, there is no HSM, should I hard code the key in my code? it seems that hacker can read the key ...
457 views

### What is the chance of a collision when using SHA-3?

I currently am writing a web app and am using two random hashes that are before and after the string and are both 50 char long (alphabet, numbers, and special chars). ...
50 views

### Inverting RSA function

I am in high school and I am writing a paper on RSA. I want to show that low values of the public key exponent can make it easy to 'invert' the function so that the encrypted message can be recovered. ...
116 views

### RSA 1024 bit forge a new matching signature from a chosen message

I have an RSA signature scheme with 1024-bit key where I know the following: Public modulus $N$ Public exponent $e=3$ A lot of signatures Summary: To compute a signature, an MD5 hash is ...
484 views

### Perfect Forward Secrecy with NaCl

I would like to use the NaCl cryptography library (or TweetNaCl), but I would very much like to have perfect forward secrecy for my application. From what I understand, all Bob needs to to decrypt a ...
48 views

### Wanted: Simple ring signature example

I spent all day trying to figure ring signature schemes out but apparently I wasted time. I read the original ring signature paper (Rivest's How to leak a secret). I'm having numerous problems. Let's ...
2k views

### What is a “freestart collision”?

In their work on SHA-1 collisions Stevens et al show that they are able to generate "freestart collisions" on SHA-1. They say: Even though freestart collisions do not directly lead to actual ...
15 views

### What is the notion of an interactive assumption?

In this paper: Sequential Aggregate Signatures with Short Public Keys: Design, Analysis and Implementation Studies the authors sell the paper as the first who propose Aggregate signatures without ...
5k views

### PBKDF2WithHmacSHA512 Vs. PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1

I'm working on a Java authentication subsystem that specs the storage of passwords in the DB as PBKDF2-generated hashes, and I'm now trying to decide whether I ...
7 views

I am using the javax.crypto.Cipher in Java to do AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding encryption. What I am observing is that, if you try to encrypt a Plaintext with no padding, PKCS5 adds another entire block just ...
75 views

### How to find the value of a vector modulo a basis in lattice-based cryptography

In Gentry's paper on fully homomorphic encryption using ideal lattices, he finds the values of vectors modulo a certain basis. For instance: $\psi \leftarrow \psi' \mod B$ Taken from page 69 of ...
14k views

### Should we sign-then-encrypt, or encrypt-then-sign?

We often want to send messages that are both (a) encrypted, so passive attackers can't discover the plaintext of the message, and (b) signed with a private-key digital signature, so active attackers ...
11 views

### Implementing Oblivious Transfer protocols [on hold]

I have to implement a series of Oblivious Transfer and Oblivious Transfer Extension protocols for my MSc thesis. My goal is to implement the various protocols and compare them in terms of speed and ...
4k views

### Is there any opensource white-box implementation of AES or DES?

I googled it and give me no result. There is a binary executable of white-box implementation of DES (scroll down), but no source code provided. The same page also links various papers about ...
19 views

### Secret only known on concencus

Does a method exist where a secret is generated so that is is unknown until 3 or more people (predetermined) reach concencus that it should be revealed?
27 views

### X509 certificates: Two Algorithm Identifiers?

I'm wondering why there are two Algorithm Identifiers in a X509 certificate. One is in the "to be signed" part and the other one is at the end right before the actual signature. Are they used for the ...
32 views

### The example of Wikipedia on steganography doesn't work

I was reading some stuff on steganography. There is an example on the wikipedia page : However, I tried many software to get the hidden image, but no one worked. Is there anything wrong about ...
46 views

### Creating own ciphertext after a padding oracle attack?

I've written a script that breaks a cipher text based on a padding oracle for an assignment, but was wondering how I would continue on to create my own cipher text with any plain text I desired? ...
61 views

### Hypothetical encryption technique, is it secure?

This to me, sounds like a great idea, but with all rosy-tinted ideas it needs some grounding in reality. Here are the steps of the hypothetical system (with the hypothetical part highlighted): User ...
492 views

### What does “Worst-case hardness” mean in lattice-based cryptography?

In the wiki page of Lattice-based Cryptography the "Worst-case hardness" is defined as below: Worst-case hardness of lattice problems means that breaking the cryptographic construction (even with ...
55 views

### How does perfect hash function works?

According to wikipedia, a perfect hash function is a hash function that uses algorithms that has a certain random aspect to their logic. It is suppose to be collision-free. However due to the pigeon ...
46 views

### Is there a cryptographic protocol that let's me prove someone has a large binary?

I'm working on a system that has a P2P component. When an individual downloads a binary and decides to mirror it, they advertise themselves in a providers set. The binaries can range from 1-1000MB. I ...
34 views

### Hash functions vs. keyed hash functions in the context of private key generation

I'm designing a key distribution mechanism and have thought of using a securely generated/acquired private key as a seed for a sequence of private keys to be distributed to a number of users using a ...
34 views

### How was privacy and cryptography looked upon in early part of the interweb [on hold]

As people here are all crypto-experts, I am hoping and expecting that some or most of the people would also be privacy advocates as privacy and cryptography are nothing but two sides of the same coin. ...
26 views

### Construct points with the same discrete logarithm

Assume we have an elliptic curve $E$ with a Tate (or Ate,...) pairing $G_1 \times G_2 \mapsto G_T$ Now the task is to find $g_1, g_1' \in G_1$ and $g_2, g_2' \in G_2$ such that the discrete logarithm ...
35 views

### For hardware encryptions, is it possible to know the key by analysing the hardware?

For example, Square reader uses hardware encryptions when swiping credit cards. Is it possible to know the key that is used by the hardware encryption cipher by analysing the hardware circuitries? ...
40 views

### Is it worth hiding an AES encrypted text string in a PNG image for better security?

I need advice as to whether it is worth the extra "security" and processing of an AES encrypted text string to be hidden in a PNG image as opposed to an AES encrypted text string to be saved in a ...
24 views

### For the scrypt HMAC storage format, why run the input of the hash and the hash itself into the HMAC

Generally if the body is hashed, why provide the body and the hash as input into the HMAC. Instead wouldn't the same security be achieved by hashing the body and providing only the hash as input into ...
36k 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? Edit: This question was asked long back when I was ...
78 views

### How to show something is not a one-way function?

Lets say that $f:\{0,1\}^* \to \{0,1\}^*$ is a strong one way function. Let $h(x)=f(x)||x_n$ where $x_n$ is the $n$th bit of $x$. I understand that $h$ will not be a strong one-way function. However, ...
35 views

### Computing the padding of MD5

So I'm reading this question to learn more about length extension attack, and I want to make sure I understand the basics of padding. It says in the post that given the hash and the length of the ...
31 views

### encrypting simple letters homemade algorithm [on hold]

I'm new to this community but wanted to ask if you guys could find any flaws in my algorith. Basically my whole algorith is based upon the following table: ...
74 views

### Generating random vector for Full Homomorphic Cryptography

The site below explains that part of doing homomorphic encryption, you need to generate a vector of random numbers that have the property that its dot product against a randomly generated bit vector ...
41 views

### Binary equation with encryption

I'm trying to test the ring signature scheme proposed by Rivest Shamir and Tauman in the famous paper "How to leak a secret". One of the step consist in 4) the signer solves the following ring ...
17 views

### Security of SRP-6a against impersonating server choosing small/wrong N

I'm looking at an implementation of SRP (Secure Remote Password) that essentially follows the Stanford documentation (http://srp.stanford.edu/design.html). I'm worried about one aspect though: In the ...
44 views

### How to derive a key from an existing AES key?

Currently, the code I am staring at uses the CKM_EXTRACT_KEY_FROM_KEY mechanism. That has been disabled in our hardware module, so I need a different mechanism to ...
447 views

### Why do we require a CSPRNG's output to be indistinguishable from true random?

Everywhere I read, indistinguishability of output from true random is stated as a requirement for CSPRNGs. However nobody bothered to give the rationale for such a strong requirement. Specifically, ...
87 views

### How have MD5 constants been determined?

For instance, the per round shift amounts, ...
17 views

### Profile Complexity LFSR

I try to understand how Complexity of an LSFR calculated. For example I have a bit sequence 110101 and it's profile 1 1 2 2 3 3. Is there any easy way in order to produce the profile?
19 views

### MD5 SSL Collision Attack

I want to create fake certificate for test purposes. I have read about the http://marc-stevens.nl/p/hashclash/index.php project but I am unable to understand the two files that I have to put as input ...
36 views

### special class of lattices in lattice based cryptography

A special case of lattices in lattice cryptography is that of q-ary lattices. A q-ary lattice L is defined as that in which any vector which consists of multiples of some scalar q is in ...
70 views

### Is it safe to initialize secret keys by just reading /dev/random on Linux?

For a software, I don't want the user to choose weak keys, so I plan to just read the needed number of bytes from /dev/random to create the needed secret keys. Is it safe to do so?
71 views

### Are there MD5 collisions for inputs of different length?

There are many examples of MD5 collisions (some of them can be found here Are there two known strings which have the same MD5 hash value?). But as far as I know two inputs should have the same length ...
62 views

### Real-world example of AES-GCM?

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to understand how to implement AES-GCM. My usecase: Person A sent me a file with a gauranteed unique name. I want to be assured it was from person A, and that no ...
80 views

### RSA: special parameters construction

I have to show that the following construction of $q$ allows to factorize $N$ : $p \in \mathbb{P}$, the set of primes $q \gets p \cdot \left((p - 1)^{-1} \bmod e\right) \bmod e$ $k=1$ while \$q \not ...
39 views

### Is there a correct way to generate a symmetric key?

Looking in some cryptographic algorithms, I've realized that: The way the plain text is encrypted/decrypted is always specified, but what about the key? Every paper I've seen describing the algorithm ...
70 views

### Is Diffie-Hellman Secure or backdoored? [on hold]

I'm a noob cryptography. The Diffie-Hellman algorithm looks extremely straightforward and simple, however, is it backdoored by the NSA?
5k views

### Simply put, what does perfect secrecy means?

I would like to ask for a clear (but maybe not so deep) explanation of what the term "perfect secrecy" means. As far as I have researched and understood, it has to do with probabilities of assuming ...