All Questions

257 views

secure integer comparison

I have been going through a huge amount of papers to find a simple and a practical method to compare integer numbers without revealing their original values. I know that this falls within the area of ...
57 views

Ensuring that an operation takes a relatively specific amount of time, but easily verify the result

I want an algorithm of some sort that can ensure that an operation takes a fairly specific amount of time, but proof that this operation was done can be completed relatively inexpensively. For ...
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Is the term “Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem” a misnomer?

I have just started studying Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and I have this doubt. In ECC the group operation is addition (and not multiplication). So, why is ECDLP stated as a variation of the discrete ...
296 views

Odds of false error detection in a randomness test using the chi-squared test?

Common Criteria classifies the requirements for true Random Number Generators, and specifies how these should be tested against failures (these can occur accidentally, or following deliberate attack, ...
276 views

Why concatenate the key a second time in HMAC? [duplicate]

On Wikipedia it is said that HMAC is basically (without taking into account padding): $H(key\ \Vert\ H(key\ \Vert\ message))$ where $\Vert$ denotes concatenation. I understand the need to hash ...
520 views

Hash functions with or without secret key

The classical definition of hash functions (found in books) are OK, but when studying a little more there is a lot of notions that seem ambiguous (contradictory) to me : Sometimes we have hash ...
130 views

Meet in the middle attack - message and key

I clearly understand the story of Alice and Bob: Alice and Bob are going to use double DES. They know the keys K1 and K2. Alice sends to Bob the encrypted message c= EK1(EK2(m)). Bob decrypts the ...
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Hash Based Encryption (fast & simple), how well would this compare to AES? [duplicate]

First of all, I know it's a very bad idea to invent your own encryption algorithm. It's better to use existing known, trusted, extensively tested and studied algorithms with a proven track record. The ...
188 views

How can I create an RSA modulus for which no one knows the factors?

It's easy to create an RSA modulus where almost no one knows the factors: for example, I can generate two 1024-bit primes $p$ and $q$ and set $n=pq$. If I publish $n$, I will be the only person in ...
8k 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 ...
277 views

Hash Based Encryption (fast & simple), how well would this compare to AES? [duplicate]

First of all, I know it's a very bad idea to invent your own encryption algorithm. It's better to use existing known, trusted, extensively tested and studied algorithms with a proven track record. The ...
122 views

counter to indicate hotp count

I was trying to figure out how HOTP kept from wrapping over, when I saw this explanation of how it works, by Thomas Pornin [source]: The intended scenario is the following: the client has a ...
357 views

Is this an acceptable implementation of ARC4 encryption for my system?

I am building an open source hardware system that will be used to control things over the internet. The system consists of a Base Station and Modules which use wireless communication at 2.4GHz to ...
1k views

Difference between known-plaintext attack and forward search attack

I am looking at the different attacks on RSA. I came across known-plaintext attack where the public key can be used to encrypt all possible messages until it finds a match on the sent encrypted ...
3k views

How is input message for SHA-2 padded?

I read about how is an input message prepared to be hashed by MD4,MD5 or SHA-1: Step1 Append padding bits The input message is "padded" (extended) so that its length (in bits) equals to 448 ...
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Why do we apply the concept of circuit in homomorphic encryption schemes?

I am a beginner to the concept of homomorphic encryption. One thing that makes me very confused is why we use the circuit concept or approach to homomorphic encryption. Gentry's paper does not discuss ...
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Should different key pairs be used for signing and encryption?

In the recent iOS Security white paper from Apple (February 2014), the section on iMessage discusses using two different asymmetric key types as part of its standard operation: When a user turns ...
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RSA problem if i choose two specific small prime numbers?

I know that rsa normally is made to make it with big integers, but i trying to make the algorithm myself (with the help of wikipedia) and I´m making it with small numbers to track the problems easily. ...
364 views

distribution for a subset of md5

I need to uniquely assign a 32 bit integer to a collection of human readable strings (i.e. they will not be generated with hash collision in mind). I don't expect more than a few thousand strings. I ...
162 views

Verifying multiplicative inverse on a prime field in NIST's ECDSA_Prime.pdf

I am trying to learn about the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) by verifying the results in some example calculations. I found a PDF of example ECDSA calculations from NIST here: ...
503 views

Reusing AES-CTR Keys and IVs for File Encryption

I’m implementing some file encryption module with random-access capability and AES-CTR seems the right way to go. I understand that reusing Keys and IVs can expose the file to ‘Stream Cipher Attacks’ ...
137 views

Trying to calculate the strength of a Bitcoin brain wallet created with a custom diceware password

I want to create a brain wallet using a custom diceware since I don't like the original one. Instead of 7776 words it has 46656 because I use 6 dice for each word instead of 5, and also it only has ...
50 views

Affine encryption function

Let $f(x) = ax + b$ be an affine encryption function. $a$ and the cardinal of the field of our keys $K$ (in English, 26) must be coprime so that the encryption ...
109 views

Modular protocol design

What does modular protocol design mean? Why does TLS not have modular protocol design? What protocols have modular design? (IPSec, SSH)
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Are there use cases where a signature itself needs to be signed?

I'm writing some code to digitally sign certain files (JSON, if you must know), and I'm trying to understand the use cases, not being a crypto guy myself. I understand there are use cases where ...
585 views

Is the One Time Pad (OTP) considered a cryptographic hash function?

As the title states, would the One Time Pad (OTP) be considered a cryptographic hash function?
121 views

Obfuscating point-like functions

There are standard schemes for obfuscating a point function; I'm wondering if we know how to obfuscate a slight generalization of a point function. I'll elaborate more precisely. Definition 1. A ...
10k 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 ...
851 views

How to perform Multiplicative Inverse Modulo in IDEA

How to perform the Multiplicative Inverse Modulo in International Data Encryption Algorithm? I don't understand on how to perform it… For example, let's say I have a value of ...
344 views

Is it possible to work out the hash algorithm from a list of known message-hash pairs?

For example, in my situation I know hash(20) = 486e9638177faf1f34e49910491b77af. I also know the hashes for all values from 0 to 20. Is it possible to work out the ...
I have a question about Pseudo Random Functions. Let $f:\{0,1\}^m \times \{0,1\}^n → \{0,1\}^n$ be a secure PRF. Define $F(k,x) = f(k,x) - f(k, x-1 \bmod 2^{n}) \bmod 2^{n}$. Is $F$ is a secure ...