# All Questions

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### Where can I get information on how to implement AES?

I want to write AES from scratch without using the built in libraries of java. I know there are hundreds of AES programs (and websites) out there but I can't seem to find a site that gives me the ...
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### How long does it take to crack DES and AES?

Suppose that a single evaluation of a block-cipher (DES or AES) takes 10 operations, and the computer can do $10^{15}$ such operations per second. How long would it take for to recover a DES key, ...
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### How to attack a classical cipher using known partial plaintext?

I have a ciphertext generated by a classical cipher. I do not know what was cipher used to generate it. I do however have the beginning of the plaintext. What are the cryptanalysis approaches for ...
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### How should one implement a delegated shared trust protocol?

Consider the following (probably naive) scenario. Alice, who is very limited in her knowledge of security in general (clueless about securing a private key for example), wishes to delegate certain ...
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### Designing a key expander out of ciphers

Is it possible to compose or combine $n$ ciphers ($cipher_0, cipher_1, ... cipher_n$) in such a way that they generate $n$ ciphertexts from the same key, $k$, and that recovering the key, $k$, from ...
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### Changing algorithms during encryption

Inspired by "Guarding against cryptanalytic breakthroughs: combining multiple hash functions", I am curious if there is a cryptographic reason to use only one algorithm during encryption. For ...
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### Accelerating SHA-1

I have a program where computing SHA-1 is the bottleneck. This is using OpenSSL 1.0.0e on a 2.6Ghz 16-core Opteron where I get about 325MiB/s throughput. (SHA1 here is via Andy Polyakov's x86-64 ...
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### Why use an Initialization Vector (IV)?

Why use an Initialization Vector (IV)? How are IV's used? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using an IV? Why use an IV instead of a longer key in which some section of the key is pubic? What ...
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### 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 ...
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### What is the use of REAL random number generators in cryptography?

I understand the use of pseudo-random number generators. I am not getting mixed up between these and "real" random number generators. However, I don't understand for what a real random number ...
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### What is the best method to determine the language used in a monoalphabetic substitution cipher?

Working on a cipher (which I assume to be a mono-alphabetic substitution cipher due to the letter frequency) I struggle with the fact that I don't know which language the plain text is written in. ...
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### Implementation of Tao Xie and Denguo Feng's MD5 attack

It is well known that MD5 is completely broken today - however, to understand the theory behind the attacks I am looking for an implementation of the collision attacks described in the 2009 paper A ...
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### Converting a stream cipher into a block cipher

The well-known Counter-Mode (CTR) mode of operation for a block cipher essentially converts any block cipher into a stream cipher. Is there a way to do the reverse? In other words, given a "good" ...
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### How to forge Schnorr signatures if you can guess the challenge

Underlying the Schnorr signature is an identification protocol: let $G$ be a cyclic group where discrete log is "hard" and choose $g$ as a generator of $G$. Now have Alice pick a random (secret) ...
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### What is Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) and why is it “better”?

Most CS/Math undergrads run into the well-known RSA cryptosystem at some point. But about 10 years ago Boneh and Franklin introduced a practical Identity-Based Encryption system (IBE) that has ...
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### Measuring entropy for a ciphertext only attack

When bruteforcing a password (e.g. the common attacks on DES), where you have ciphertext only, you need a way to assess whether a decrypted plaintext is the right one. I believe the EFF DES machine ...
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### Understanding CRC

There are zillions of articles describing CRC. What can I read to (more deeply) understand what's really going on? Both from an algebraic perspective and a bit-manipulation perspective, I'd like to ...
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### Brute forcing CRC-32

I'm working on a cryptosystem which uses IDEA. The designer made the mistake of including a CRC-32B hash of the password unencrypted in the header, so that the system can quickly reject bad ...

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