All Questions

134 views

Security impact of signing small data using RSA

I have an application which consists of a client and a server. Both have a pair of public and private key (RSA). For communication, both sign their messages and send them to the other part. So a ...
344 views

Is the GOST block cipher broken?

Is the GOST cipher broken or known to be weak and insecure? Please try to simplify your answer since I am a programmer and not a cryptographer and please consider this web page and tell me if the ...
109 views

Can CFB mode of block cipher be used as a commutative encryption?

Can CFB mode of block cipher be used as a commutative encryption? Is it possible to use CFB mode of AES block cipher to create commutative encryption? With CTR it is possible but not secure.
95 views

Finding keys of modified DES encryption

This is a question I had in my exam today, and I'll be glad if someone can help me to find the answer. A student built an encryption algorithm (something between DES and 3DES), in which the ...
218 views

What values constitute failing for ENT tests?

The dieharder tests give a clear PASSED, WEAK, etc and I'm wondering what those thresholds ...
99 views

Diffe-Helman Exchange result is always 1

I watched a video on Khan Academy explaining the Diffe-Hellman exchange. When I try to do an example problem, I get 1 all the time. Does the generator and prime modulus (or base on Wikipedia) have to ...
52 views

Meaning of pseudocode “$(C, S):=$”

I've seen pseudocode of this form in the Montgomery Multiplication related theses: $(C, S) := a[j]*b[0]+C$. What's the meaning of "$(C, S):=$", or what is the real code that converted from this ...
89 views

Ideas for non duplicate cryptographically secure numbers

My Boss asked me this today. I am not a math major. He needs to generate 50 billion non-sequential non-duplicate (no collisions) cryptographically secure random numbers. I work in GO. Any ideas?
356 views

How are subkeys, in Feistel block ciphers, derived for each round?

I'm bit confused about the subkeys that are used in Feistel ciphers. I know that all the subkeys ki are derived from the main key K, but how? Say I have a simplified Feistel block cipher of i rounds, ...
141 views

Can I use an ECDH Shared Secret from the same Private / Public Key Pair?

I'd like to know if using the ECDH shared secret of a static EC Private Key with it's own corresponding static EC Public Key causes a problem / weakness. (edit) not asking if it's ok to re-use the ...
62 views

Compression in Symmetric-Encryption?

When using symmetric encryption is it important to compress the data first? I think that compression will make data look "more random" and this might help the ciphertext be harder to crack but I am ...
306 views

Why isn't Rabin-Williams cryptosystem widely used?

I think we all know RSA. And of course we also know DJB (a.k.a. Daniel J. Bernstein). Now some already have noticed that he has an opinion towards cryptographic questions. In his 2008 paper ("RSA ...
85 views

Distinguishing attack on stream cipher created from a block cipher in counter mode

A block cipher in counter mode creates a key stream by: $$z_i = E_K(IV || i)$$ Where $IV$ is some chosen initialisation vector (with some length $l$ less that $n$ bits) and $i$ is the binary ...
197 views

Cryptanalysis of Marvin32 compared to SipHash

So I am curious about the security analysis of Marvin32, the randomized hash algorithm used in .NET (to prevent hash-table DoS). I found the source code here: ...
146 views

Why not put MAC in fixed position and cover padding for MAC-then-encrypt?

The biggest problem with using MtE with a mode where it's known to be secure (CBC) is with the padding, where you can't retrieve the authentication until you know where it is by looking at the padding ...
426 views

How many bits of entropy can I expect from /dev/urandom in iOS?

Apple's latest security documentation indicates that it now uses CTR_DRBG for generating pseudo-random numbers (previously Yarrow instead of CTR_DRBG), using "timing variations during boot" and "...
161 views

Hash length extension attack - SHA256 to 512 - impossible, correct?

Just want to be sure about something before I sign off on a method we're about to put into place. We have a secret, to which a user-defined key is appended. The user can see the SHA256 hash of the ...
46 views

Does failure of indistinguishability of encryptions imply lack of CPA-security?

Suppose we have an encryption scheme that fails the indistinguishability of encryptions test. That is, given messages $m_0, m_1$ and a ciphertext $c_b = Enc_k(m_b)$, where $b \in \{0, 1\}$, the ...
77 views

On composition of encryption schemes

If we composed (as in function composition) multiple CPA-secure encryption schemes would the result also be CPA-secure?
113 views

How to securely store data? / How to securely encrypt a file? [closed]

How do I safely encrypt a file? or formulated differentely: How do I safely store the data of my application in a file? Note: Using established tools isn't an option for this. The tasks need to be ...
137 views

Format preserving encryption FFX

In FFX mode the format of the ciphertext is same as plaintext. How does it ensure data integrity and authentication? Is there any bit flip attack in FFX mode? Is it malleable?
45 views

Use of Lamport's Signature as a primitive

Is Lamport's One Time Signature used as a primitive to construct any other cryptographic protocols?
94 views

Retrieve value of private key after encryption with the public key

Is there a way to find an RSA private key after it is encrypted with the corresponding public key? Does there exist an algorithm to recover the private key in this special case?
529 views

How multiplicative property of RSA can be exploited

It is known that RSA has the multiplicative property $E(m_1) \cdot E(m_2) = E(m_1 \cdot m_2)$ because $m_1^e \cdot m_2^e = (m_1 \cdot m_2)^e \pmod n$ But how can this property be used to break ...
116 views

In cases where a large complex data structure contains elements that are a mix of confidential and not-so-confidential data, what would be the pros & cons of: encrypting the entire structure ...
278 views

Zero knowledge-proof for discrete log that is not honest-verifier

Take a cyclic group of prime order. The Schnorr-protocol for proving knowledge of the discrete logarithm of some group element is honest-verifier zero-knowledge, meaning that if the verifier chooses ...
227 views

New to cryptology, studying Message Authentication Codes

I understand the basic operational theory behind MAC, but I'm getting tripped up on some of the finer details. Also the differences between MAC, HMAC and MIC are getting lost on me, including the ...
178 views

What use is the signature without the message under RSA?

Using RSA for signing & verification, is there a way to take a valid signature for an unknown message, and for someone else to generate a valid signature using a different key against the valid ...
119 views

Stacked LFSR - why not used?

New to cryptographic, weak in math. I have designed a PRG which consist of 33 LFSR's, each 32 bits wide. I use one of the LFSR's as "selector", using the 5 LSB from this register to select one of ...
80 views

Is it secure to transmit a short plaintext with its MAC?

I have a short (32-bit) message that needs to be authenticated. Due to the constraints of my platform, I would like to use Speck32/64 (32-bit block, 64-bit key) with a Matyas-Meyer-Oseas one-way ...
135 views

Hash function such that fx(hash(s1),hash(s2)) = hash(concat(s1,s2))

First, I'm not a mathematician, so I may express this question awkwardly. Feel free to chuckle. I'm wondering if there exists a hash function h such that for given strings s1 and s2, and string s3=...
59 views

Discrete log accumulator without pairings

Here $g$ is some fixed generator of a discrete log group. I don't want the group to be bilinear for efficiency and BDH-skepticism reasons. Is anyone aware of a discrete log accumulator? What I mean ...
376 views

About the Security of PCBC Encryption Mode

We are designing an encrypted file system. We plan to use the PCBC (Plaintext Cipher Block Chaining) encryption mode for encryption. This is because we desire the feature ("small changes in the ...
104 views

Is this an example of a zero knowlege proof?

My Math Structures professor mentioned the strange concept of a zero knowledge proof to me after class one day, and I decided to do some reading about it. After reading the relatively famous "How to ...
742 views

Deterministically generate a RSA public/private key pair from a passphrase (with sufficient entropy)?

Is it possible to deterministically generate public/private RSA key pairs from passphrases? Would giving the (key generating) algorithm data made from key-stretching the passphrase (instead of a ...
157 views

What does variable-base point/scalar multiplication mean in ECC?

I am a bit confuse about the term, variable-base point/scalar multiplication, in Elliptic Curve Cryptography. What I have understood so far. It means that the base or point on EC is variable/unknown. ...
109 views

Why are modes of operation used, what attacks do they prevent?

I know you always need to use a mode of operation when using a block cipher, AES for example, and Wikipedia has a good explanation for what modes of operation are Now I know if i do not use a mode of ...
165 views

Performing differential cryptanalysis for randomly generated S-boxes

As far as I know, performing differential or linear cryptanalysis always requires a knowledge of the S-boxes' content and order. Yet in Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, it is stated that random ...
167 views

Is format preserving encryption suitable for use with words or names?

Is it possible to use FPE to encrypt names and language words like 'Bob' 'the' 'tree', in order to preserve both length and format (like keeping characters within a certain range like A-Z a-z) The ...
570 views

ccrypt and its security

I would like to know how secure is ccrypt to encrypt files (like images, videos and other non-plain text data) using single password of 20+ chars length. It uses Rijndael with 256-bit block size and ...
117 views

What aspect of elliptic curve encryption paradigms makes them especially susceptible to quantum based attack algorithms?

This was a statement made during a talk at today's DFN-CERT conference but unfortunately it wasn't explained further. Can anyone shed light on why elliptic curves are susceptible to quantum based ...
209 views

Crypto++: How to re-generate pseurandom integers in Crypto++

I'm using Crypto++ to implement my protocol to mask a value $y_i$ by a seudorandom value $r_i$ such that $m_i=y_i \cdot r_i$. Since there are many $r_i$'s I want to generate them using PRG and then ...
219 views

Is there any advantage on encrypting the CMAC together with the message?

I'm reading a protocol specification where the procedure is to generate a CMAC, take the first 4 bytes of it, append this authentication tag to the message and then encrypt the message + CMAC together ...
967 views

How are the AES inverse S-Boxes calculated?

I would like to know, how to calculate the inverse S-box. I followed this link (with affine transformation first, then multiplicative inverse), but the result is wrong. For example, if I use the value ...
830 views

How to implement HMAC SHA-256

I am trying to figure out how the HMAC SHA-256 hashing algorithm works. I know that we have to use the following: H (K ^ opad)|| H ((K ^ ipad)|| text)). The ...
115 views

Formal security of recycled random blinding in a Paillier scheme

This question is a follow-up/variant on a previous question. Supposing that we are trying to generate a large number of (indistinguishable) ciphertexts of a given plaintext and want to avoid the ...
100 views

Possible to use an accumulator to “license” or restrict the qty of certificates being used?

Suppose in a future version of x509 PKI, it is possible to limit the quantity of certificates being used, what would that look like? Here is a concept that won't work in the real world, but ...
233 views

Can I simulate iterated AES-ECB with other block cipher modes?

I am trying to write some code using the Web Crypto API (http://www.w3.org/TR/WebCryptoAPI/#algorithm-overview) which provides only some of the block cipher modes for AES, intentionally excluding AES-...