# All Questions

608 views

### One time pad key exchange

If two parties want to communicate with securely using OTP , how is the key ( that is lengthy as plain text) shared with other party for decryption ?
387 views

### How is it possible to parallelize a hashing function to crack an iteratively hashed password?

Suppose I have an algorithm that relies on multiple iterations of a hash function like SHA1 to slow down an attacker trying to bruteforce a hash. ...
1k views

### One-time pad and zero key

I'm doing some exercises before my exam, and I am stuck with task number 4 in this file: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~jkatz/crypto/f10/hw1.pdf Could you help me with this task? When using the one-time ...
133 views

### Attack by replaying messages

Assume Alice and Bob communicate over an insecure channel using one-time perfectly-secret encryption together with one-time secure message authentication code. Say Eve has the ability to eavesdrop and ...
709 views

### How to encrypt a short string and keep the length secret

I need to encrypt relatively short strings (generally less than 100 characters). If possible, I want to avoid leaking the length of these strings. How can I do that? The thing that came to my mind is ...
4k views

### understanding a length extension attack

I have been trying to understand exactly how a length extension attack works on SHA-1. I'll detail below what I've understood so far, so that I can convey my understanding of the same and hopefully ...
339 views

### Hash collision resistance requirements for Lamport signatures

According to the original paper, Lamport one-time signature scheme uses two one-way functions: $F$ and $G$. The former one, $F$, is used to create a public key by hashing elements of the private key ...
249 views

### Why does Skein use an output transform, but other similar hashes don't?

Skein uses an additional compression function call to finalize the output, even when the output isn't larger than the native output size. The Skein paper says: Due to Skein’s output ...
104 views

### How to hide bit frequency of the inter-packet delays covert channel?

I encode a hidden message as different delays between packets of another data stream. My implementation now is that for each bit, if the bit is 0, a inter-packet ...
622 views

### What is the theoretical and practical status of mental poker?

I'm able to find a lot of scattered papers on the development of mental poker since RSA proposed the initial solution but no recent report (i.e. after 2005) on what is the status of the problem, eg: ...
529 views

### Why are elliptic curve variants of RSA “chiefly of academic interest”?

Yesterday I was thinking about elliptic curve variants of popular protocols/algorithms (ECDH, ECES[1], etc) and the thought occured that I had never seen an elliptic curve variant of RSA. My ...
153 views

### RSA encryption input range - plaintexts that map to ciphertexts?

According to the wiki article on the RSA encryption function, the valid range of input $m$ is $0 \leq m \lt n$. However I have found that the following values of $m$ always return themselves when ...
4k views

### What's is the main difference between a key, an IV and a nonce?

What are the main differences between a nonce, a key and an IV. Without any doubt the key should be kept secret. But what about the nonce and the IV. What's the main difference between them and their ...
532 views

### Cryptanalysis of S-DES - Equations

I am trying to derive equations for s and t in the cryptanalysis of a Simple DES algorithm, but I haven't been able to deduce ...
484 views

### Besides key and ciphertext sizes what are other advantages of elliptic curve versions of various protocols?

There are elliptic curve variants of Diffie-Hellman, ElGamal, DSA and possibly other protocols/algorithms. I know that these elliptic curve variants have smaller key and ciphertext sizes which will ...
141 views

### Correct method to encrypt data so that it can be decrypted only by Alice and Bob

I need to build a system that stores encrypted transactions. Transaction involves always two parties. Payer and payee. Both must be able to download encrypted transaction from server and decrypt it ...
348 views

### server side Javascript security

It is accepted that the javascript library lacks the ability to create an adequate PRNG. My understanding that this was mainly due to the limits of a sandboxed browser enviroment that javascript ...
301 views

### Proving correctness of pseudorandom generator construction given existing pseudorandom generator

Say if I have a given pseudorandom generator G which takes a k-bit input and outputs a 3k-bit number. How should I show that a specific construction using this pseudorandom generator is valid? For ...
3k views

### Is it possible to obtain AES-128 key from a known ciphertext-plaintext pair?

I have a file, which was encrypted with AES-128 in ECB mode. I know the format of the original file and know that all files in this format have the same headers. So, I have an encrypted block and the ...
808 views

### How does one calculate the cryptoperiod?

NIST Special Publication 800-57 defines a cryptoperiod as the time span during which a specific key is authorized for use by legitimate entities, or the keys for a given system will remain in ...
832 views

### Using SHA-256 with different initial hash value

FIPS 180-3 defines the initial hash value for SHA-256 as the first 32 bits of the fractional parts of the square roots of the first 8 primes 2..19. What would be the risks of using a different value ...
522 views

### Calculating cycles per byte

Cycles per byte seems to be a critical concern in designing and choosing stream ciphers. For example, from Wikipedia, RC4 has 7 cycles/byte on original Pentium chips. How is this calculated? Do they ...
683 views

### Could the Enigma algorithm be classified as a Feistel network?

The Enigma algorithm is a encryption method that was developed (I believe) by the Germans in WWII. It went a little something like this: When a letter was typed on the keyboard of the Enigma ...
636 views

### In layman's terms, how does Shor's algorithm work?

I've just been reading up on Shor's algorithm, and I find it both fascinating and baffling. I don't really understand much about it, other than that it can factor semiprimes in polynomial time. Could ...
2k views

### Is 512-bit RSA still safe for signature generation?

The standard CSP on Windows XP only supports RSA up to 512-bit, which means that it's the maximum key size I can use for authenticity verification of updates. The public key is embedded in the ...
113 views

### When is each key used when encrypting an email using OpenPGP?

When you send an email using PGP to encrypt emails, is the recipients public key used to encrypt the email, or is your private key used? Are they both used? At what points do each of the four keys ...
404 views

### What is the strength of unpadded RSA?

I would like to use unpadded RSA for homomorphic encryption in a toy P2P game, for things like fair coin flips and shuffling. How many bits of security does unpadded RSA have, in relation to its key ...
4k views

### What algorithm could/should be used to encrypt files for storage on untrusted servers?

I need an encryption algorithm that works fast on large files and doesn't increase the file size. It should use a key to encrypt/decrypt data. The files will be sent using REST and over HTTPS, but a ...
174 views

### How could block encryption in counter mode be secure from viewpoint of entropy?

A good block cipher e.g. AES running in counter mode is commonly considered to be secure. Assuming a perfectly random key, one could in this case from $128$ bits generate up to $2^{128}·128$ bits for ...
496 views

### How to avoid a chicken and egg scenario with encrypting passwords?

I am working on application that allows users to upload files containing company data and then share those files with a list of other users that have specific roles within the system. I want to ...
307 views

### Exact mathematical definition of simulation based security?

I've been trying to understand cryptographic protocols and how to define their security. The problem is that while I can understand what the intuitive definition says, I have trouble understanding how ...
573 views

### is this RSA private key valid?

is this RSA private key valid? First, here's the RSA private key in question: ...
4k views

### How does one calculate the scalar multiplication on elliptic curves?

I found this example online: In the elliptic curve group defined by $$y^2 = x^3 + 9x + 17 \quad \text{over } \mathbb{F}_{23},$$ what is the discrete logarithm $k$ of $Q = (4,5)$ to the base ...
680 views

### How to test distribution of a hash function?

From what I've found, it is generally accepted a cryptographic hash function like SHA-2 has an evenly, randomly distributed output. Is there a way to test this without running through the entire ...
3k 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 ...
220 views

### Tree hash and multithreading for parallelism

I am using tree hash mode of Skein on a 16 core processor. Will it automatically employ parallelism using more than one cores or do I have to use multi-threading within the tree hash for parallel ...
118 views

### WebcryptoAPI - secure or not [closed]

This is about the new W3 WebcryptoAPI draft standard. Here is a post by one of it's authors https://plus.google.com/u/0/105761279104103278252/posts/CSwVZ1RUijo It says its in part trying to change ...
162 views

### why $e(g,g)^N=1$ in bilinear pairings holds?

I can't get the point of prime order bilinear pairings:$\mathbb{G}\times\mathbb{G}\rightarrow\mathbb{G}_T$,$g=$ generator of $\mathbb{G}$ , $N=p*q$, $p$ and $q$ primes and $e(g,g)^N=1$. why ...
389 views

### Can we construct fully homomorphic encryption scheme based on non-circuit approach?

At present, all FHE scheme are be constructed based on circuit approach. Can we construct fully homomorphic encryption scheme based on non-circuit approach? Is Polly cracker non-circuit approach ?
2k views

### Why is CBC with predictable IV considered insecure against CPA

I just learned that using CBC encryption with an IV which is predictable is not secure. From what I understand, using certain plain texts, and then guessing the IV that is uses, the attacker can ...
1k views

### Figuring out key in hill cipher (chosen-plaintext attack)

I have been wondering what approach to take in order to figure out what key was used to encrypt a message using the hill cipher. I know it is possible to obtain it even if it were just a ...
436 views

### when do we need composite order groups for bilinear maps and when prime order?

Why we need bilinear groups of composite order? What's the special security property of the composite order group in comparison with one of prime order?To put it in another way when do we need ...
267 views

### Constructing secure key exchange protocol

I have $\Pi=(Gen,Enc,Dec)$ and let it be semantically secure public-key encryption scheme. Security parameter is $n$, then the message space of plaintext is always $\lbrace 0, 1 \rbrace^n$. By using ...
364 views

### Stream Cipher : Never use stream cipher key more than once [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Taking advantage of one-time pad key reuse? How does one attack a two-time pad (i.e. one time pad with key reuse)? Denote C is cipher text, m is message, and PRG(k) is ...
136 views

### Safety of a pre-keyed DH-Key Exchange

Asuming this scenario: Bob and Alice each have the public key of the other party for a D-H function and want to exchange data. Now, if they each generate their shared secret, is it safe to assume ...
4k views

### What is difference between PRG, PRF, and PRP

Until what I have gotten is: A PRG is generator is a part of PRF that produces pseudo-random values for the function. PRF is semantically secure and has no worries of being invertible. Fine, then ...
383 views

### Why is there a strong distinction between stream and block ciphers? [duplicate]

If I don't err, in the literature a stream cipher is one in which each plaintext bit is processed individually, commonly via xor-ing with one bit of a random or pseudo-random bit stream, while a block ...
272 views

### Is it considered insecure in an HOTP implementation to publicly provide the next counter?

I am working on a project that needs to securely authenticating one or more smartphone clients with a server running on a microcontroller so it has very limited resources. I have found plenty of ...