All Questions

2answers
230 views

Would xoring 2 independant AES CTRs to produce p-rand introduce vulnerabilities?

Assuming $$AES_{k_1}(C_1) \oplus AES_{k_2}(C_2)$$ where AES is used in CTR mode, $C$ is a 128 bit incrementing counter, keys and counters for both transforms are random as well as unique, and the ...
1answer
181 views

Proof for composed signatures

Assumes that we have 3 signature algorithms, $S^A$ with key pair $(sk^A,pk^A)$, $S^B$ with key pair $(sk^B,pk^B)$,$S^C$ with key pair $(sk^C,pk^C)$. We denote by $\epsilon$, $\epsilon'$ and ...
0answers
60 views

ECIES: Purpose of optional shared information?

According to Wikipedia the ECIES algorithm has two optional shared information $S_1$ and $S_2$. They are used as follows: Generate a random shared secret $Z$ according to ECIES, which will never be ...
1answer
133 views

ECIES: Purpose of MAC?

Assumptions: $A$ wants to communicate with $B$ $A$ knows a public key $P_B$ which is trusted by a third party and belongs to $B$ $A$ knows the address of someone who pretends to be $B$ $A$ wants ...
1answer
249 views

Encryption-Decryption-Encryption

I have learned from Applied Cryptography that triple encryption with three independent keys in encryption-decryption-encryption (EDE) process gives security not higher then $2^{2n}$ when it comes to ...
1answer
869 views

Entropy of the key

Suppose a $1000$-bit key used in the one-time pad is not randomly and uniformly generated. Suppose that the values of the first $5$ bits are $0$, and the other $995$ bits are randomly generated and ...
1answer
92 views

Statistical tests for pseudorandom permutations

I'm implementing a format-preserving encryption scheme similar to those described in the literature. I want to sanity test my PRP using some statistical tests like TestU01. However, I'm not sure how ...
1answer
1k views

How is HMAC hashed message decrypted on the receiver side

We know that MAC algorithm and key are used in both sender and receiver side to get the matching MAC tages to prove that the data is authentic. Now in HMAC we know that, it makes use of crytographic ...
2answers
501 views

AES-ECB as an authentication mechanism

ECB is considered to be insecure when used for confidentiality because identical plaintext result with identical ciphertext. But what if we use ECB for authentication? Assume A wants to transmit an ...
0answers
156 views

Complexity of verifying OTP secret

What is the minimum number of unique pairs of digests and inputs to a one-time pass needed to verify that a secret is equal to a ...
0answers
80 views

Advantages of using intermediate hash over full hash in digital signature application

Description of intermediate hashes Intermediate (or partial) hashes are canonical forms of digest state that can be transferred from one hash implementation to another, so that the other, limited ...
3answers
532 views

How many bits of hash are realistically needed for key verification?

Say I'm connecting to a web server secured with TLS but with a self-signed certificate. Accordingly, I call the owners of the server and ask them what SHA1 fingerprint they have. They start reading ...
1answer
441 views

What is the exact purpose of length padding in Merkle–Damgård hash functions? [duplicate]

Is a length padding technique in a hash function used to avoid length extension attacks ?
2answers
458 views

Are SSL/TLS used for maintaining data confidentiality?

In SSL/TLS, we use symmetric and asymmetric keys to encrypt the data. Does that mean that the keys are used to encrypt the data (preserve the integrity) or provide a secure channel for the data to be ...
0answers
94 views

What does Set Membership actually prove?

While going through this paper, I came across the idea of Set Membership proofs. The proof allows a prover to prove that a value is contained in some set. The point where I am confused is, all the ...
1answer
109 views

OCB and GCM security

Is OCB as secure as GCM or CCM ? Since OCB design is quite different from GCM and CCM, I was wondering if the security properties of these latters are satisfied by OCB, as well. Thank you.
3answers
201 views

How is the following different than RSA Signing of a document?

If the goal is to demonstrate that you are who you say you are, I think the following will work: Bob wants to know that you are Amy. Bob encrypts a number using Amy's public key and then asks her what ...
1answer
72 views

Is MAC algorithm same at both sender and receiver end

The MAC algortihm which is used along with a secret key to generate a MAC tag on the sender end ,is it same at the receiver end also who again uses a MAC algorithm to generate a tag? If yes, then how ...
1answer
60 views

How to make a document truly read only

How is it possibile to cryptographically make a document truly read only? As in read only I imply that the user can obviously view it which can be achieved by coding which pixels have which colors. ...
3answers
8k views

Can Pre-Paid Cards be cracked?

Is it possible to deduce the original function that used to generate those prepaid cards number that are used for charging your mobile phone credits? For example: If I've collected about 1000 of ...
1answer
208 views

Repeatable crypto

Is there a safe way to do crypto that will always produce the same result for a given input? My use case is transferring deltas of huge files, to a backup server. The backup server has no knowledge ...
1answer
94 views

How Proof all Subgroup point of prime order elliptic curve have prime order [#G=#E]? [closed]

anyone knows any reference that proof it ? Please Help .
1answer
60 views

FSB Hash Functions and Convetional hash Functions

I'm reading FSB cryptographic hash function and the authors say that security of this function depends on NP-Complete Problem: "Decoding Linear Code Unlike most other cryptographic hash functions in ...
1answer
168 views

SIMONs Cryptoanalysis

I'm reading Cryptanalysis of the SIMON Family of Block Ciphers. In Section 3.1, it says: For SIMON, consider an n-bit input difference $\alpha= x\oplus x'$ to $F$ of Hamming weight one. As the ...
1answer
3k views

Is SHA related to AES or TLS in any way

I have been reading about SHA-2 family and I found a lot of in depth details, but I am confused about how it is related to TLS and AES. TLS encrypts data between server and client, but does it make ...
1answer
195 views

Is multiple encryption using NaCL and TLS better?

In general, the idea of multiple encryption sounds interesting - for creating stronger cyphers (especially against implementation bugs), one could always get the configuration details wrong and mess ...
1answer
302 views

Prevent MITM attack while encrypting data by using ElGamal ECC?

I am using ElGamal ECC to encrypt my plain text data. I want to ensure that my data is safe from a Man-In-The-Middle attack. What methodology I can adopt to achieve this goal? How can we prevent a ...
1answer
185 views

CBC-MAC based on PRF

Why is the block cipher in the CBC-MAC taken to be a pseudo random permutation (PRP) and not a pseudo random function (PRF)? We don't need the bijective property of the PRP. So why go with it?
0answers
142 views

Should layered use of crypto always have a cryptographic binding between the layers?

Reading the latest TLS weakness, it seems that multiple weaknesses have been found over the years caused by not ensuring that messages are sent over the same channel, and in general a lack of ...
3answers
224 views

Asymmetric algorithm for one time signing of small cleartext

I want to generate a key pair such that the private key can be used once to sign a small message (1024 bytes) at some indeterminate point in the future and the public key can be used to verify that ...
1answer
130 views

Secure Deduplication and Encryption in a data store

Assume: We have a centralized data store that can store whatever we need Every user is online Function $f : File \to Key$ gets access to the store, and is the same for all users. $g : Key \to File$ ...
0answers
91 views

Are partial hashes used in cryptographic protocols?

In my question (and answer) about a partial hash code used within a signature application I found out that partial hash codes are sometimes used within protocols with a relatively restricted security ...
5answers
4k views

Could RDRAND (Intel) compromise entropy?

I was recently discussing the issue of RDRAND in Intel chips and the whole issue about how NSA could potentially be influencing Intel to weaken or create backdoors in their design. This petition was ...
1answer
458 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 ...
2answers
333 views

Homomorphic Encryption: how does the equality test on ciphertexts work?

Let's suppose we have a asymmetric crypto-system $H$ which is homomorphic with respect to some function $F$. Alice encrypts a message $m$ with her private key $e$ in the crypto-system $H$ and ...
2answers
1k views

What are Cryptographic Multi-linear Maps?

I've encountered this term many times in the fields of Fully-Homomorphic Encryption and Obfuscation. I want to learn those subject and Cryptographic Linear Maps seems to be an obstacle in the way. ...
1answer
600 views

How should I treat a new cipher release like Spritz?

I have been looking at both the paper as well as the sourcecode of Spritz — a spongy RC4-like stream cipher and hash function by Ronald L. Rivest and Jacob Schuldt. The paper states We have also ...
1answer
131 views

Implementing the Mceliece Encryption - making the Generator Matrix

I am working on an implementation of the Mceliece Encryption system (MCE) and the Niederreiter encryption system. I have been through the basics of finite fields, polynomial arithmetic and some coding ...
0answers
229 views

practically verifying block ciphers strength [closed]

How do we verify practically the strength of a block ciphers? Most of the security analysis of block ciphers is usually around theoretical analysis and proofs in some random oracle model etc. For ...
1answer
103 views

Question on Waters IBE

I'm reading “Efficient Identity-Based Encryption Without Random Oracles” by Brent Waters. In Page 9, I don't know how ...
2answers
282 views

Composition of block ciphers and 3DES

There is some intriguing things about DES and 3DES. Now, I know that DES is weak and 3DES was an attempt to construct a more secure block-cipher from a deprecated one. Having this in mind, what ...
3answers
781 views

Are there other digital certificate formats than X.509?

Hi I am a little new to security, but in researching digital certificates it seems the only format people describe is X.509. Are there other formats? If so what are they and where can I find ...
2answers
285 views

Choice of authenticated encryption mode for whole messages

There are several well-regarded block cipher modes for authenticated encryption which have made their way into standards and protocols: CCM, EAX, GCM, OCB, … If I am designing a new messaging or ...
1answer
2k views

Why do new versions of TLS use an explicit IV for CBC suites?

SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 used an insecure scheme to generate implicit IVs when encrypting records in CBC mode: they used the last part of the previous record, a value that can be predicted by the attacker. ...
4answers
247 views

Solution with high decryption cost and low encryption cost

I am looking for any cryptographic solution that will meet those requirements : Only known method to get the encrypted string need to be brute force. Decrypting on modern computer not more than ...
1answer
169 views

How would you encrypt-then-MAC when using pen-and-paper and a Caesar cipher?

I'll probably get shot for asking this, but I've got some kids (aged 8-10) in my neighbourhood that I've been showing/teaching the simple pen-and-paper Caesar cipher and they're successfully playing ...
3answers
546 views

Good challenges for a crypto competition for teenagers

I'm holding a cryptography workshop for teenagers (around 16 years old) at our university. As part of the workshop, I'm planning to run a crypto competition with prizes: there will be different tasks, ...
2answers
297 views

Proving HMAC collision probability bounds?

Could someone point to results or proofs about the probability of $$HMAC(k, m_1) = HMAC (k, m_2)$$ assuming the underlying hash function is SHA-256? Would those probabilities be higher/lower if $m_1$ ...
1answer
104 views

How can finding a collision help an attacker with tampering messages with HMAC

As stated in the HMAC RFC (RFC 2104): The strongest attack known against HMAC is based on the frequency of collisions for the hash function H. How can a collision benefit an attacker? I would ...
1answer
402 views

How does Random Oracle and Standard Model differ? [duplicate]

I am new to Crypto field. Many papers are boasting of not using Random Oracle model. Instead, those prove security in Standard Model. I am surprised how do these models differ. Can anyone please ...

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