# All Questions

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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 ...
2k views

### 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 ...
166 views

### Does there exist a proof-of-retrievability scheme that is publicly-verifiable, limited-use, and does not use homomorphic encryption?

I find myself wanting to test out a practical implementation of a proof-of-retrievability scheme, simply out of curiosity. These schemes seem to be divided into two variations, publicly-verified and ...
261 views

### Deterministically combine more than one source of entropy

What is the proper/canonical way to do this? For example, $0 < r1 < 1$ and $0 < r2 < 1$. Presuming uniformly distributed probabilities for the two, combining/averaging them is going to ...
2k views

### Can you explain “weak keys” for DES?

A weak key for DES is a key $K$ such that $DES_{k_1}(DES_{k_2}(x))=x$ for all $x$. I don't get why are the 4 keys $k_1||k_2$: $1^{112}$, $0^{112}$, $0^{56}||1^{56}$, $1^{56}||0^{56}$ considered as ...
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### Slow one-way pseudo-random permutation?

I'm looking for a slow one-way pseudo-random permutation; or in other words a block cipher $E_K: P\in\{0,1\}^b\mapsto C\in\{0,1\}^b$ with moderate block size $b\approx 64$ bits, wide key $K$, ...
279 views

### Is there a proof for showing any cryptogram is crackable?

I commonly hear statements along the lines of "all cryptograms are crackable - it's only a matter of time". Is there a proof to show that any cryptogram is "crackable"? The proof may be of a more ...
374 views

### Why the symmetric key layer in PGP?

I've been familiarizing myself with the basics of PGP. If I understand correctly, PGP symmetrically encrypts the data of interest using a random single-use key, then encrypts the encrypted data and ...
1k views

### Is there a hash function which has no collisions?

Is there a hash function which has no collisions? To clarify: it would be some function which would produce variable-length output, and never produce the same output for differing input. It would ...
322 views

### Why doesn't CTR mode require blocking?

I've been reading a bit about block cipher modes and I have a relatively straightforward question regarding CTR. In essence, I was hoping you guys would be kind enough to validate my understanding of ...
228 views

### Finding where I am in a linear recurrence relation

Suppose I have a linear recurrence relation $$a(n) = c_1 a(n-1) + \dots + c_k a(n-k) + d,$$ where the constants $c_1,\dots,c_k,d$ are given and the initial values $a(0),\dots,a(k-1)$ are given as ...
4k views

### Are there any known collisions for the SHA-2 family of hash functions?

Are there any known collisions for the hash functions SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512? By that, I mean are there known values of $a$ and $b$ where $F(a) = F(b)$ and $a ≠ b$?
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### What is the recommended replacement for MD5?

Since MD5 is broken for purposes of security, what hash should I be using now for secure applications?
572 views

### Security equivalence proofs for breaking RSA

It is my understanding that while a practical solution to the factoring problem will definitely break RSA, it has never been proven that the security of RSA is equivalent to factoring. In otherwords, ...
788 views

### Is it safer to generate your own Diffie-Hellman primes or to use those defined in RFC 3526?

I was wondering if the prime numbers defined for use with Diffie-Hellman in RFC 3526 are more trustworthy than generating one's own, especially considering the recent Arjen Lenstra paper (Ron was ...
412 views

### Is there some way to generate a non-predictable random number in a decentralised network?

Is there a way to generate a random number with given restrictions: It will be used in a decentralised network with a big number of peers (no central authority to generate it) Its generation should ...
338 views

### Threshold Signatures for RSA and DSA

I have a few questions relating to threshold signatures: a scheme where $n$ participants hold a key share and any $t$ of them can conduct a protocol using their shares that results in a valid RSA or ...
2k views

### How key materials are generated in SSL V3 from master secret

The generation of key materials is given by ...
1k views

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### Can S/MIME be still considered secure?

Previoulsy I had asked this question at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18235983/can-s-mime-be-still-considered-secure but I feel this forum is topic-wise the right place. Recently there has been ...
423 views

### Why is asymmetric encryption IND-CPA?

According to Wikipedia, the IND-CPA game is: The challenger generates a key pair PK, SK based on some security parameter k (e.g., a key size in bits), and publishes PK to the adversary. The ...