# All Questions

150 views

### Is it possible to ensure security with zero pre-shared information?

Is it possible to secure a communications channel against both passive (sniffing) and active (injecting / MitM) attackers without either legitimate party knowing any pre-shared information? I know ...
226 views

### Signing 14 bytes of data

for an embedded device I need to sign a 14-byte string and want to verify that string on the device. Since there is already an AES-Library on the device, I thought about using the following scheme: ...
410 views

### RC4 S-Box and Keystream

I'm studying the RC4 algorithm and I have the following questions: On all questions assume that an expanded (2048-bit) key is used, and that the first 4096 bytes of the KeystreamIm are discarded. ...
952 views

### AES-CMAC passes every test except two

i wrote this code: ...
3k views

### why do we need Diffie Hellman?

my question from stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11374592/why-do-we-need-diffie-hellman Diffie–Hellman offers secure key exchange only if sides are authenticated. for ...
214 views

### How to communicate authentication tag for GCM?

I have written some code to do AES in GCM. I currently manually append the tag property to the ciphertext, is this the proper way to communicate the authentication tag?
2k views

### Padding methods for block ciphers - PKCS7 vs ANSI X.923

I was looking through block cipher padding methods, and found two good candidates: ANSI X.923 - pad with zeros, then a final byte for the padding length, e.g. ...
1k views

### Modern integer factorization software [closed]

What are the modern software packages that can be used to factoring large numbers into primes. By modern I mean developed and made public within the last 5 years. I'm interested in things that are ...
12k views

### Signatures: RSA compared to ECDSA

I'm signing very small messages using RSA, and the signature and public key are added to every message, which requires a lot of space compared to the actual content. I'm considering switching to ...
1k views

### AES GCM implementation in c#

I am implementing an AES cipher in GCM mode in c# and have a few questions. My code is based on the code found here for reference. I'll copy in the relevant portions. ...
148 views

### Combatting traffic shape analysis with spurious packets

I was reading a question about combatting traffic analysis, and a thought occured. If I send random junk messages periodically, would that defeat traffic analysis? The messages would contain some ...
3k views

### RC4 Keylength Limits

While reading the Wiki page on RC4 I noticed that the key size must be in the range of 40–2,048 bits. Why is that? Is there a reason it can't have a lower or higher length?
370 views

### What differentiates a password hash from a cryptographic hash besides speed?

I understand that password hashes like bcrypt have the principal property of taking a long time to run, but I'm wondering what if anything about password hashes make them superior to merely running a ...
358 views

### Untraceable communication protocol

I am doing a research about secure communication protocols. I would be interested to know whether a protocol exists such that it grants that the two end-points taking part to the communication cannot ...
370 views

### Encryption with private key?

we normally always encrypt by public key and decrypt with private key. If i encrypt with private key, then its still secure as normal PKI ? i mean known-plain-text will not take private key on the ...
470 views

### RSA algorithm's license free or paid?

I checked RSA's patent application, which was registered in 1983. As patents don't last more than 20 years, it seems to me it should be free. But my friend said to use RSA I have to buy a license from ...
378 views

### Using a derived key for CMAC

Consider the following authenticate-and-encrypt scheme that uses AES-128 in CBC mode for encryption and AES-128 - based CMAC for authentication: Two keys are derived from the master key k (16 byte): ...
1k views

### Is this design of client side encryption secure?

I want to build a secure file storage web application. Users should be sure that server doesn't know how to decrypt files so encryption should take place at client side (i.e. in Javascript) and TLS ...
198 views

### Proper formatting of symmetric algorithm secret key

Given this description from RFC 4880 sec 5.1: The value "m" in the above formulas is derived from the session key as follows. First, the session key is prefixed with a one-octet algorithm ...
2k views

### Why does CBC decryption with a wrong IV still give readable results?

While developing some code that uses the .NET AesManaged algorithm, I made some mistakes but was surprised at the results. My encryption was correct. I was generating a random IV block and writing ...
6k views

### How can one securely generate an asymmetric key pair from a short passphrase?

Background info: I am planning on making a filehost with which one can encrypt and upload files. To protect the data against any form of hacking, I'd like not to know the encryption key ($K$) used for ...
353 views

### How can one share information using the 'host-proof' paradigm?

I am attempting to make a web-based secure password management and sharing utility, both as an academic exercise and to fully understand and feel safe about using it. I really like the idea of a ...
942 views

### Encryption scheme for social-network-like data sharing data via untrusted server?

I am thinking quite a lot lately abut the problem of secure, privacy-preserving social networking. Distributing the network among trusted, preferably self-hosted servers (like Diaspora, GNU Social ...
461 views

### Multiple Hash Functions that work in either nesting

Are there any hashing functions that, if two are used in conjunction (with the same salts) will return the same response regardless of ordering? I.e. are there hash-functions $H_1$, $H_2$ such that ...
343 views

### I need an opinion of encryption method I thought of in High school

First, I'm really not into cryptography, but have some basic knowledge. This was a thought experiment (and later exercise for my programming skills), but even though it was long time ago and I tried ...
311 views

### Is the Blum Blum Shub PRNG suitable to create initialization vectors?

Is it a good idea to use a Blum Blum Shub Generator to create my initialization Vector (IV) in AES-OFB (Output Feedback Mode)?
149 views

### Setting protocol parameters to achieve concrete security

Background One issue with modern security proofs is that they are usually asymptotic. In other words, such proofs are usually formulated as follows: For any polynomial-time adversary $\mathcal A$, we ...
182 views

### Does a high exponent compensate for a low degree of certainty?

If a RSA certificate is created with a low degree of certainty, does the value of the exponent compensate for this? I'm asking because certain implementations of key generation software hide the ...
309 views

### Vulnerabilities of encrypting data with known regularities

I need to encrypt data that has a pre-defined header and footer structure, and furthermore the data follows pre-defined patterns. The header and footer structure follow a defined structure but cannot ...
177 views

### Probability of Repeated Encrypted Block In Output Feedback (OFB) Mode

Is there any probability/chances of repeated encrypted block in Output Feedback (OFB) mode? Is there any existing documentation/studies about that? If it is existing, can you please provide me a link ...
1k views

819 views

### Getting started [closed]

I'm looking for a good place to start in cryptography and places to go to get free books etc on the topic. I have been looking online but I always get stuck at some point or another. I need something ...
5k views

### How does the index of coincidence work in the Kasiki test?

I'm starting to learn about cryptanalysis and I am having a bit of difficulty understanding the Kasiski test's index of coincidence. I have a book (Cryptography Theory And Practice by Douglas Stinson) ...