# All Questions

229 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 ...
121 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 ...
172 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 ...
425 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 ...
513 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 ...
300 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 ...
429 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 ...
144 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 ...
5k 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 ...
387 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 ...
319 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 ...
13k views

### FIPS 140-2 Compliant Algorithms

Is there any reference to check the list of encryption & signing algorithms which are compliant to FIPS 140-2. After an exhaustive search I could find only "AES". Any suggestions would be much ...
9k views

### SHA-256 and AES-128

Does it make an encrypted string more secure if I use SHA256(x) instead of x as the secret key for AES-128 encryption? I do know that SHA-256 produces 64 characters of hashed string regardless of what ...
279 views

### How to plot the distribution of a ciphertext?

Is there any plot or visualizing program that can plot the distribution of a plaintext and then the distribution of the ciphertext after applying a ciphering encryption algorithm? I am interested ...
3k views

### Is RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 a good signature scheme for new systems?

Is RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 a good signature scheme to recommend that people use in new systems? Is it believed to be secure and represent the state-of-the-art in RSA-based signatures? I understand that ...
193 views

### Design criteria for AES

I hope somebody can help me understand the design criterias for AES. Therefore, I would be really thankful if somebody could explain "non-linearity" in this context. A criteria for the s-box in AES ...
1k views

### Which is more secure using a CSPRNG for a One-time pad, or AES?

In reading about the One-time pad it appears to need truly random key for the pad. Since true random values are not practical to generate this presents a problem (thus making One-time pad less ...
322 views

### A discrete-log-like problem, with matrices: given $A^k x$, find $k$

Let $p$ be a large prime; we will work in $GF(p)$. Let $A$ be a $n\times n$ matrix. Also, let $x$ be a $n$-vector and $k$ a positive integer. Suppose we are given $p$, $A$, $x$, and $y$. The goal ...
246 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 ...
380 views

### Discrete log problem, when we have many examples

Suppose I have many instances of the discrete log problem, all using the same unknown exponent. Is this problem easier than the standard discrete log problem? Oh, heck, I should be more precise. ...
1k views

### Shortcuts / practicality of brute forcing block cipher (AES) + ECB with known plaintext

I know the plaintext (26 bytes long) and cryptotext of block cipher (suspected to be AES) in ECB mode. I can generate hundreds or thousands of such samples, but the samples are not arbitrary. What are ...
94 views

### Data-validating protocol

I have to implement protocol of secure data transfer that can be described as Alice selects data to send from finite set $m\in M$ (e.g. $M$ could be a column of values in database table) Alice ...
313 views

### md5: is reverse length-extension attack possible?

If I know H = md5( SECRET_KEY | DATA ) then I can calculate H' = md5( SECRET_KEY | DATA | DATA' ) That's length-extension ...
23k views

### Possible ways to crack simple substitution ciphers

We had a quiz in class today where we had to break the ciphertext with the key given, but not the algorithm. Suffice to say that I wasn't able to decrypt it within the alloted time of 12 mins and will ...
122 views

### Is the mod_auth_tkt scheme secure?

The third-party Apache plugin mod_auth_tkt uses a tragically-not-HMAC construction: ...
754 views

### Why do public keys need to be validated?

For some curves it's necessary to validate the public-key of the other side before running an elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman key-exchange. Apparently if you don't validate the public key, small ...
1k views

### Simulation-based security?

I've been reading Introduction to Modern Cryptography by Katz and Lindell as an introduction to cryptography. The book seems to use the term 'simulator' when it talks about a game like, for instance, ...
4k views

### How does order-preserving encryption work?

Order-preserving encryption (OPE) is, apparently, a method of encrypting data so that it's possible to make efficient inequality comparisons on the encrypted items without decrypting them. I've been ...
95 views

### Dimension of Encryption of a linearly dependent set of plaintexts

Suppose I have an encryption scheme of the form $E(P)=C$ where $P$ is the plaintext and belongs in $\{0,1\}^N$, $C$ the ciphertext which belongs to $\{0,1\}^M$ and the encryption is performed under ...
381 views

### Encryption scheme with equivalent keys?

I've long been looking for a symmetric encryption scheme (or algorithm) with equivalent keys. Let me define what I want: Symmetric encryption algorithm with encryption function $E_k$ and inverse ...
1k views

### BouncyCastle Elliptic Curve implementation

I'm implementing ECDH key exchange in C# using the BouncyCastle library and I'm having a hard time understanding the elliptic curve side (FpCurve). ...
835 views

### Why RSA can't handle numbers above 76?

I'm going to encrypt the characters Zhu, and decrypt them using RSA. I'm using the public key $\{e, n\}$ and private key $\{d, n\}$. The values of $e$, $d$ and $p$ ...
33k views

### What is safer: ZipCrypto or AES-256?

Like in title: which one of these encryption methods (ZipCrypto, AES-256) is more secure and why? I am asking about it because I'd like to know which should be preferred when compressing files with ...
176 views

### Structure of encrypted office files

I try to find out the structure of encrypted office files (I'd like to implement something like a carving tool for finding certain encrypted file types). I try to understand the Office Document ...
1k views

### Implementing AES encryption for firmware distribution system

I need to implement an AES encryption for firmware distribution system. I have a bootloader that can decrypt various AES variants (ECB,CBC,CTR). When I approached this I found few issues that aren't ...
217 views

### fixing WEP by treating all messages as one long stream

in the course of introduction to cryptography on coursera professor suggested treating all messages as a long stream XORing them with the key this way we will not need to change the key and will not ...
3k views

### How many keys does the Playfair Cipher have?

I was just studying the Playfair cipher and from what I've understood, it is just a slightly better version of a Caesar cipher, in that it isn't actually mono-alphabetic but rather the 'digrams' are ...
667 views

### ABC Conjecture's Impact on RSA Encryption

A recent proof of the ABC Conjecture has been released by one Shinichi Mochizuki. Now, I'm not well versed in mathematics but it would appear that this proof implies that finding prime factors could ...
429 views

### Is there a method to break an EC curve for all key-pairs (Q,d) such that (Q=d*G) faster than breaking every single key-pair?

Related to this question: Is there any memory trade-off that helps such attack? Obviously if the field size is very small (say 40 bits) it´s possible, but what if the field size is 160 bits long? or ...
2k views

### How practical are side-channel attacks and how much of a concern are they?

I see a lot of research in very sophisticated side-channel attacks on crypto systems. Most (but definitely not all) seem to follow a trend, namely, the crypto system does something very dumb like ...
397 views

### What is a “rewinding argument”?

I've been reading a bit about cryptographic protocols and I keep seeing the phrase "rewinding argument". I've been unable to find a good source that would explain what is meant by this. It seems like ...
95 views

### modulus condition [closed]

In RSA algorithm, the modulus $n$ should be chosen based on the below condition $2^{8(k-1)} \leqslant n < 2^{8k}$ Where $k$ is the byte length of the modulus $n$. for this condition I want the ...
3k views

### How to decrypt AES in CBC

i am having problems understanding how CBC works! I know that it is a chain and the IV is XORed with the PT but then what? I mean we encrypt it with key k and the result is the CT which we use for the ...
481 views

### which of these is more secure (bcrypt vs srp)

OK, here's the two different ways I was thinking about making the authentication for the login thing to store the passwords securely. The first is the following. Client hashes password ...
2k views

### Calculating the inverse modularity of the determinant for Hill cipher

I'm trying to decrypt a message encrypted with Hill Cipher, but I don't understand how to find the determinant so it solves the equation $det * 1/det = 1 mod 26$. The determinant for my key matrix is ...
549 views

### Is it safe to use file's hash as IV?

I'm encrypting some files using AES in CBC mode. I'm also using file's digest (SHA-1) to check that data is decrypted correctly (so I need to store it with file). Is it safe to use this digest as ...
Say you have a picture with 1 megapixels taken at random and with $2^{24}$ possible colours per pixel (RGB-24). That image would be unique and the possible combinations $(2^{24})^{10^6}$ immense. ...