# All Questions

1answer
163 views

### Is it possible take a piece of data in secret?

I want something like this, but in a digital sense: You and others walk into a room. Everyone knows who each of you are and everyone is doing their best to figure out what piece of paper each ...
1answer
2k views

### How many RSA keys before a collision?

I was wondering how many possible private/public keys exist? If a million people – for whatever reason – would try to generate 5 keys each in the same minute (on the same date and time) is there a ...
1answer
689 views

### Recovering the key in an ElGamal Signature Scheme variant

From page 318 in Stinson's "Cryptography: Theory and Practice", question 7.3: Suppose that Alice is using ElGamal Signature Scheme. In order to save time in generating >the random numbers k that ...
2answers
363 views

### Order of hashing concatenation

A = hash("blue" + X); B = hash("pink" + X); If A and the literals are known and X is unknown, are there attacks on B aside from the attacks on directly on hash()? ...
2answers
346 views

### How do I demonstrate that a PRNG not designed for cryptography is not suitable for generating passwords?

This is a replication of this question on Stack Overflow. There's class Random in .NET runtime which is designed for use as a cheap fast source of pseudo-random ...
1answer
257 views

### Public Key Encryption with forward secrecy

Is there a known non-trivial system with plausibly secure public key encryption where: 1. $\;\;$ the $\:$ time $\:$ function is efficiently computable 2. $\;\;$ [pubkey,privkey] $\:$ pairs are ...
1answer
211 views

### Do public/private pairs work both ways?

Public/private key algorithms such as RSA encrypt a message with a private key but only decrypted with another (mathematically related) key. Can the public key decrypt the messages encrypted with ...
2answers
8k views

### OTP from Sony BIOS password recover [closed]

From Dogbert's blog: Sony has a line of laptops ("Vaio") which compete mainly in the high value market segments. They implemented a master password bypass which is rather sane in comparison to the ...
2answers
277 views

### Is my HMAC secure if I have a complete series of HMAC'd prefix strings

Let's say I have a long sentence, like "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Let's further say that I need to keep this string encrypted, so I use an HMAC. Let's further further say I want ...
1answer
2k views

### Generating Random Primes

Although this has been extensively discussed around here, I'm curious whether my approach makes sense, or I should just stick to "the standard version". I'm implementing some homomorphic encryption ...
3answers
1k views

### Which attacks can be avoided by the use of OFB instead of ECB?

For a file encryption program, I was told to use Output Feedback mode (OFB) instead of ECB (Electronic code book) mode. Which attacks can I avoid by this choice?
2answers
411 views

### Complexity of ECB and OFB

What is the complexity of ECB in terms of Time and Memory? and also in OFB? I can't find it in the internet, so I decided to ask it in here.
4answers
1k views

### Creating an encryption key from several other keys and using hash functions

I want to combine two or more keys to create a single encryption key that relies on all of them. What is the proper method for doing that? Simple XOR? Using hash functions? Something else? I ...
2answers
2k views

### Can two different pairs of RSA key have the same modulus?

Can $n=pq$ be part of two different pairs of RSA keys? If such keys exist, say $(e_1,n)$ and $(e_2,n)$, how are they related? What will be the security concerns for the two users?
6answers
687 views

### Can I encrypt user input in a way I can't decrypt it for a certain period of time?

I run a baseball league and would like to do silent auctions for free agents. This would require teams to enter their highest bid and the highest bidder at the end of the auction period would win. ...
1answer
215 views

### One-way hash on encrypted data, result hidden from hasher

I'm looking for a one-way hash function that can be performed by A on an encrypted piece of data E(D) provided by B, without the performer A able to figure out D or H(D). This similar to HMAC(Message, ...
2answers
728 views

### Practical necessity of semantic security under chosen plain text attack (CPA) in CBC mode

I was not able to understand why we practically need a CPA security in Cipher Block Chaining. (which insist on having a random IV), let say if the encryption is not CPA secure i.e , the adversary can ...
1answer
307 views

### Has there been any cryptanalysis of RC4-52?

Several websites ( such as Is there a secure cryptosystem that can be performed mentally? ) briefly mention RC4-52 as a modification of standard RC4. RC4-52 has only with 52 instead of 256 elements ...
1answer
164 views

### Digital signature for an expiring password

I would like to create a publicly available tool that is used to generate a password that gives a limited time access to a resource. My idea is to digitally sign the current date with a private key ...
1answer
784 views

### A fair peer-based coin-flipping protocol?

I found this question on the game programming site and was intrigued. I came up with an answer off the top of my head but I'm no cryptanalyst so it is probably not water-tight. This is how my idea ...
3answers
358 views

### Comparison: complexity measures vs. security

Assume that you want to compare several cryptographic primitives (say, encryption schemes), and choose one. You need to consider several complexity measures, such as the key length, encryption time, ...
1answer
639 views

### Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm Secret Key

just a follow up question with this question.. How does the key schedule of Rijndael looks for keysizes other than 128 bit? A 256-bit key can still encrypt a block of plaintext in 128 bit? but in ...
1answer
878 views

### How does Output Feedback mode use the initialization vector?

How can I process Initialization Vector inside the Block Cipher Encryption box (using for example AES) together with the Key? Will I encrypt the Initialization Vector like a block of plaintext? So ...
3answers
3k views

### How does the key schedule of Rijndael looks for keysizes other than 128 bit?

It said in Wikipedia that: [....] Rijndael can be specified with block and key sizes in any multiple of 32 bits, with a minimum of 128 bits. The blocksize has a maximum of 256 bits, but the ...
1answer
717 views

### Elliptic curves for ECDSA

I'm trying to implement parameters generation for ECDSA according to SEC1 v2.0: ...
1answer
382 views

### How was the complexity of the Biclique Attack calculated?

The abstract of the Biclique Attack paper claims: The first key recovery attack on the full AES-128 with computational complexity $2^{126.1}$. What does $2^{126.1}$ mean in this context? And ...
1answer
6k views

### How strong is the ECDSA algorithm?

Some cryptographic algorithms are as strong as the size of their key is, while other have some weaknesses that limit their strength (such as SHA-1). How strong is the ECDSA algorithm, and does that ...
2answers
6k views

### Cipher Feedback Mode

I can't understand what CFB really is. It said in Wikipedia that CFB is same as CBC, but I find that CFB is more difficult than CBC. Can someone explain to me how CFB works. Such as how ...
3answers
3k views

### Why hash or salt when signing? [duplicate]

I've seen an example of how to sign using RSA. Besides the signing itself (s = m^d mod n) it also hashes and adds an IV. Why is that needed?
1answer
858 views

### Are there any MGF1 and OS2IP functions available in C?

I need MGF1 and OS2IP functions, as defined in the PKCS #1 v2.1: RSA Cryptography Standard. Is there anything available in OpenSSL, or any other open C library?
1answer
560 views

### CBC key lifetime, or, “how big is too big?”

IPSec recommends rekeying SA's figuring in both time and amount of data sent. Even when using AES-256 in CBC mode, the key and IV commonly get re-negotiated after 100MB. My case isn't using IPSec, ...
1answer
1k views

### Duration for attacking Two-Key Triple-DES Encryption using all RAM ever built?

I am considering attacks on Two-Key Triple-DES Encryption assuming $2^{32}$ known plaintext/ciphertext pairs (that's a mere 32MiB of ciphertext) by the method devised by Paul C. van Oorschot and ...
1answer
917 views

### In which situations is a length-extension attack a problem?

A lot of hash functions, including the SHA-2 family(but not the SHA-3 candidates and SHA256d) are vulnerable to length extension attacks. But when is this property a problem? I guess certain naive ...
2answers
205 views

### Is a random length-extension worth the effort?

I'm conceiving an application that uses cryptographic tools and concepts for securing data. I know that's difficult and risky, therefore I prefer to ask around before implementing anything. When ...
1answer
903 views

### Can you help me understand the Common Modulus Attack in a Lucas Group?

I'm trying to decrypt a message that is encrypted using a LUC encryption scheme and running into roadblocks. I know that with RSA if Alice and Bob use the same public modulus but different encryption ...
1answer
1k views

### How to sign a message using RSA?

Assuming I already have a D, P, Q, etc of an RSA key: How do I now sign a message? If it matters – the message is around 100 bits. I don't know much about cryptography, but I can get these numbers ...
2answers
802 views

### Questions about Key Derivation Functions

My understanding is that a KDF is a function that takes a master secret and generates multiple keys. It is secure as long as the keys are "independent". If this is true, the following definition would ...
0answers
812 views

### Elliptic curve cryptography related key attacks

This question is an extension of Families of public/private keys in elliptic curve cryptography As described above, bitcoin "type 2" deterministic wallets use a root private/public key pair, where ...
0answers
61 views

### cipher text only attack - how to know when to stop when brute-force attack? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How can I do a brute force (ciphertext only) attack on an CBC-encrypted message? My question is about a cipher text only attack - I have as input only the initialization ...
3answers
236 views

### Are asymptotic lower bounds relevant to cryptography?

An asymptotic lower bound such as exponential-hardness is generally thought to imply that a problem is "inherently difficult". Encryption that is "inherently difficult" to break is thought to be ...
1answer
202 views

### Question about hash collisions

If we have a hash function $h(x)$ and then a hash function $H(X) = h(h(X_0) || h(X_1))$ where $X_0$ is the first half of $X$, $X_1$ is the second half of $X$ and $||$ is concatenation. Then assuming ...
1answer
426 views

### Existing dictionaries of popular words to help solve a random substitution cipher?

I'm trying to find faster ways to solve this: http://cryptogram.org/solve_cipher.html Actually lists of common words are good, but they are often limited to 1000 words. I found this, but I'm not ...
1answer
239 views

### Elgamal test vectors

I know that Elgamal algorithms have fallen out of fashion, and they are not included in any widespread cryptographic standard nowadays. However, they are still present in several popular crypto ...
2answers
842 views

### Which blind signature schemes exist, and how do they compare?

I'm looking into blind signature schemes for use as digital cash. I have come across blinded RSA, and Lucre(DH based). Are there other schemes available, and how do they compare? I suspect there ...
2answers
3k views

### How to perform file encryption using 128-Bit AES?

I am confused, how can I encrypt a file using 128 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard? Do I need only to encrypt the file name and it's content or is there something that I need to do to encrypt it? Is ...
3answers
2k views

### How secure is the Vigenère cipher in file encryption if you encrypt the password first?

I created a basic file encryption method, that seems pretty secure to me (based on an answer below, it seems to be an implementation of the Vigenère cipher) , but one of my colleagues claims that it ...
1answer
576 views

### Does the Biclique attack on AES pose a credible risk to its security?

I have heard a lot about the biclique cryptanalysis research on AES, which as far as I know is the closest anyone has got to breaking AES. Exactly how close did they get? Does this attack propose a ...
1answer
9k views

### How to use RCON In Key Expansion of 128 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard

I have a question about RCON here is my illustration... this is the 128 bit key.. ...
1answer
814 views

### Is this authenticated one-way communication protocol secure?

I am looking to see if this one-way communication protocol is secure. Assume Alice wants to send Bob a message (and doesn't need Bob to reply in the same session/channel - think email). Bob knows ...
2answers
721 views

### Finding the LFSR and connection polynomial for binary sequence. [closed]

I have written a C implementation of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm to work on finite fields of size any prime. It works on most input, except for the following binary GF(2) sequence: $0110010101101$ ...

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