# All Questions

488 views

### What is the strength of unpadded RSA?

I would like to use unpadded RSA for homomorphic encryption in a toy P2P game, for things like fair coin flips and shuffling. How many bits of security does unpadded RSA have, in relation to its key ...
602 views

### How to avoid a chicken and egg scenario with encrypting passwords?

I am working on application that allows users to upload files containing company data and then share those files with a list of other users that have specific roles within the system. I want to ...
491 views

### How does one provide a secure and authentic communication channel?

Let assume two participants Alice and Bob who perform a given protocol which is a sequence of messages exchange between them. My question is: How can I provide a secure and authentic communication ...
820 views

### is this RSA private key valid?

is this RSA private key valid? First, here's the RSA private key in question: ...
419 views

### Exact mathematical definition of simulation based security?

I've been trying to understand cryptographic protocols and how to define their security. The problem is that while I can understand what the intuitive definition says, I have trouble understanding how ...
861 views

### How to test distribution of a hash function?

From what I've found, it is generally accepted a cryptographic hash function like SHA-2 has an evenly, randomly distributed output. Is there a way to test this without running through the entire ...
123 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
488 views

### Several questions about Paillier cryptosystem

I have several questions concerning the original Paillier cryptosystem as described in Paillier, Pascal (1999). "Public-Key Cryptosystems Based on Composite Degree Residuosity Classes". EUROCRYPT. ...
150 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 ...
344 views

### Blowfish Encryptions in Bcrypt hashing algorithm

I am trying to understand the ExpandKey function used in the bcrypt hashing algorithm. As per the documentation of bcrypt hashing algorithm on USENIX here: ...
390 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 ...
4k 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 ...
301 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 ...
4k 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 ...
828 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

### 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 ...
95 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 ...
126 views

### Is the mod_auth_tkt scheme secure?

The third-party Apache plugin mod_auth_tkt uses a tragically-not-HMAC construction: ...
416 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 ...
959 views

### How to implement order preserving encryption or order preserving hashing [closed]

Does anybody know any free implementation of either order preserving encryption or order preserving hashing? I've found some codes like CMPH but I need to dynamically add new DATA and that's why most ...
409 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 ...
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 ...
218 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 ...
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). ...
972 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 $p$ ...
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 ...
3k views

### How do ciphers change plaintext into numeric digits for computing?

For example, in RSA, we use this for encryption: $ciphertext = (m^e \mod n)$ and for decryption. If our message is "hello world", then what number do we have to ...
187 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 ...
444 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 ...
315 views

### How to encrypt data and know it will be secure for at least a few decades?

I want to encrypt a small amount (few kilobytes) of data and be fairly confident it will be secure against brute force decryption and advances in cryptanalysis for at least a a few decades (or more). ...
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 ...
324 views

### Security considerations for partially shared password databases

Programs like KeyPass and 1Password store password database files encrypted by a single password. If someone knows the protecting password ("Vault Key"), they can read the entire database ("secrets"). ...
2k views

### Security of simple xor and s-box cipher?

What weaknesses (or strengths) do block ciphers based on only key xor and s-box have when operating in CBC mode? A cipher's internal primitive might be a simple as this: $C = S[M \oplus k]$, where ...
635 views

### Are picture files “random enough” to be usable as a one-time pad?

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. ...
12k views

### What is the effect of the different AES key lengths?

How does a changing key length affects the ciphertext, not only in case of AES, but in general? I know that the key spaces become much larger and the number of rounds in case of AES changes, but is ...
427 views

### Is this a good way to encrypt a file?

I need to encrypt a file, distribute it over an insecure channel, and decrypt it later. Using a symmetric-key algorithm. Here's what I intend to do: Get a password P from the user. Generate a 16-byte ...
571 views

### What is the harm if I publish an encrypted RSA private key publicly?

What is the harm if I publish an encrypted RSA private key publicly? Or in this case, what is the harm if I publish many thousands or millions of them? Assuming that the private key is encrypted ...
85 views

### find solutions that solve the equations

I am implementing a timing attack on RSA for school and I need to generate two sets of messages $Y$ and $Z$ for which holds: $(Y^d \mod N) \cdot Y < N$ and $(Z^d \mod N) \cdot Z > N$ where ...
367 views

### Stretching passwords for encrypting small files

I would like to know how to store a sensitive file; a credential of sorts. I want to password-protect it, obviously. It would be appropriate - in my application - to prompt the user for the password ...
164 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 ...
744 views

### Why is the salt used only once in PBKDF2, while the password is used often?

The purpose of PBKDF2 is to create a derived key (DK) from a master password (PW) and a salt, often using a function like HMAC-SHA256. I have read that the salt should be as random as possible. But ...
847 views

### Signature and Timestamp for Long Term Document Archival Question

I have a PDF document intended for long-term (many years, maybe decades) archival which I would like to digitally sign with my personal certificate to ensure its integrity. As far as I understand, I ...
236 views

### Randomized stream cipher using multivariant quadratic equations

This is an idea I had for cipher that I thought might reduce to a known hard problem. It is efficient (compared to something like BBS) in terms of time but not in terms of space. Here's the ...
6k views

### Can one generalize the Diffie-Hellman key exchange to three or more parties?

Does anyone know how to do a Diffie-Hellman or ECDH key exchange with more than two parties? I know how to do a key exchange between 2 parties, but I need to be able to have a key agreement between 3 ...
149 views

### Timestamping services authorities, utilizing Linked, hybrid and other than PKI schemes

What are well respected Cryptographic Timestamping authorities utilizing more sophisticated than just PKI (RFC 3161) schemes, like Linked, Linked and signed, distributed hash trees (maybe P2P?), ...
241 views

### Is TOTP or a timestamp encryption a better timestamp-based authentication token system?

Are there advantages to using TOTP over encrypting a timestamp with a shared secret, in cases where the readability or ease of typing the token are not important?