All Questions

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Can a “pattern” in a series of passwords be detected from their hashes (and maybe a single raw password)?

Let's say I'm a lazy user of a system with annoyingly frequent password change policies. I may have a "good" password I used initially that is only used for this system but since I have to change it ...
519 views

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. ...
319 views

Relation between Threshold Cryptosystem and Secure Multiparty Computation ?

Is there any relation between secure multiparty computation and threshold cryptosystem ?
2k views

Is this a secure implementation of password reset email?

I am redesigning a password reset email mechanism because the existing implementation scares the hell out of me. My goal is to generate reset codes that are: Expired Tamper Resistant Single Use ...
444 views

Is truncating a hashed private key with SHA-1 safe to use as the symmetric key for AES for data at rest?

I realize this is mixing the purposes between asymmetric and symmetric crypto, but I was wondering if it is safe to use a hashed, truncated private key (asymmetric) as the symmetric key for encrypting ...
295 views

How to properly format a PGP Message Block?

As sort of a follow up to my (currently) unanswered question, if it is correct, how do i properly calculate and format the packet that actually stores the data being encrypted? I thought I knew what I ...
486 views

Is there difference between Algebraic Homomorphic Encryption and Fully Homomorphic Encryption Schemes?

Is there difference between Algebraic Homomorphic Encryption and Fully Homomorphic Encryption Schemes?
346 views

Is there any recent cryptographic algorithm especially designed for low-level processors?

Most modern algorithms require relatively large amount of resources. Is there any recent (and freely usable) encryption/decryption algorithm which is specially designed for low-level microcontrollers ...
1k views

How to hack the new save encryption on ipad for uplink? [closed]

The new iPad version of Uplink appears to be using some newer saving mechanic than the PC/Mac version. Macs and PCs use the REDSHIRT format, but the iPad appears to instead be using ...
948 views

How to securely use Elgamal encryption in libgcrypt?

How secure is libgcrypt's Elgamal implementation of encryption (how different it is from textbook Elgamal), and how can I tweak padding and other preprocessing actions? For example, I know that usign ...
2k views

Why should the RSA private exponent have the same size as the modulus?

Consider the generation of an RSA key pair with a given modulus size $n$ and a known, small public exponent $e$ (typically $e = 3$ or $e = 65537$). A common method is to generate two random primes ...
22k views

I would like to know how to extract contents of the password protected WinRar file without the password. I have downloaded that WinRar file from a file hosting website and found out that it was ...
253 views

Are there any papers explaining how to port textbook RSA to realworld RSA?

Are there any papers, books, or link where it explains how the plain vanilla "textbook RSA" is actually implemented in practice with all the padding and stuff? Basically, I would like to know the ...
533 views

What kind of multiparty computation is this?

The classic multiparty computation protocols are defined around " Untrusted parties trying to compute something together". But is there a cryptographic abstraction for, "Trusted parties trying to ...
2k views

Using same keypair for Diffie-Hellman and signing

Are there any security risks using a single key-pair for both key-exchange and signing? I'm mainly interested in using Curve25519 for key-exchange and Ed25519 for signing. But similar combinations, ...
482 views

Other than brute force, are there any attacks on Threefish-512 using only a single known plaintext block?

As per title, other than brute force, are there any attacks on Threefish-512 using only a single plaintext block? Are there any attacks like this in any other cipher?
607 views

PRNG taking advantage of very large seed

Can anyone suggest a good (CS)PRNG algorithm that takes advantage of having a very large (ideally arbitrarily large) seed? I'd like to use several kilobytes, perhaps several hundred kilobytes, of ...
824 views

Is bcrypt better than GnupPG's iterated+salted hashing method?

GnuPG has slow hash built-in in form of iterated+salted S2K. Does it have disadvantages in comparance with bcrypt or scrypt? Is GnuPG's slow hash method easily automated in GPUs?
3k views

Is MAC better than digital signature?

MACs differ from digital signatures in the sense that MAC values are both generated and verified using a shares secret key. Does this in any way put MAC on a disadvantage as compared to digital ...
316 views

Conforming Randomness To An Alphabet

Imagine that we're trying to create a function to generate a random string conforming to a user-supplied alphabet. That way, users can generate random strings with given characters. Something like: ...
1k views

Using “Additional Authenticated Data” as a secondary key

In implementing a cipher in GCM or CCM mode, you are provided the option to add "Additional Authenticated Data" (AAD). This AAD is required for decrypting the cipher text, and seems to be used when ...
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 ...
840 views

Is this a correctly formatted PGP session key packet?

RFC 4880 may be full of information, but it can be incredibly vague at times, so im looking for someone who actually knows the answer to this. Given this public key: ...
2k views

S-box design criteria and random sboxes

What are the disadvantages of using random s-boxes? In AES, the s-boxes had to obey certain mathematical rules, which? And why? What security does using hidden s-boxes (GOST) or generating them from ...
557 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. ...
1k views

AES-CMAC passes every test except two

i wrote this code: ...
255 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

Different implementations of SHA1, which one is correct?

I have noticed that different implementations of SHA1 give different results. As I'm currently programming my own SHA1 implementation (in MATLAB / GNU Octave), I wonder which one should I follow? ...
942 views

2k views

Which of these 3 AES 128 symmetric encrypt/decrypt routines is most secure?

I am developing a symmetric en-/decryption routine written in c# for a database containing user-specific, sensitive information. I have narrowed down the implementation to 3 different approaches, ...
453 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 ...
135 views

KDF with low-entropy salts

I need to derive a key from a username and a password. These are the only two things I have access to. What I thought is using PBKDF2 with username as the salt and password as the master password. ...
540 views

Entropy of system data - use all and hash, or trim least significant bits?

I'm working on a background entropy collector for key generation that monitors hardware and produces an entropy pool. Here's my list of sources: Mouse position Keyboard timings (i.e. time between ...
831 views

Can we trust digital signatures?

Consider that Alice wants to send a digitally signed message to Bob. Mallory might be able to publish his public key under Alice's name and then impersonate Alice to send a message with an apparently ...
163 views

Format of NONCE in Initialization Vector (IV)

When we talk about a Number used ONCE (NONCE) in Initialization Vector (IV), is it required to use numbers only? Is is possible to use letters or special characters?
413 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 ...
502 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 ...
624 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 ...
202 views

Do Quantum Key Distribution and Physical Unclonable Functions combine, and how?

I see there's a project to combine Quantum Key Distribution, Physical Unclonable Functions, and classical crypto, in order to secure a high speed (100Gb/s) optical link. While there does not seem to ...
227 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 ...
362 views

Is SSL getting faster because it's getting less secure?

There has been some discussion about it being more practical to use SSL due to advances in hardware. From my understanding, stronger public-key encryption means that both encrypting/decrypting and ...