All Questions

86 views

Hypothetical encryption technique, is it secure?

This to me, sounds like a great idea, but with all rosy-tinted ideas it needs some grounding in reality. Here are the steps of the hypothetical system (with the hypothetical part highlighted): User ...
92 views

Is it worth hiding an AES encrypted text string in a PNG image for better security?

I need advice as to whether it is worth the extra "security" and processing of an AES encrypted text string to be hidden in a PNG image as opposed to an AES encrypted text string to be saved in a ...
39 views

X509 certificates: Two Algorithm Identifiers?

I'm wondering why there are two Algorithm Identifiers in a X509 certificate. One is in the "to be signed" part and the other one is at the end right before the actual signature. Are they used for the ...
3k views

What is a “freestart collision”?

In their work on SHA-1 collisions (cf. the currently unpublished paper “Freestart collision on full SHA-1” by Stevens, Karpman, and Peyrin) Stevens et al show that they are able to generate "freestart ...
47 views

For hardware encryptions, is it possible to know the key by analysing the hardware?

For example, Square reader uses hardware encryptions when swiping credit cards. Is it possible to know the key that is used by the hardware encryption cipher by analysing the hardware circuitries? ...
138 views

So I'm reading this question to learn more about length extension attack, and I want to make sure I understand the basics of padding. It says in the post that given the hash and the length of the ...
50 views

Hash functions vs. keyed hash functions in the context of private key generation

I'm designing a key distribution mechanism and have thought of using a securely generated/acquired private key as a seed for a sequence of private keys to be distributed to a number of users using a ...
110 views

Wanted: Simple ring signature example

I spent all day trying to figure ring signature schemes out but apparently I wasted time. I read the original ring signature paper (Rivest's How to leak a secret). I'm having numerous problems. Let's ...
32 views

For the scrypt HMAC storage format, why run the input of the hash and the hash itself into the HMAC

Generally if the body is hashed, why provide the body and the hash as input into the HMAC. Instead wouldn't the same security be achieved by hashing the body and providing only the hash as input into ...
34 views

Security of SRP-6a against impersonating server choosing small/wrong N

I'm looking at an implementation of SRP (Secure Remote Password) that essentially follows the Stanford documentation (http://srp.stanford.edu/design.html). I'm worried about one aspect though: In the ...
60 views

How to derive a key from an existing AES key?

Currently, the code I am staring at uses the CKM_EXTRACT_KEY_FROM_KEY mechanism. That has been disabled in our hardware module, so I need a different mechanism to ...
133 views

How to show something is not a one-way function?

Lets say that $f:\{0,1\}^* \to \{0,1\}^*$ is a strong one way function. Let $h(x)=f(x)||x_n$ where $x_n$ is the $n$th bit of $x$. I understand that $h$ will not be a strong one-way function. However, ...
56 views

Binary equation with encryption

I'm trying to test the ring signature scheme proposed by Rivest Shamir and Tauman in the famous paper "How to leak a secret". One of the step consist in 4) the signer solves the following ring ...
65 views

Profile Complexity LFSR

I try to understand how Complexity of an LSFR calculated. For example I have a bit sequence 110101 and it's profile 1 1 2 2 3 3. Is there any easy way in order to produce the profile?
52 views

MD5 SSL Collision Attack

I want to create fake certificate for test purposes. I have read about the http://marc-stevens.nl/p/hashclash/index.php project but I am unable to understand the two files that I have to put as input ...
49 views

special class of lattices in lattice based cryptography

A special case of lattices in lattice cryptography is that of q-ary lattices. A q-ary lattice L is defined as that in which any vector which consists of multiples of some scalar q is in ...
111 views

Are there MD5 collisions for inputs of different length?

There are many examples of MD5 collisions (some of them can be found here Are there two known strings which have the same MD5 hash value?). But as far as I know two inputs should have the same length ...
86 views

Is there a correct way to generate a symmetric key?

Looking in some cryptographic algorithms, I've realized that: The way the plain text is encrypted/decrypted is always specified, but what about the key? Every paper I've seen describing the algorithm ...
139 views

Best way to implement secure client/server communication in Python

For a college programming assignment I have to implement a secure communication protocol between a server and one or more clients. Upon instantiation of the server program, a file is generated, call ...
156 views

Is my protocol that uses hybrid cryptography and AES-GCM secure?

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to understand how to implement AES-GCM. My usecase: Person A sent me a file with a gauranteed unique name. I want to be assured it was from person A, and that no ...
110 views

How to find the value of a vector modulo a basis in lattice-based cryptography

In Gentry's paper on fully homomorphic encryption using ideal lattices, he finds the values of vectors modulo a certain basis. For instance: $\psi \leftarrow \psi' \mod B$ Taken from page 69 of ...
133 views

How have MD5 constants been determined?

For instance, the per round shift amounts, ...
37 views

ABE Attributes Based Encryption

I have a question . How the system know the attributes of the users to be after that as a public key in ABE?
114 views

SHA-256 “almost unique”?

I have seen numerous references on the internet of people describing SHA-256 as generating an "almost unique" hash. Exhibit A. there are more. Is there some mathematical basis to the almost ...
135 views

How to break a columnar transposition cipher?

I'm currently studying for a cryptography exam. I've been given ciphertext that has been encrypted by a columnar transposition cipher. I've been given no shift key length or key word, the only thing I ...
72 views

Probabalistic Polynomial-time Algorithms & One-way functions

I've been reading up on probabilistic polynomial-time algorithms and one-way functions, and I was hoping to get some guidance on the topic. A textbook I'm reading states the following for one of the ...
22 views

Prove that complement of plaintext and the key, then ciphertext will be the complement of orig. ciphertext [duplicate]

I'm trying to prove in general terms the following: y = DESk(x) then.. y' = DESk'(x') I can plug in random variables for ...
97 views

Weird base64-like (?) encoding [closed]

I have some encoded strings which are probably encoded in a base64-variant - except that there aren't only 64 chars, but all the (printable) ASCII chars between 33 and 126 (0x21 to 0x7E). I've ...
143 views

Calculating the average key search time of DES

I am trying to understand how to calculate the average key search time given a specific scenario: Suppose we have a program that uses standard DES with 56 key bits, and we can test 10^6 keys per ...
36 views

Indistinguishability through a chosen plaintext attack

I have a question about how to go about doing an IND-CPA style attack. I'm supposed to think of this as two black boxes, where I do not know which box contains which function. What would I do with the ...
18 views

Understanding CPA and CCA Secure [duplicate]

CPA attack means the attacker can send in his own plaintext to the oracle and receives some sort of ciphertext back. CCA attack means the attacker can send in his own ciphertext to the oracle and ...
58 views

Performance of Fully homomorphic encryption VS Paillier encryption in Practice

Consider two schemes both have computation complexity linear to the input size (i.e. number of inputs). One scheme is based on Paillier encryption and the other one is based on fully homomorphic ...
795 views

Generating unbiased numbers with a biased six sided die?

Eve takes a fair six-sided die and adds some heavy paint to the side of the die with the 6 on it. This results in a biased die that rolls a 6 with probability 2/7, and each other number (1-5) with ...
41 views

What does CA certs contains? public key of site or CA?

I believe it contains public key but whose? the site like a bank or the certificate authority who has signed?
105 views

Is it safe to initialize secret keys by just reading /dev/random on Linux?

For a software, I don't want the user to choose weak keys, so I plan to just read the needed number of bytes from /dev/random to create the needed secret keys. Is it safe to do so?
411 views

How does RSA compute such enormous numbers?

So I have been reading and learning a lot about cryptography lately and in particular asymmetric ciphers such as RSA. One thing that I am curious about but never seems to be mentioned is how the ...
158 views

RSA 1024 bit forge a new matching signature from a chosen message

I have an RSA signature scheme with 1024-bit key where I know the following: Public modulus $N$ Public exponent $e=3$ A lot of signatures Summary: To compute a signature, an MD5 hash is ...
627 views

Is it possible to apply hill-climbing algorithm to Diffie–Hellman?

If Eve intercepts all the values communicated between Alice and Bob in a Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and applies the hill-climbing algorithm to reverse the modulo function, how will the algorithm ...
25 views

Data in frequency modulated audio [closed]

I'd like to have a peek at the firmware of a piece of Hardware. Its firmware is available as a .wav file to be uploaded via audio jack. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6S_PcWWM1YlQnNwT2FSMnFzVE0 ...
28 views

Is a timing side channel attack effective when the leaked information is related to the result of a hash?

I'm writing a function to act as a cryptographic hash of a number within a range that returns another number of the same range. The catch is that the result needs to have certain properties. I run a ...
50 views

How can I prove I have a certain Facebook account by signature?

I would like to know how to prove I have certain Facebook account (or that I can login to that account).
20 views

Does the length of the keyword used for keytable for Playfair matter?

So for Playfair, we choose a keyword and put that in the keytable with no duplicates. Then, we fill the rest of the table with alphabets in order that are not in the keyword without 'J'. Does the ...
47 views

Is it safe to use MD5 in a proof of work system?

Here is the POW system: you are given a string and you need to compute a suffix so that first few bits of the MD5 value are all 0. I know MD5 is collision vulnerable, but is it safe to use MD5 here, ...
27 views

ephemeral-ephemeral ECDH and MITM attack [duplicate]

ephemeral-ephemeral ECDH is it susceptible to MITM attack ? if yes, can you please give me a detailed answer ( Workflow that can be followed by the attacker) and how we can prevent this attack ...
49 views

Byte size of Diffie-Hellman public values

I have a scenario that uses RFC-3526's Diffie-Hellman Group 14 for 2048 bit key exchanges. From the document, it specifies the P (prime) value in hexadecimal value as: ...
72 views

Perfect hash function

Is a perfect hash function always bijective ? In Wiki "In mathematical terms, it is a total injective function" but it does not mean, that it is bijective.
68 views

hash functions preimage and second collision resistance [duplicate]

A hash function H is secure in terms of pre-image resis-tance. Does this imply that H has second pre-image (aka weak collision) resistance?
59 views

Perfect Secrecy of AES file Encryption

Why does AES file encryption not ensure perfect secrecy? I understand that $\Pr[E(K,M_1)=C_1] = \Pr[E(K,M_2)=C_2]$ given $M1\neq M2$ holds for perfect secrecy of a scheme. However, this seems to hold ...
69 views

Problem with applying threshold scheme

For a report on threshold signature schemes, I have to explain a threshold signature scheme and give a simple example with numbers. A threshold signature scheme is a scheme in which a network of n ...
85 views

Bcrypt input length vs collisions

I am currently implementing oauth2 bearer token authentication and am storing the tokens bcrypt encrypted. My question is how long should the tokens be to achieve maximum security. E.g. at what length ...

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