# All Questions

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### RSA function over $Z_t^{*}$ where $t$ is prime

RSA function is defined over $Z_N^{*}$ where $N=pq$ with $p,q$ primes. A public key is a pair $(N,e)$ and a private key is $(N,d)$ where $d=e^{-1} \mod \phi(N)$. Assume that RSA function is defined ...
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### ElGamal scheme attack when one message is known and ciphertexts are intercepted

Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group of order $p$ and let $pk = (g, h=g^a)$ and $sk=(g,a)$ be Bob's ElGamal public/secret key pair in $G$. To encrypt a message $m$, a random number $r$ is selected and a ...
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### What happens if no final subtraction is done in Montgomery multiplication?

I'm doing Montgomery arithmetic modulo $N = 2^{255}-19$ for the Curve25519, picking $R = 2^{256}$ for Montgomery. After multiplying two numbers $0 <= A,B < N$ in the Montgomery representation ...
95 views

### Double the key in block cipher - which approach is better?

Assume than you have a block cipher $E(k,m)$ for which the only attack exists has complexity of $2^{64}$. You consider to double the key size by either: $E'_1(k_1,k_2) := k_1 \oplus E(k_2,m)$ ...
185 views

### TLS encryption with a self-signed PKI and Python’s asyncio module

I want to enable TLS encryption with a custom / self-signed PKI for a self-contained distributed system built with Python 3’s asyncio. I’ve read Python’s ssl docs as well as several tutorials: ...
134 views

If I have an original file and a WinRAR password protected .rar file containing that file, than can I extract the password?
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### Forgery attack on OCB

When using same nonce in OCB mode of authenticated encryption, how forgery attack can be done?
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### Establish authentication

I have designed a basic authentication scheme where two nodes will mutually authenticate that other holds a shared secret. I have very limited RAM/ROM (its on uC) and bandwidth. Here it goes: ...
104 views

### HMAC-SHA1( secret key ) with header of a transmitted file

Given: an AES-128 secret key (ASecKey) encrypts a file (CBC mode). (Assume good random) Is is insecure to append (include) an HMAC-SHA1 of ASecKey to file? Purpose: The receiver can then quickly ...
201 views

### What is a “lattice” in cryptography?

There are some questions here concerning lattice-based cryptography and this kind of cryptography seems to be especially useful if quantum computers are assumed to exist. When reading such questions ...
53 views

### Security of MSS

I have started reading about the Merkle Signature Scheme. I am a little confused about why it is believed to be secure against quantum attacks, couldn't the hash function be attacked? What would make ...
63 views

### Block Ciphers - Standardize plain text

I need to use AES-128 to encrypt a plain text about 720 bits. Is it correct to say that – in this case – the plain text will be divided in 5 blocks of 128, the result will be equal 640 bits, and the ...
87 views

### Can I use HKDF to improve security of HMAC used with weak hash function?

I am writing a framework which encrypts/decrypts files (or streams, in general) with symmetric key using block cipher (for example, AES). To authenticate encrypted file, I use HMAC, which is ...
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### RSA Signature Forgery

We all know that x509 certificates carry a signature that represents the certificate digest encrypted by the private key of the issuer. I believe that the digest is encrypted only providing one ...
79 views

### Logjam-style attack on Factoring?

We're all aware of the Logjam attack, which is known as "FREAK on discrete logarithms". The attack works by doing a large pre-computation step, which needs only to be done once per field and then ...
43 views

### Getting the encryption/has algorithm used for modem configuration file [closed]

Hello guys I have backed up my modem configuration file and found the username and password is in clear text; the files shows the username and the password is : ...
112 views

### Do all attacks against PKCS1 v1.5 encryption require an oracle

As far as I know, all attacks against RSA PKCS1 v1.5 require an oracle; is that true? Or are there any other attacks against it which are able to break it without an oracle? Background: I need to ...
29 views

### HMAC for encrypted authentication token: recommended iteration number [duplicate]

In the web application I use 10,000+ iterations for hashing passwords stored in database (random salt and all). Password-related operations are not frequent enough to create a noticeable performance ...
108 views

### How can a lattice attack be applied to ECDSA signatures?

The aim is to check if it is possible to break the ECDSA cryptosystem under the following criteria. Suppose that each ECDSA signature is generated by using the GLV method for point multiplication ...
127 views

### Derive cipher IV and cipher Key using PBKDF2 with random salt?

It is said that cipher IV does not have to be secret and the only secret component of the encryption scheme should be a cipher key. Question: is it safe to generate IV using PBKDF2 function, which ...
163 views

### Establishing encryption key using shared secret

I need to establish some security on a network of 8 bit microcontrollers. very limited RAM, CPU and packet sizes. I have zeroed in on a shared secret based scheme. Setting up shared secret is out of ...
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### El-Gamal and Lines on Planes

I've been thinking about a geometric picture for El-Gamal. The idea is to understand the set $\{(my^{x},g^x) \mid x \in Z_p\}$ (the set of encryption of $m$ for fixed $g$ and $y$) by taking the ...
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### Is algorithm with more than $2^{word size}$ words secure? [closed]

Let's say we have a feistel cipher or feistel pseudo-random permutation with 8-bit function (S-box) similar to Treyfer, but with much bigger block size like 16MB. Here is example of such pseudo-random ...
151 views

### Why is the public/private key length used in libsodium so much shorter than needed for RSA [duplicate]

Reading the libsodium source I see that is uses a key length of 32 bytes (256 bit) for private/public key encryption. For RSA private/public key encryption a key length of 2048 (or 4095) bit is ...
449 views

### Dan Boneh's Cryptography lecture - problem with 802.11b

I am going through Dan Boneh's Cyprography lectures on Coursera. In Lecture 6 https://class.coursera.org/crypto-010/lecture/6 At 7:30 minutes, he discusses the problems with 802.11b design. I ...
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### AES and Homomorphic Encryption

Is it possible to do the following? Input would be to generate a new AES key, encrypt the private data with that key, encrypt the AES key with the FHE key, and send the FHE-encrypted AES key along ...
1k views

### Why is HMAC-SHA1 still considered secure?

This Q & A http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/33123/hotp-with-as-hmac-hashing-algoritme-a-hash-from-the-sha-2-family says that the security of HMAC-SHA1 does not depend on resistance to ...
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### Why in Android kernel CSPRNG state is saved?

I am reading about the security internals of Android. In the book Android Security Internals, in chapter on Cryptographic Providers, there is a para stating: On Android, CSPRNG implementations are ...
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### Type of values that can be accumulated in bilinear map (multiplicative) accumulator reg.

Is there any restriction that the members to be accumulated in bilinear map (multiplicative) accumulator need to be relatively prime to P? Where P is the order of group.
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### If you have a file and XOR every bit with a random bit, can you extract any information?

Say you have a file that is not random, and you XOR every bit with a random bit (not pseudo, but really random). Can someone who sees only the result extract any information from it? Obviously, it ...
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### NTRU less secure than previously thought?

A new paper (https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/552.pdf) says: This makes it possible to asymptotically and heuristically break the NTRU cryptosystem in subexponential time (without contradicting its ...
569 views

### Why does an algorithm need a keyspace?

Why does an algorithm need a keyspace? I thought the person encrypting would define his/her own key.
223 views

### Discrete Logarithm (512 bits numbers) - Find exponent parameter

I'm trying to resolve a discrete logarithm equation: $$y = g^x \bmod p$$ Every parameter is a 512-bit number. I know the values for $g$, $y$ and $p$ and I need to find the $x$ value. Finally, I know ...
105 views

### cipher text only attacks on deterministic homomorphic encryption schemes

If we consider a set of numbers say a set $s=\{a,b,c,d\}$ , where $a,b,c,d>1$ and the numbers $a, b, c, d$ do not share any relation between them , i.e. for any two numbers, $n_1,n_2\in s$ the ...
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### Why is the re-encryption algorithm in Universal Re-encryption for Mixnets more complicated than apparently necessary?

This is the paper. On page 6, the paper describes a variant of El Gamal and a way of re-encrypting ciphertexts. I thought an easier way to do encryption is to output $(m(g^x)^y,g^y)$, and universal ...
100 views

### what are the most common stream ciphers algorithms? [closed]

say that we have an unknown stream cipher which output bytes and which have more than 10 years of existence. What can be the most probable algorithms if we consider the most 'populars' stream cipher ...
70 views

### On Proving That a Primitive Does Not Exist

In the paper of Hsiao and Reyzin, Section $1.4$: Note that to show that no general reduction from $P$ to $Q$ exists requires proving that $Q$ does not exist Since the statement is about trying ...
106 views

### Generating PGP key *without* random generator? (using fixed input only)

I understand why in general, a strong random generator or source of entropy is used when generating PGP keys. However, I have a use case where I want to generate PGP keys deterministically, i.e. ...
85 views

### What is the danger if a non-prime is chosen for RSA? [duplicate]

I was reading this question about generating primes for RSA keys. The answers point out that most implementations of of the algorithm use probabilistic prime-ness checking algorithms. The answer by ...
102 views

### How is wpa2 authentication structured

I would like to understand the cryptography behind Wpa2. As far as I know, there are 4 messages on the 4-way handshake and three of them are values concatenated with hashes. First, I am trying to ...
254 views

### Attack for RSA 1024 bit with Low Public Exponent

I am facing a challenge at university. Our teacher give us the challenge to try to break an RSA 1024 bit. We have public modulus N and public exponent e (0x03), we don't know the padding. We have a ...
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### Implementing AES MixColumns with fewest XOR gates

I'm playing with Contiki (O.S. for constrained devices such as sensors and micro-controllers) and particularly with the AES encryption in software (the one available in Contiki source code). I'm ...
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### Side channel attack on FPGA AES engine

I actually don't know if this is the right place where ask, but I try. The side channel attacks aren't a negligible problem. There are several ways to protect from these attacks its own IP inside the ...
696 views

### Which symmetric cipher is best for studying? [closed]

I would like to study a modern symmetric cipher (I have never studied a cipher before) and I was wondering which would be the best cipher for studying purposes of the following: AES (Rijndael), ...
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### How to determine the exponent when using RSA

Can someone please explain to me how, when using RSA, to determine the exponent to be used in encryption and decryption? I have attempted a worked example on using RSA (shown below) but I can't ever ...
58 views

### Frequency tables for HTML page source

Are there online resources with an ASCII character frequency table for HTML? There's tons of them for english, but I can't seem to find one for page source. I know that this is something that's ...
60 views

### What is more efficient, pairing based cryptography or non pairing based cryptography? [closed]

As far as I know non pairing pairing based cryptography is less time consuming than pairing based because, pairing based uses complex operations. Are there any advantages of pairing based cryptography ...
42 views

### SSH rekey security implications

When an SSH session is rekeyed due to either the time limit or data limit for rekeying having passed, does the Diffie-Hellman exchange take place within the encrypted channel provided by the existing ...
There have been several attacks against hash functions such as $h_{sha1}$ and $h_{md5}$. Professor A suggests a new function $h_{666}$ with an output length of 666 bits. Professor B suggests ...
The following encryption scheme encrypts each block of length $n$ of the plaintext separately: $c_i = k_1 \oplus F(k_2 \oplus p_i)$ Where $F$ is a strong pseudo-random permutation (i.e. it is easy ...