# All Questions

0answers
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### LogSpace Merkle Traversal

I am studying LogSpace Merkle Tree Traversal algorithm in "Post Quantum Cryptography". I don't understand the Table 1 on page 58. My question is: Why within of the $2^h$ rounds for $NEED_h$ exist ...
1answer
105 views

### Security of cloud computational protocols in UC Framework?

The universal composability allows one to the analyze security of cryptographic protocols . But it does have some gaps when it comes to analyzing few protocols especially two party cases when there is ...
2answers
184 views

### Using IV buffer after altered inside a Rijndael CBC Encryption/Decryption process as IV for next message?

When sending a block to be decrypted or encrypted, with RijndaelCBC, we input the data to decrypt/encrypt and an IV for syncing and to prevent identical outputs for identical inputs. This question is ...
1answer
112 views

### Proof of correctness of a homomorphic ElGamal sum

Let's suppose we are using the exponential ElGamal as a public-key encryption scheme, so that we encrypt $g^m$ instead of $m$, for some generator $g$. Let $x$ be the private key, and $h=g^x$ be the ...
3answers
195 views

### AES CTR with similar IVs and same key

Lets say there is a piece of software that uses AES CTR to encrypt different messages using the same key but with slightly different IVs So for example, a 16 byte IV, the 2nd 8 bytes are always the ...
1answer
117 views

### Hamming Distance vs. Index of Coincidence

When analyzing a repeating-key xor cipher to find the key length, I've read about two key methods (assuming there aren't just repeating chunks of ciphertext for Kasiski's method), for some assumed key ...
1answer
247 views

### HMAC-SHA1 input size

I know that the HMAC is a message authentication code that uses a cryptographic key in conjunction with a hash function (SHA1 , MD5, etc.). The HMAC output is 160 bits for HMAC-SHA160 and 256 bits for ...
2answers
138 views

### Can you really insert the text you want in one-time pad?

The Wikipedia article "One-time pad ~ Authentication" says : For example, an attacker who knows that the message contains "meet jane and me tomorrow at three thirty pm" at a particular point can ...
2answers
161 views

### Multiple iterations of AES for key derivation?

The keepass password manager uses multiple rounds of AES for its key derivation, as described here. I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't using pbkdf2, bcrypt, or something more common. ...
2answers
194 views

### Finite fields and ECC

I understand modular arithmetic(or at least I think I do!) and I've tried to read and learn about how the Math in RSA works(and I think it went pretty well). I've been reading up on ECC and it looks ...
0answers
111 views

### How secure is this use of Ziv-Lempel encoding?

I'm reading patent application US 20120278897 A1 — “System and method of sort-order preserving tokenization”. Near the bottom they describe their token generation algorithm, which basically involves ...
0answers
38 views

### How does a cracker know if they've broken AES-CBC encryption? [duplicate]

How does a cracker know if they've broken CBC or stream encryption? With hashe cracking one would know because you have the password that you started with to test. But for CBC decryption, you have a ...
2answers
169 views

### Is there a cryptographic function or system in which it becomes HARDER to break as time passes?

Is there a function or system which is time depending in which the effort required to brute force the decryption increases with time? It is easy to break encryption from many years ago because ...
1answer
388 views

### Why restricting SHA3 to have only two possible capacities?

I just read the presentation slides of John M. Kesley (from NIST) for his invited talk at CHES 2013 about SHA-3 and learned that NIST is going to standardize Keccak with a possibly modified padding ...
1answer
631 views

### Diffie-Hellman: choosing wrong generator “g” parameter and its implications of practical attacks

In traditional DH one chooses two shared parameters: a large prime "p" and base "g", which is primitive root mod "p". Suppose generation algorithm is broken and "g" generates only a subgroup (group ...
1answer
111 views

### RC4 system pitfalls

A system fell into my neck, where lots of files are splitted into several segments and encoded via RC4. RC4, because client side - slow computer, slow flash arithmetic ops - can only decode big blobs ...
1answer
99 views

### Authentication protocols for authenticating devices to a server

The requirement is to authenticate 1000s of devices to a server when the devices try to contact the server. The problem I face is that all authentication protocols require some kind of shared secret ...
1answer
149 views

### Why no swapping block in the last round of DES?

Round 16 on the encryption side, and round 16 on the decryption side of DES have no swapping module. Why is it like this? Can anyone provide any justification? This is my homework question.
3answers
245 views

### Should I delete cryptographic data from memory?

When dealing with cryptographic data, is there a chance that attacker recovers portion of data I used in my program? Should I try to delete every bit of keys and encrypted data that I used, overwrite ...
3answers
230 views

### Perfect zero knowledge for the Schnorr protocol?

Can somebody explain (or point to a reference) why the Schnorr protocol cannot be proved zero knowledge?
1answer
95 views

### Do any (non-hardware) RNGs exist which could be used to create an OTP for crypto purposes?

I've stumbled (jobwise) over a system where small messages (512 Bytes or less) are encrypted and decrypted using a simple XOR using a OTP. That OTP is created using a seed based on the individual user ...
1answer
841 views

### ElGamal with elliptic curves

I've searched some information on ECC, but so far I have only found Diffie-Hellman key-exchange implementations using ECC, but I don't want to exchange keys, I want to encrypt & decrypt data like ...
1answer
144 views

### KDF and number of iterations for GPG

I gather, from reading the GPG manual, that symmetric encryption based on a password uses one of a variety of Key Derivation Functions (KDF). Although not explicitly mentioned I assume that PBKDF2 is ...
3answers
315 views

### Lagrange Interpolation for finite field GF(2^8), for Secret Reconstruction

I'm using Lagrange's Interpolation technique to reconstruct the secret from a set of point pairs (x,y). Since I only need the secret, not the whole polynomial, I have simplified the reconstruction ...
1answer
149 views

### random number generator and seed

I'm working with openssl cryptographic libraries, I'm new to all these cryptographic stuffs and slowly I'm learning all these. I have a doubt regarding random number generator, I'm using ...
1answer
95 views

### The “Square Root” Solution of Oblivious RAM Simulation

I am reading the paper Software Protection and Simulation on Oblivious RAMs by Oded Goldreich and Rafail Ostrovsky. And I wonder about the description of the "Square Root" solution of oblivious RAM ...
1answer
573 views

### Multiplication/Division in Galois Field (2^8)

I'm attempting to implement multiplication and division in $GF(2^8)$ using log and exponential tables. I'm using the exponent of 3 as my generator, using instructions from here. However I'm having ...
1answer
176 views

### What is the origin of the word “Keccak”?

Where does the word or acronym Keccak come from? Guido Bertoni, Joan Daemen, Michael Peeters, and Gilles Van Assche. Keccak sponge function family main document. Submission to NIST (updated), 2009. ...
3answers
245 views

### Implementing a one-time pad without binary?

This is a program that I found which takes a purely alphabetical message, converts the letters to their ASCII values and combines them with the ASCII values of an alphabetical key (wrapping around ...
1answer
146 views

### Generating an IV for ESP 3DES-CBC

I have an application written in C, running in Linux. It uses IPsec (ESP) (manually putting the IPSec packet together) to send certain packets. The algorithm used ...
6answers
318 views

### Do ciphertexts leak information about their algorithmic creators?

If an adversary holds thousands of encrypted files that were encrypted with the same cipher, can he determine which cipher method had been used on the files? Assume that the adversary has no prior ...
1answer
69 views

### Is size Q equal to size SHA(Q)? [closed]

Assume d is a 128 bit random integer and P is base point of an elliptic curve and Q = dP is a point on the elliptic curve and SHA is a hash function with 128 bit output, my question is: Is size Q ...
4answers
236 views

### Is there a public key encryption scheme with optimal key size?

Symmetric encryption schemes such as AES have known security levels equal to their key sizes (i.e. breaking an encryption with an $n$ bit key needs about $2^n$ work steps). Elliptic curve encryption ...
2answers
204 views

### Quadratic residue problem on composite integers

Its believed that the quadratic residue modulo $n=p·q$ for large primes $p$ and $q$ is intractable, which forms the basis of some cryptosystems. However, it is solvable if the factors of $n$ are ...
1answer
144 views

### hardware and software optimizations for Salsa20

I'm using the Crypto++ implementation of Salsa20 for a software project we are working on and I'd like to know if there are any SSE or software optimizations that will increase the speed of the CSPNG? ...
2answers
181 views

### Is it possible that two distinct RSA moduli share both of their prime factors?

I am using an algorithm (can be found here1) that can compute efficiently the GCD of multiple RSA keys. It intended for RSA keys that were generated with low entropy and may have one of their primes ...
2answers
191 views

### Why have hashes when you have MACs?

It would seem to a naive eye that if you have a MAC, you have a hash function: use a key that all the parties know (such as all-bits-zero). A potential application would be a resource-constrained ...
1answer
116 views

### Does CBC encryption of a hash provide authenticity?

Given a message $M$ and a cryptographic hash function $H$, let $f(M) = E_K(M || H(M))$ where $E_K$ is AES-128-CBC encryption with PKCS#5 padding. Take $H = \textrm{SHA-256}$ if it matters. In other ...
0answers
216 views

### Keepass Twofish plugin security

Keepass is a well known open-source password manager program, with plugin support. One of the offered plugin is a twofish encryption mode of operation in lieu of the build-in AES algorithm ...
1answer
183 views

### What signature schemes allow recovering the public key from a signature?

It seems to be possible to retrieve the (public) key used for creating an ECDSA signature just from the signature alone. This seems like an interesting property; as far as I know, RSA doesn't share ...
1answer
98 views

### Three-way key exchange with elliptic curves without pairing

Assume that there are three users, each with their own secret key $d_i$ and the corresponding public key $Q_i = d_i \cdot P$, such that $Q_i$ is a point on an elliptic curve and $P$ is a base point on ...
1answer
70 views

### what is pairing in cryptography? [closed]

Let $G_1, G_2$ be additive groups and $G_T$ a multiplicative group, all of prime order $p$. Let $P$ in $G_1, Q$ in $G_2$ be generators of $G_1$ and $G_2$ respectively. A pairing is a map: \$e:( ...
1answer
135 views

### What does ''latency'' really mean when a block cipher is partially unrolled?

Typically，I think latency should mean the time from the first plaintext input to the first ciphertext output, when the block cipher is not totally unrolled (such as AES unrolled with 2 rounds). If I ...
1answer
61 views

### The specification of modern, non-communicating cipher machinery [closed]

I'm looking for references, papers or guidance on a class of system which I have not seen widely discussed. Consider powerful electronic machinery which remains in the custody of communicating ...
1answer
3k views

### What is the “shared secret” used for in IPSec VPN?

Can somebody explain what the "shared secret" and "password" do when opening/creating a VPN tunnel? In this specific case I setup a VPN to my Fritz!Box and I had to provide a shared secret (which was ...
1answer
116 views

### SHA256 Round Equivalence

I have calculated the average number of operations in 1 round of SHA256 as follows: Additions: 9.25 Bitwise Rotations: 9 Bitwise Shifts: 1.5 Bitwise AND: 5 Bitwise XOR: 10 I have certain ...
0answers
121 views

### Reasons for SM2 Digital Signature Algorithm

In the IETF RFC draft named "SM2 Digital Signature Algorithm" a signature algorithm is specified. The RFC does however not mention why this signature algorithm has been defined. Nor does it specify ...
1answer
127 views

### Multiple parties must encrypt and get the same result

Hopefully this question is not too simple - I did some research but with encryption I really don't want to make a mistake. Our scenario is that multiple groups need to encrypt a number and arrive at ...
1answer
159 views

### Is the salt value a secret or can it be stored in cleartext just like the IV? [duplicate]

From Wikipedia I read that the IV is used to randomise the mapping of cleartext to cipher text and that the IV is usually stored (in cleartext) together with the encrypted record. ...
2answers
82 views

### Create a field in PBC

Edited (I removed the emphasize on Integers): My question is partly cryptography and partly programming, I would appreciate any help on any aspect of it :) I want to use PBC library to do the ...

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