# All Questions

4k views

### Simple example for CP-ABE (Ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption)

I'm currently working on Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE). So far I'm only using it with a basic understanding how it actually works. Now I want to understand it a bit better, but ...
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### What work goes into creating new asymmetric cryptosystems?

It's seems to me that it is rather easy to create a symmetric encryption algorithm (though not necessarily a secure one). They're a dime a dozen. The number of asymmetric encryption algorithms ...
114 views

### How does $g$ being a generator imply Diffie-Hellman's correctness?

In the Diffie-Hellman protocol for key exchange over an unsecured channel, we choose $p$ and $g$, where $g$ is a generator of $\mathbf{Z}_p^*$. However I want to know why this assumption makes the ...
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### Encryption of numeric value using playfair

I am studying in CSE and in my recent exam paper, A question was asked as: Construct a playfair cipher for Plaintext: semester5 and key:technology. Generally as we are taught yet, there is no ...
525 views

### Secure way to encrypt and decrypt a folder on Mac or Linux? [closed]

I am looking for a way to securely encrypt files on Mac and Debian. OpenSSL comes pre-installed on Mac OSX and Debian/Ubuntu. Therefore, is this a safe/recommended way of encrypting individual files? ...
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### FEAL-4 Fk Function 4 Rounds

As I understood in FEAL-4 it needs 4 pair of round keys. Which means that we need to launch Fk function 4 times. My problem occurs starting the 2nd round. At the first round we have the original 64 ...
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### Separate keys for encryption and MAC? [duplicate]

I use HMAC(ciphertext)+ciphertext for authenticated encryption. The same key is used for both MAC and encryption. Is that right? Is using separate keys for MAC and encryption necessary or any good? ...
117 views

### Signing Files vs. Signing File Hashes

What are the security pitfalls that may occur by signing a list of file hashes, versus signing individual files? In short, the security trade-offs between: ...
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### Looking for an adjustable compute bound decryption function

I'm looking for a way to decrypt data, but make it require varying amounts of CPU power to do so. Maybe this could be illustrated as e(m) = m' and ...
193 views

### Is there a format preserving cryptographically secure hash?

I want a way to 'scramble' strings (like words, names) in a predictable way but I don't ever want to (myself or anyone else) be able to 'unscramble' the strings. I found that perhaps what I am ...
80 views

### Is adaptive security the same as full security?

This question contains a great answer about adaptive security, but I haven't yet found a proper definition what full security is. Does a stronger security than adaptive security exist or are the two ...
167 views

### Does the size of a ECDSA key determine the hash algorithm?

I am a bit lost in understanding what I read on authentication, signature, etc. For instance, is the size of the ECDSA keys produced by ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 256 ...
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### What is the best authentication logic to analyze RFID (randomized hash-lock) authentication protocol?

What is the best authentication logic to analyze RFID (Randomized hash-lock) authentication protocol, (Ban logic, GNY logic, SVO logic, VO logic, AT logic) or another one?
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### Will SHA1 or Other Hash Functions Ever Contain Quotes [closed]

I feel foolish asking this, but will the hash generated by SHA-1 or other encryption methods ever have the possibility of containing a quote? Or any other characters that may be escaped such as ", ', ...
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### Is the half-homomorphic property of RSA a problem for blind RSA signatures?

For blind RSA signatures, is it problematic that RSA is half-homomorph? Take a scenario where blind RSA signatures are used for something like a voting procedure or this proposal: Lots of people, ...
100 views

### Defence against timing attacks

I know this is a difficult subject but would a good defense against timing attacks be not sending a message if the decryption or authentication fails? So if the attacker provides a wrong HMAC for ...
128 views

### How difficult is it to get a key using simple XOR

Recently someone gave me an algorithm as follows: XOR = Key XOR Random1 XOR Random2. They think that in order for someone to extract "Key" from XOR they would need Random1 and Random2.. but looking ...
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### Find the prime factorization in the DLP

Suppose we have $g^x \equiv h \pmod N$ Where $N = pq$ and $p$, $q$ are distinct primes. Also $(p-1)/2$ and $(q-1)/2$ are primes. If we know what $x$, $g$ and $h$ are, is it possible for us to know ...
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### How to compare between two cryptographic algorithms in terms of security? [closed]

How to compare between two cryptographic algorithms (e.g. SHA-1 and SipHash) in terms of security? That is, how could one prove that algorithm X is more secure than algorithm Y?
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### Multiple encryption of part of block

Is there any security risk in encrypting parts of blocks twice? I'd like to get around block sizes and make encrypted messages just as long as the unencrypted ones: Block 1: Byte 0 - 7 Block 2: Byte ...
38 views

### AES mode scheme feedback [duplicate]

I've been studying encryption on a hobby basis, and wanted to know if I got this basic cypher construction right (this is another experiment, see the AES ECB experiment thread earlier). Encryption: ...
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### AES key from encrypted text and VI

So I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to extract the private key if you have the ciphertext and the IV corresponding to that ciphertext. It's for some kind of a challenge, and can't really ...
51 views

### AES different modulo operations

I don't get the modulo 10001 operation in mixColumns so much. If I have to take the byte computations mod 100011011 anyway what leads me to a result of 4byte length, why do I need the mod 10001 ...
104 views

### Vigenere ciphers : Need help for math analysis

I've been learning about Vigenere ciphers and then thought of another method to Encrypt and decrypt that. This's my method to encrypt : ...
106 views

### Koblitz encoding a message to a point, what is the “associated auxiliary base parameter”?

I am looking at the Koblitz method for encoding a message as an elliptic curve point. The first step given in the paper I'm reading is: "Choose an elliptic curve and its associated auxiliary base ...
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### How do we compute IV+1 in CTR mode?

This may be a very simple question, but I have not found info about this in any place. My question is about CTR mode: When it says $IV+1$… How do we make this operation? For example, if I have the IV ...
2k views

### What is “Implicit Authentication”?

What is “Implicit Authentication” in the context of authentication methods? I searched the Web but could not find any article that describes this. If anyone can describe it, that would be a great ...
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### What is the advantage of using the socialist millionaire protocol to authenticate vs HMACing some random number?

Say Alice and Bob have a shared secret $s$. Alice and Bob establish an encrypted channel and verify that it hasn't been MitM'ed by exchanging $r_1$ and $r_2$, where $r_1$ and $r_2$ are randomly ...
154 views

### Predicting Google Authenticator OTP Codes [closed]

I use Google Authenticator to generate OTP codes for logging in. As you know, the numbers change every 30 seconds or so, and (AFAIK) use an RSA key to generate those numbers. If someone were to ...
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### Will the complement of a 64-bit key and message produce the complement ciphertext if ECB is used in DES?

Say I have a 64-bit message/key: P1: 1011....... K1: 0101....... I run this message/key pair through DES in ECB mode and obtain some cipher that looks like the ...
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### Recombination thresholds in degree reduction of multiplied Shamir shares

Shamir's secret sharing can be considered multiplicatively homomorphic, if one is aware of the fact that multiplying two shares of a (n,t)-threshold shared secret yields a share of the same secret, ...
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### Is Chaocipher a secure cipher under ciphertext-only attack?

Chaocipher was invented by John F. Byrne in 1919. The algorithm was recently revealed – see Moshe Rubin's Chaocipher Revealed, the Algorithm (PDF). While a known plaintext attack successfully finds ...
3k views

### 128 bit 3DES Key and AES Key: what's the difference?

Apologies if this is really basic but I couldn't find the answer to this. I have heard some Info Sec colleagues talking about creating an AES key in preference to a DES or 3DES key but I don't know ...
118 views

### Is format preserving encryption suitable for use with words or names?

Is it possible to use FPE to encrypt names and language words like 'Bob' 'the' 'tree', in order to preserve both length and format (like keeping characters within a certain range like A-Z a-z) The ...
260 views

### Creating serial key generator using ECDSA, how to get signature short enough?

I've written some questions in this stackoverflow and got great responses but now I'm trying to wrap it all together. I have for the last couple of weeks been building a serial key generator project ...
137 views

### ccrypt and its security

I would like to know how secure is ccrypt to encrypt files (like images, videos and other non-plain text data) using single password of 20+ chars length. It uses Rijndael with 256-bit block size and ...
14k views

### How does RSA signature verification work?

I understand how the RSA algorithm works for encryption and decryption purposes but I don't get how signing is done. Here's what I (think) I know and is common practice: If I have a message that I ...
113 views

### Drawback of ElGamal encryption

I am trying to find out some disadvantages of ElGamal cryptography but I'm not able to figure out what's wrong with the algorithm. The only one I found is that a known-plain text attack is possible in ...
72 views

### What are the steps to decrypt a TLS 1.1 record?

My question is related to another question in Cryptography about TLS 1.1 and 1.2. I have read both RFC 2246 The TLS Protocol Version 1.0 and RFC 4346 The TLS Protocol Version 1.1. What I know is that ...
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### How does ccrypt work?

On many Linux/GNU distributions CCrypt (ccrypt) by Peter Selinger is available as a command line utility to encrypt files. How does the protocol work and is it ...
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### Are there cryptographic schemes that mask as unencrypted traffic?

Are there cryptographic schemes that make encrypted traffic look like unencrypted traffic?
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### Possible hashing scheme

Plaintext(binary) : 10101100 //very short for easy understanding Suppose we have 4 predefined schemes/functions, rotate (101 -> 011) flip (1101 -> 1011) exchange (11011 -> 10111) stretch (1100 -> ...
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### Why would cryptography fall apart if there were a finite number of primes? [closed]

I vaguely know that prime numbers are very important in cryptography, but I assume for most encryption methods, they tend to stay rather 'small'. Are we really using massive prime numbers for ...
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### How secure is it to use password as AES key?

I am developing a steganography app where user encrypt any file into an audio file. The user can enter a password to protect the hidden data. The same password is converted as a 256 bit key and the ...
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### How obvious is it to decrypt numerics encrypted with a reused one time pad?

For instance say you encrypt text using the one time pad and you end up with some scrambled text that appears illegible. If you reused the key for multiple times for enough text, someone could ...
2k views

### Twofish vs. Serpent vs. AES (or a combo)

I've seen some posts and info online, but they are from 2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012, which is 3-6 years ago, which is a very long time. So I'm looking for an up-to-date answer about which of these is the ...
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### Calculation of time needed to crack DES with my CPU

I have a laptop that has the CPU and the RAMs shown below in the images. My question is that, using this CPU and the RAMs, how much time would it take for me to crack an old school DES algorithm ...
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### What are the well known protocols that offer perfect forward secrecy? [closed]

As far as I know these are the well known protocols that offer PFS TLS/SSL (with DHE-RSA, DHE-DSS, ECDHE-RSA or ECDHE-ECDSA) SSH (RFC4253) OTR (Protocol Version 3 Spec) IPsec (with IKEv1 and IKEv2) ...