# All Questions

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### Did a certain cryptography method get abandoned due to security flaws in the past?

I am researching how quantum computers affect current encryption methods (RSA and more). However, I remember learning in a course that there used to be a particular encryption method which was ...
8k views

### Is Diffie-Hellman mathematically the same as RSA?

Is the Diffie-Hellman key exchange the same as RSA? Diffie Hellman allows key exchange on a observed wire – but so can RSA. Alice and Bob want to exchange a key – Big brother is watching everything. ...
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### advances in usability for cryptography/authentication

I'm wondering if there have been any recent advances (say, the past 5-10 years) in human usability for cryptography and/or authentication? By that I mean something that makes it easier for an ...
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### Could RDRAND (Intel) compromise entropy?

I was recently discussing the issue of RDRAND in Intel chips and the whole issue about how NSA could potentially be influencing Intel to weaken or create backdoors in their design. This petition was ...
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### Difference between stream cipher and block cipher

A typical stream cipher encrypts plaintext one byte at a time, although a stream cipher may be designed to operate on one bit at a time or on units larger than a byte at a time. A block cipher ...
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### What is a white-box implementation of a cryptographic algorithm?

What is a white-box implementation? Does a white-box implementation have specific properties?
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### Purpose of outer key in HMAC

From what I know, the HMAC constructions has two strength: It's resistant to length extensions Since the key is consumed before the message, the attacker does not know the initial state, preventing ...
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### Current mathematics theory used in cryptography/coding theory

What are the mainstream techniques borrowed from algebraic geometry (or some other branch of mathematics) which are currently used in cryptography/coding theory? I've only heard about a small subset ...
2k views

### Is every output of a hash function possible?

Is every output of a hash function (e.g. SHA1, MD5, etc) guaranteed to be possible, or, conversely, are there any output values that cannot possibly be created from any input? If so, what guarantees ...
40k views

### How is SHA1 different from MD5?

On the surface, SHA1 and MD5 look pretty similar. Their diagrams include chunks of bits, bit rotation, xor and special functions. Their implementations are roughly the same length (at least the ones I'...
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### Security strength of RSA in relation with the modulus size

NIST SP 800-57 §5.6.1 p.62–64 specifies a correspondence between RSA modulus size $n$ and expected security strength $s$ in bits: ...
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### Why not the one-time pad with pseudo-number generator

I am very new to cryptography (so be kind), but I have a question that may seem silly. If the one-time pad is the perfect cipher and impossible to crack, why would the following algorithm not be one ...
3k views

### Can Shannon's entropy be used to determine if a file is encrypted?

If we have to determine a file is encrypted or not, can we use Shannon's entropy algorithm on the file? As discussed here, the entropy (in bits per byte) being closer to 0 is considered as more ...
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### Does RSA work for any message M?

I decided to read the original RSA paper A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystem because of a question I had about RSA (which is not the question I'm about to ask, but ...
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### How secure is the Bitcoin protocol?

Are there any evidence (other than not being cracked so far) that the Bitcoin protocol is secure? "How secure" is it? (I realize that this might not qualify as a meaningful question - feel free to ...
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### What is the post-quantum cryptography alternative to Diffie-Hellman?

Post-quantum cryptography concentrates on cryptographic algorithms that remain secure in the face of large scale quantum computers. In general, the main focus seems to be on public-key encryption ...
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### Is HMAC-DRBG or Hash-DRBG stronger?

Out of the two deterministic random bit generators defined in section 10.1 of NIST SP 800-90A (i.e. based on hash functions), which one is cryptographically stronger? Hash-DRBG (Section 10.1.1) HMAC-...
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### Can ECDSA signatures be safely made “deterministic”?

Using the terminology of the ECDSA wikipedia page, ECDSA (and DSA) signatures require a random k value for each signature which ensures that the signature is different each time even if the message ...
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### ECDSA vs ECIES vs ECDH

Recently I started studying Elliptic Curve Cryptography and I just loved it. I want to transfer some big data (like 3KB), What is the best method, ECDSA, ECIES, or ECDH (and why)? I am confused, how ...
12k views

### RIPEMD versus SHA-x, what are the main pros and cons?

RIPEMD is a family of cryptographic hash functions, meaning it competes for roughly the same uses as MD5, SHA-1 & SHA-256 do. The Wikipedia page for RIPEMD seems to have some nice things to say ...
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### How to provide secure “vanity” bitcoin address service?

Bitcoin addresses are RIPEMD-160 hashes of the public portion of a public/private ECDSA keypair (along with an abbreviated hash of the hash to provide a check code, as @pulpspy notes in a comment). ...
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### Is there a key for AES-128, 256 etc, where cleartext equals ciphertext? [duplicate]

Is there a key for AES-128, 256 etc, where cleartext equals ciphertext? (regardless of modes like chaining or ctr-cbc)
14k views

### Why shouldn't I use ECB encryption?

I'm using Java to generate encrypted strings, and I get this warning at build time: ECB encryption mode should not be used So I'm wondering why I shouldn't use ECB and what I can use instead?
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### How to publish a cipher (concept)?

In the last months I was searching for a subject for my bachelor thesis. I came up with an idea for a new cipher concept that works by combining already known techniques in a (hopefully) new way. So ...
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### Cryptanalysis to reverse engineer a hash?

I understand this may not be the best place to ask a question like this, but I believe that this community may be the best/only place I can ask such a question. I have inputs and outputs from an in-...
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### Can one generalize the Diffie-Hellman key exchange to three or more parties?

Does anyone know how to do a Diffie-Hellman or ECDH key exchange with more than two parties? I know how to do a key exchange between 2 parties, but I need to be able to have a key agreement between 3 ...
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### Is calculating a hash code for a large file in parallel less secure than doing it sequentially?

I would like to improve the performance of hashing large files, say for example in the tens of gigabytes in size. Normally, you sequentially hash the bytes of the files using a hash function (say, ...
20k views

### HMAC-SHA1 vs HMAC-SHA256

I have three questions: Would you use HMAC-SHA1 or HMAC-SHA256 for message authentication? How much HMAC-SHA256 is slower than HMAC-SHA1? Are the security improvements of SHA256 (over SHA1) enough ...
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### Are common cryptographic hashes bijective when hashing a single block of the same size as the output?

It's been said that CRC-64 is bijective for a 64-bit block. It the corresponding statement true for typical cryptographic hashes, like MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2 or SHA-3? For example, would SHA-512 be ...
1k views

### What is so special about elliptic curves?

There seems to be sources like this, this also, and some introductions that discuss elliptic curves in general and how they're used. But what I'd like to know is why these particular curves are so ...
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### HMAC vs MAC functions

I've read definitions of MAC and HMAC, but can't say I've completely grasped the differences. What are principle differences? When to use one and when the other?(Typical Use Cases)
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### Can I encrypt user input in a way I can't decrypt it for a certain period of time?

I run a baseball league and would like to do silent auctions for free agents. This would require teams to enter their highest bid and the highest bidder at the end of the auction period would win. ...
6k views

### Using the same secret key for encryption and authentication in a Encrypt-then-MAC scheme

Is it a weakness to use a single shared secret for protecting messages using a Encrypt-then-MAC scheme? Assuming a system is using AES-256-CBC and a SHA1-HMAC and the same secret key for both ...