All Questions

114 views

Memory-expensive hash from an array of hashes?

Why can't people make a hash function that requires dozens of mega bytes of memory instead of cpu to avoid all the cracking and hacking? What I have in mind myself is this: We have an input $X$, we ...
60 views

MD-compliant hashes don't really accept arbitary length input, do they?

When people talk about hash functions, they usually say that they accept arbitrary-length input, but if you actually look at the padding (eg MD-strengthening padding), you see it's like ...
80 views

It is written in the HMAC paper that the $ipad=0x36$ and $opad=0x5c$ were chosen such that it maximize the Hamming-Distance of the part of the key used in the inner and outer part of the HMAC process. ...
278 views

Definition of “pepper” in hash functions

I am confused about the notion of "pepper" in the context of storing hashes of users' passwords. Definition 1: A pepper is a secret key Looking around the Internet, for example here or here, a ...
51 views

Asymmetric encryptions' computational complexity [duplicate]

I need to know the computational complexity of the public key encryption (e.g. Paillier), please. (i.e.Paillier in his paper mentions that the computational complexity of most of public key ...
119 views

Using the same symmetric key in both directions?

A simple symmetric encryption scheme uses the same key, derived from a password, for both directions of the communication. Is this bad practice, and if so what should be done about it? Is it 'good ...
196 views

Will X9.31 remain a secure & acceptable deterministic random generator beyond 2015?

I am actually looking for available crypto libraries including a deterministic random generator for the purpose of a dedicated crypto key generator unit. I have a simple question about the X9.31 based ...
121 views

Block size vs key size confusion

I understand that if a block cipher has $k$-bit keys and $n$-bit input/output blocks, then if $k>n$, we can expect one message-ciphertext pair to narrow us down (I think?) to $2^{k-n}$ possible ...
166 views

Verifying DER encoded DSA/ECDSA signature with extra content?

Having a DSA/ECDSA signature which is supposed to be DER encoded as an ASN.1 sequence of $r$ and $s$ (as described in the RFC), and being given some bytes which are ...
238 views

Stream cipher with Diffie-Hellman and Cryptographic Hash Function? [duplicate]

I know: Never do your own crypto. But this question is just theoretical. Assume you do a Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange with a server to produce a shared secret $x$. Then use a cryptographic hash ...
330 views

How do zero knowledge protocol with vertex-3-coloring work?

I'm currently not sure if I understood how the zero knowledge protocol with vertex-3-coloring works. I'll describe what I think I've understood and I'll write my questions in bold. ...
59 views

What approach is used here? [closed]

Here is an image hidding some information. I need to discover, what is the hidden text. I tried to interpret this as 27 letter alphabet(with space) in columns, tried this with Ceasar cipher. No ...
40 views

468 views

SHA1 Collisions - what about practical attacks?

I understand the theorical problem with hash collision but when it comes to practice, I get very confused. Suppose a attacker would like to forge a certificate (or any kind of strucutred piece of ...
28k views

Should we MAC-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-MAC?

Most of the time, when some data must be encrypted, it must also be protected with a MAC, because encryption protects only against passive attackers. There are some nifty encryption modes which ...
93 views

Is any group of bits in a SHA-1 hash more/less unique than another?

Is there any bias in certain parts of the hash? E.g., first n bits are more/less unique than the last/middle n bits? Is there ...
138 views

In cryptographic protocols, what protects against an attacker dropping messages?

In some cryptographic protocols I have seen messages protected for confidentiality, authenticity, replaying attacks, reordering attacks, etc. What protects a protocol from an attacker in a ...
174 views

Including a “purpose” designation in a digital signature

A signature of some data can mean many different things, such as: This is a message I sent, this is a certificate I validated,... So I was surprised that common signing schemes don't include a ...
93 views

Roots in modulo field

I have a point $(X,Y)$ on an elliptical curve $E(a,b)$ where $a=-3$ and $B$ is a large number that is in hexadecimal from -51BD. To compress this point oficially in a program, we know that every $X$ ...
39 views

Modulo Square Roots [duplicate]

Here's my issue and someone can help me understand it so I can program it correctly. I have a point(X,Y) on an Elliptical Curve E(a,b) where a=-3 and B is a large number that is in hexidecimal from ...
216 views

Questions on rank-attacks in Multivariate Cryptography

While reading this article on rank attacks on STS (a public-key scheme based on Multivariate Quadratic (MQ) equations), I stumbled upon some claims that I've also seen in other presentations on ...
196 views

Flaw in the security definition of *Stateful* Authenticated Encryption?

I'm in search of the correct definition of a stateful authenticated encryption scheme (sAE), and its related security notion. This has been treated several times in the academic literature, however, ...
124 views

Is the salt used with PBKDF2 secret?

I have two network endpoints that need to use the same derived key. Can the server send the salt to the client 'in the clear'?
435 views

What are SNARKs?

What does it mean and what is it used for, I have been hearing this term a lot lately. From the context I've heard it talked about it seems to be connected with zero knowledge?
172 views

Secure double encryption using CPA and CCA

Do you mind if you give me any hints, links or ideas about how to improve the security of double regular encryption and decryption, by using CPA game and CCA game, it sounds interesting question, and ...
86 views

Initialize the eight working variables SHA256

I have a little confusion in understanding explanation of SHA256 by FIPS a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h are being initialized as (this is what i don't understand) 2 . ...
1k views

Lamport signature: How many signatures are needed to forge a signature?

Lamport signature: Signing the message Note that now Alice's private key is used and should never be used again. The other 256 random numbers that she did not use for the signature she must never ...
143 views

Generating an RSA public key certificate (.pem) from only a modulus

Let's say I do this: ...
75 views

Arithmetic modulo 1

In the context of lattice-based cryptography, in particular the Learning With Errors (LWE) problem, I see some definitions given in terms of equations modulo 1 (see for example, Appendix A of this ...
67 views

Retrieve timestamp from TOTP value

TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) as I understand is an algorithm that uses the current time as a variable along with a shared key to generate a secured token. Wiki page for reference: ...
107 views

My own encryption algorithm - if someone can brake [closed]

I wrote recently my own encryption algorithm. I want to test it so, since I know that here are a lot of professionals, I will write here some encrypted text and if someone is able to decrypt it please ...
70 views

Using machine-learning techniques for data-dependent operations in ciphers

From 'Methods of Symmetric Cryptanalysis' by Dmitry Khovratovich, The data-dependent operations are one of the most controversial design concepts. We say that an operation is data-dependent, if it ...
21 views

Timestamp assignment and meaning

I have an entity A sending a message to another, B. An encrypted message is signed with a timestamp TB, and then the whole thing is signed again with a new key and new timestamp TA. What i'm ...
81 views

Why is proving “parties' views are simulatable” enough in semi-honest model?

To prove a protocol is secure in semi-honest model, we have to prove: the view of each party, on each possible pair of inputs, can be efficiently simulated based solely on its own input and and ...
65 views

Oblivious transfer variation question

Now I am doing a variation of the oblivious transfer, I have to use 2 people, pebbles, and boxes. I need to find out if who has a larger number between Alice and Bob (variation of Yao's Millionaires' ...
181 views

Crypto libary with Commutative Encryption

I want to implement Mental Poker in JavaScript as a toy program and lead in to a larger serious project so I did my research and found Massey-Omura cryptosystem and the Shamir three-pass protocol ...
262 views

how to calculate non linearity of AES S-box?

S-box has to satisfy different design criteria. How to calculate non-linearity , propagation criteria for an AES S-box?
120 views

practical use of homomorphic encryption

Are RSA and Elgamal partially homomorphic techniques? which one is better if one want to use it for practical purpose? and is there some FHE technique which can be used practically?
66 views

Complexity of preimage resistance

Why is the complexity of pre-image resistance $2$ raised to the power of $n$? I have been looking in everything lecture about pre-image resistance, but I still didn't know the answer.
143 views

84 views

I don't care about replay attacks. What should I do with the nonce in nacl?

My system forwards encrypted and/or signed messages on a gossip network. Replay is part of the design. What should I do with the nonce? I'm tempted to just set it to the same number always. Is this a ...
153 views

Can a secret message be securely transmitted within a MAC tag?

A sender wants to transmit an ultra secret code $M$ which could be either 'go', 'stop' or 'wait'. This could be any selection of code words really and adopted for any use such as transmitting short ...
182 views

Collision in Merkle–Damgård without a collision in compression function

Is it possible to find a collision in Merkle–Damgård just by omitting the extra one bit that is appended to each input without having a collision in compression function?
118 views

Reversing a Psuedo Crytographic Hash [closed]

I'm trying to get a better understanding of cryptographic hashing. Take the example transformation function below, is it possible to reverse this formula to solve/isolate for message[i]? ...