# All Questions

73 views

### Does $(u_1=r_1\cdot x,\ \ w_1=r_1\cdot z, \ \ u_2=r_2\cdot x,\ \ w_2=r_2\cdot z)$ Leak Information?

Consider we have a fixed value $x$. We pick values $r_1,r_2,z\leftarrow \mathbb{F}_p$, where $p$ is a large prime number, and it is public. So $r_1,r_2,z$ are uniformly random values. We compute ...
292 views

### What is the “compression function” in Merkle-Damgård?

Is the "compression function" in Merkle-Damgård just a collision-resistant, one-way hash function but one that operates only on fixed size inputs? If so, is MD just a way to extend it to work on ...
218 views

### Hash which can be used to verify one of multiple inputs?

Is there a hash function H1 which, when given inputs a, b, etc., produces output ...
1k views

### SHA-1 collisions - what about practical attacks?

I understand the theoretical 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 structured piece of ...
541 views

### Are there any digital signature algorithms in common use that result in 32-byte signatures?

I don't consider myself to be an expert in this field, so forgive me if there is an obvious answer. I am having a tough time finding an algorithm that can sign data and output a 32-byte signature, ...
3k views

### SHA1 no longer considered secure for SSL Certificates — what about Cipher Suites?

Many browsers and Internet companies have recently claimed that SSL Certificates with a signature algorithm of SHA1 will imminently no longer be considered secure. Most notably, Google and Google ...
6k views

### Diffie-Hellman and man-in-the-middle attacks

See here for the man-in-the-middle attack on Diffie-Hellman that I'm concerned about: What is Diffie-Hellman? How do we combat this? I have two questions: Is one solution for both Alice and Bob ...
862 views

### What characters are valid in PGP encrypted and signed messages?

What characters may be present in a PGP encrypted message or a PGP signature? For example, do encrypted messages only use the Roman alphabet + some numbers and symbols? Can the character set be ...
298 views

### Elliptic Curve Cryptography

I have been trying this for a while. But I couldn't get it. How can I determine the point of intersection of the tangent line at (0, 0) on the curve $y^2 + y = x^3 + x^2$ ?
333 views

### Decrypting an encrypted text out of order

Does there exist a cipher that can be encrypted twice with two different keys and then decrypted twice using either key first? For example: ...
408 views

### in Bilinear pairings, what is the difference between Type 2 and Type 3?

in Bilinear pairings, what is the difference between Type 2 and Type 3? I understand in Type 2, there exists an efficiently computable homomorphic function $\phi : G_2 \rightarrow G_1$ , which is not ...
125 views

### Has there ever been more then a theoretical difference between preimage resistance and second preimage resistance?

In other words, has there ever been a point in time in which having the content of a message has actually helped break a hash function?
662 views

### For a one-time pad, which MAC method is information-theoretically secure?

In the the main post about MAC methods it mentions a few methods: Authenticate And Encrypt: The sender computes a MAC of the plaintext, encrypts the plaintext, and then appends the MAC to the ...
333 views

### Cryptographic system with double keys with reversible order

While reading Shamir, Rivest and Adleman's paper on "Mental Poker", I've met a mention of system such that $E_a(E_b(x)) = E_b(E_a(x))$, without however disclosing details on it, with $E_a(x)$ being “...
592 views

### Reusing AES-CTR Keys and IVs for File Encryption

I’m implementing some file encryption module with random-access capability and AES-CTR seems the right way to go. I understand that reusing Keys and IVs can expose the file to ‘Stream Cipher Attacks’ ...
110 views

### Where did Martin Hellman acknowledge Ralph Merkle's contribution to public-key cryptography?

I am trying to find the article to reference when discussing the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. According to Wikipedia Hellman said that The system...has since become known as Diffie–Hellman key ...
594 views

### Perfect Forward Secrecy with Pre-shared Key

I've recently been looking at how to do perfect forward secrecy on a unidirectional connection (server can only push messages to client, client cannot respond). What I've come up with is the idea of ...
704 views

### Safe elliptic curve point addition using projective coordinates: How do I tell if the points are the same?

I am trying to implement elliptic curve point addition in hardware for NIST p256 and p384 curves. I have noticed the following issue with the suggested NIST routines: Consider routine 2.2.7 of http://...
1k views

### AES mixcolumn stage

I'm studying AES, and am having problems with the "mixcolumn" stage. I read about finite fields, but I still don't know. How do I construct $GF(2^8)$? ...
514 views

### In elliptic curve cryptography, how is “A dot A” computed?

I was just reading Ars Technica's primer on ECC. Somewhere near the middle of the second page, the author introduces the "dot" operation that takes an elliptic curve and two other known points, giving ...
341 views

### Encryption of small messages

Some time ago, I asked how to encrypt small messages like e.g., four decimal digit numbers (banking PINs). I've got my answer, but also a warning like it makes no sense as it's easy to guess: Even ...
510 views

### What (precisely) is a block cipher?

If I follow the wikipedia or crypto.stackexchange definition, any simple XOR encryption where the key is as long as the plain text should qualify as a secure block cipher. Now I thought what would ...
497 views

### Proof of correct construction of a private key in distributed cryptography

In an exponential ElGamal encryption scheme where the key generation is done in a distributed way among $n$ trustees we have that each trustee $i$ (where $1 \leq i \leq n$): Selects a private key ...
5k views

### Is a 1024-bit DSA key considered safe?

I created my PGP key in 2000. I’ve revoked the older, weaker sub-keys in favor of a 4096-bit RSA one, but the primary key is 1024-bit DSA. I read on Wikipedia that… NIST 800-57 recommends lengths ...
695 views

### Can we proxy-re-encrypt using homomorphic encryption schemes?

Homomorphic encryption schemes are PKE schemes with an additional special method Evaluate. The Evaluate method takes input any function (as boolean circuit) and encrypted inputs of the function and ...
584 views

### Secret sharing scheme with possibility to change the secret

Here's a scenario I want to handle with a secret sharing scheme: Alice wants to share the secret $S$ with Bob, Charlie and Dave. Alice generates private shares based on $S$ for Bob, Charlie and Dave,...
1k views

### Why does Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme need a finite field?

I read ampersand's question "Necessity for finite field arithmetic and the prime number p in Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme", where he asked why Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme uses arithmetic in a ...
2k views

### Fast Salsa20 in java?

For Java I'm only aware of the Bouncy Castle implementation of Salsa20. However, that version is significantly slower than AES-CTR and ARC4. There are plenty of libraries in C, but are there any good ...
824 views

### Why is H(message||secret_key) not vulnerable to length-extension attack?

Given a Merkle-Damgård hash function $H$, I know that an attacker can forge a message protected by a MAC computed as $H(\textrm{secret_key}||\textrm{message})$. Why can't he perform the same ...
162 views

### Can the hash of one message be used to make it easier to find the hash of a very similar message?

Background: I am trying to get an understanding of using a hash of a passphrase as a secret. Example: ...
320 views

### Why doesn't this replay attack work on ECDSA?

I've just started working with elliptic curves and ECSDA in particular, so my understanding of the underlying math isn't great. The thing I'm currently stuck on is trying to understand why replay ...
269 views

### Why does OAEP have 2 rounds with 2 random oracles?

I strive into understanding why OAEP has two rounds of computations and not just one. I.e: Wouldn't it be safe to hash the random number r and XOR it with the original message?What security risks if ...
854 views

### Is there a standard for OpenSSL-interoperable AES encryption?

Many AES-encrypted things (files, strings, database entries, etc.) start with "Salted__" ("U2FsdGVkX1" in base64). I hear it's ...
334 views

### Does a hash function in chaining mode or in counter mode make a better pseudo-random number generator?

I have two pseudorandom generators: $f_1$ takes a random seed $l_0||r_0$ $\in \{0,1\}^{160}$ as input and outputs $r_1||r_2|| \dots ||r_k$, where $l_i||r_i = \operatorname{SHA-1}(l_{i-1}||r_{i-1})$ ...
233 views

### What are the consequences of a MAC tag collision?

I've seen some proofs of MAC security that are based on the extremely-unlikely event that two MAC tags collide (ie, they are equal for distinct messages). Suppose that this extremely unlikely event ...
92 views

### Is the difference distribution table of AES S-box uniform?

I am studying about various block ciphers and their weaknesses, so I have a doubt about AES S-boxes, Is the difference distribution table of AES uniform ?