# All Questions

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### Question about dual system encryption

Recently, I have been reading some dual system encryption papers. In these systems, is the adversary able to generate “semi-functional ciphertexts”?
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### Back up an information as $n$ pieces and require exactly $n-1$ to recover it

Let $X\in \Bbb F_2^p$ be some information. How do I create $Y_1,\dots,Y_n \in \Bbb F_2^q$ so that having less than $n-1$ of the $Y_i$s gives you no information on $X$ but having $n-1$ of them allows ...
121 views

### Does AES 256 really make sense in hybrid crypto systems when the PKI is the bottleneck?

AES 256 is used widely in hybrid crypto systems (e.g. SSL/TLS). According to keylength.com a 2048 bit public key corresponds to 112 bits of security. Does it make sense to use AES 256 in this ...
122 views

### Can 64-bit “PRINCEcore” practically be brute forced?

There is a cipher called PRINCE proposed in ASIACRYPT two years ago. See the paper: “PRINCE – A Low-latency Block Cipher for Pervasive Computing Applications” The cipher divides the 128-bit key into ...
324 views

### Understanding how SHA-512 achieves its design goals

The Wikipedia entry on SHA-2 contains a usable pseudocode recipe. In the hope of some deeper understanding, I implemented SHA-256 and SHA-512 from it. This was helpful, but I still don't think I have ...
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### Smart card Strong authentication / Verification ( fingerprints)

I'm trying to make a strong authentication software and embedded software in a java card. I have found many papers and publications about the subject… too much information to process and I'm working ...
88 views

### Symmetry for finite cyclic groups (Z/pZ)∗

How well is it known that for $i$ such that $1 \leq i \leq \frac{p − 1}2$: $$g^{i+(p−1)/2} = g^{i−1+(p−1)/2} − g^i + g^{i−1} \pmod p$$ Whilst working in the finite cyclic group of prime moduli ...
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### How do I produce a stream of secure random numbers from AES-Counter mode?

I have just made my own program to encipher, using AES in counter mode, and have validated it using NIST data. So I know I have done it properly. I have read that AES-CTR can produce a stream of ...
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### AES and One Time Passwords

I have used AES to secure my short term wireless network(1 day lifetime). The same symmetric key is used for securing entire network traffic. is it possible to improve security with onetime password ...
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### From Factorisation of semiprimes to breaching confidentiality

If someone or some group found an efficient way to factor large composites with two distinct prime divisors, would this make it easier to decode any messages?
172 views

### Analyzing ECB's and CBC's resistence to a known-plaintext attack

I'm trying to analyze the strength of a block cipher with CBC mode or with ECB mode on the scenario of an exhaustive search attack with knowledge of pairs of plaintext – ciphertext (known plaintext ...
203 views

### PRF and hash functions

Is there a difference between PRF and a hash function? For example: Creation of a secret key is using PRF and creating a secret key is using hash function.
162 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 ...
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### Does not using padding mean a lack of security?

I've read several texts which say that if the entire plaintext is a multiple of the block-size padding is not required (and not using padding would not mean a loss of security). I generally disagree ...
29 views

### Is the CONF key sharing Problem equivalent to discrete log problem?

If there a proof in the literature which says the CONF Problem is equivalent to solving the discrete log ? Let $g$ be a generator of a cyclic group $\mathbb{G}$ of prime order $q$ CONF problem: ...
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### About using mistakes as part of a code

Could a code be developed where one uses intentional errors say in english, as a text to encode? For example someone might have a message 'Agent X must report to station 5'. This could be distorted ...
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### Accelerated hashing on consumer-grade CPU?

Question is a follow-up to this one. The question was about accelerating SHA1. I am writing an application, where I do have a choice of hash algorithm, as long as it's a strong one. I want to be able ...
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### Undefined $E_y(1,r_{i,j,1})$ notation in cryptography paper, suspect ElGamal-like

I'm trying to understand a paper that uses the notation $E_y(1,r_{i,j,1})$ (full text available in link, used just once on Page #35, 6th page of pdf, Section 3.3, Step 1c) in the context of an ...
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### How do you test the security of your cipher? [closed]

I got asked this question and I didn't know what to answer. How do you test the security of your cipher? What comes to my mind now would be to test it with famous attacks: padding attacks, ...
192 views

### Why must IV be sent with each packet?

I was reading about Encrypt-then-MAC and everywhere I go it seems people include the IV with the ciphertext generated for each message then MAC that and send all the information concatenated. Why do ...
963 views

### Why is Triple DES not vulnerable to meet in the middle attacks?

Consider the Triple DES encryption calculated as: $$C= E_{K_1}(D_{K_2}(E_{K_1}(P))).$$ For a chosen plaintext attack, given plaintext $P$, we compute the result of $D_{K_2}(E_{K_1}(P))$ and store ...
177 views

### Can XEX or XTS modes be used with only one tweak?

XEX Mode (with two tweaks) is the following scheme: $X = E_{k}(I) \otimes \alpha^j \\ C = E_{K}(P \oplus X) \oplus X$ where $I$ and $j$ are both tweaks (sector number and block number respectively). ...
107 views

### Performance for Subbytes in AES

I´m implementing the AES-encrypt algorithm for the SSE2 instruction set. For the Subbyte function i use movzx, having loaded ...
469 views

### How do decryption algorithms determine whether your attempted passphrase is correct?

Judging by the algorithm on the Blowfish Wikipedia article, there is no way for the process to fail with an error. How then does GnuPG know when to tell you your password is correct when decrypting a ...
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### What cryptographic paradigm is appropriate for this use case?

This is a very newbie question... I have to quickly implement a solution for our application that works like this... We have a binary executable that is given a configuration file. I need to encrypt ...
357 views

### ECC public key encryption and authentication - ECIES with ECDSA vs ECDH with AES

I'm currently working on a project where I want to establish a secure and authenticated communication channel between to entities, using Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Now I'm not really sure how to ...
123 views

### How to implement a Cryptographic Pseudo Random Function

I need three pseudo random functions which all take a seed S (t-bits long). The functions should map from $d$ bits to $d$ bits $d$ bits to $1$ bit $d$ bits to $t$ bits $d$ is $10$ bits $t$ is ...
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### How to argue to a paranoid that RSA is safe?

From today's standpoint, most people would claim RSA to be secure. However, to my knowledge, this is purely based on the speculation that no one knows a computational feasible way to find a $d$ for ...
131 views

### How can I validate my implementation of Ansi 9.19?

I implemented an Ansi 9.19 mac generator in java, but now I don't know how to validate its functionality. I couldn't find any sample of a {plain text,key,mac} on the internet, and I want to know if ...
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### Diffie Hellman Key Exchange (Finding # of bits/digits of secret key)

As we know that in DH key exchange, both Alice and Bob would agree on the parameter $p$ and $g$. Next, Alice would choose a secret key $A$ while Bob would choose a secret key $B$. Alice would compute ...
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### x509 CA trust question

I'm trying to understand the logic of CAs, trust and client certificates. I have a general understanding but am having a tough time bridging some gaps. In a hypothetical situation a software system ...
731 views

### What is the MD5 collision with the smallest input values?

I am interested in MD5 collisions for small input messages. The collision examples given at http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~selinger/md5collision/ show two different strings, where only a tiny amount of data ...
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### Can I make a PRNG that is secure even when state can be modified by user?

I am interested in making a PRNG which, after being initially seeded, can accept and incorporate client data as the only ongoing source of "entropy". It is not directly for a cryptographic purpose, ...
248 views

### Is pairing based cryptography ready for productive use?

I'm currently testing one among those many interesting cryptographic protocols based on bilinear maps. It's quite hard to understand the underlying fundamentals, especially since there are several ...
673 views

### Pseudocode for constant time modular exponentiation

I'm looking to implement modular exponentiation (for RSA) in constant time, but most of the examples I've found are more mathematical descriptions of the operations. Are there any references with ...
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Two or three years ago, I was reading something interesting, but then I lost the paper. The paper described building secure and fast P2P networks (not like tor or I2P). Unfortunately, I only remember ...
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### Zero-knowledge proof of a product

I have non-negative integers $x,y,z$. I'm going to give you commitments $C(x),C(y),C(z)$ to them. Then, I would like to prove in zero knowledge that $xy=z$. I can choose the commitment scheme to ...
I was wondering if a group like the 1536-bit MODP Group from RFC 3526 was a Schnorr group? A Schnorr group must apparently have: $p$ and $q$ being primes $p = q\cdot r+1$ $1 < h < p$ ...