# All Questions

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### Is Dropbox's hashing method cryptographically secure?

Dropbox uses CRC32 and md5 to create a checksum of each 4 mb "block" as part of the their compression/file system. I suspect that Dropbox uses an additional cryptographic hash to check if there's a ...
210 views

### Why does CTR mode XOR the plaintext into the output of the block cipher rather than XORing the plaintext into the input of the block cipher?

As I understand it, CTR mode essentially turns a block cipher into a stream cipher like so: ...
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### Should layered use of crypto always have a cryptographic binding between the layers?

Reading the latest TLS weakness, it seems that multiple weaknesses have been found over the years caused by not ensuring that messages are sent over the same channel, and in general a lack of ...
120 views

### Can I use asymmetric encryption for more powerful write-protection?

I have a game that I am developing which uses a locally-stored internal database. It does not matter to me whether a user can read the file (which, to me, means I don't need a symmetric cipher), but I ...
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### Machine Learning with Encryption [duplicate]

Machine Learning is sometimes associated with cryptography. Many of such cross field studies have been majorly done in use of machine learning for cryptanalysis/decryption. I am interested in knowing ...
629 views

### How does TLS generate the shared secret?

From many readings, I got to know that TLS generates master shared secrets using pre-master keys and uses the DH algorithm to generate the shared secret/Master secret. What values during the hello ...
217 views

### Functional Encryption (for Non Experts)

I recently stumbled across "How to Run Turing Machines on Encrypted Data". Given that it's now possible to run turing machines on encrypted data, what open problems remain in the realm of Functional ...
211 views

### Check the validity of a rsa key pair with only the public key? [duplicate]

I am currently developing a messaging application that uses rsa end to end encryption. The client generates permanent rsa keys, and sends the public key to my server for account management. As it ...
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### If $G'(s)=G(s0^{|s|})$ and $G$ is a PRNG, is $G'$ necessarily a PRNG? [closed]

I argue it is because there should be no more correlation between the outputs $G(s0^{|s|})$ than between the outputs $G(s)$. Thus we can say the $G'(s)$ is a PRNG that satisfies $|G'(s)| \geq 4|s|$. ...
118 views

### File Encryption (EFS method)

I'm implementing (for learning purposes) a file encryptor, which uses the following method (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypting_File_System). I have 3 kind of keys: RSA public/private, AES ...
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### NTRU crypto from unseen.is; myth busting help

I am always on the look out for privacy enhancing technologies. I stumbled upon the service from unseen.is. I had a look at their site (specifically here) and even though I lack knowledge there are a ...
184 views

### Is it meaningful to consider the leakage of master key of KGC?

In the Identity-based cryptography, the user's private key in the systems is delivered by the key generation center(KGC). My question is : Is it meaningful to consider the leakage of master key of ...
334 views

So these days I see everyone using AES-GCM. What are its advantages over simple CTR+HMAC modes? Is it speed? Or ciphertext length? And what are the security tradeoffs, both in terms of practical ...
109 views

### Need Help Reversing my Encryption Algorithm [closed]

So I wrote a simple encryption algorithm (Not very secure, just a starting point. I don't want criticism on it.) and I have been having trouble finding a way to decrypt the text. The algorithm is here ...
255 views

### Using RSA key pair for file encryption

I'm looking for a way to perform encrypted nightly backups of a server I administer, without storing the decryption key on the server. A form of PK encryption seems ideal for this, as I can store the ...
78 views

### IND-CPA Security

Given a key $K$ (the key is fixed) and a nonce $N$ (changes from one message to another) Using a secure Key derivation function (KDF) such as the ANSI-X9.63-KDF with SHA-1 option to derive a key for ...
51 views

### Determine the iteration times using Pollard's rho Method for factoring

Let's say, we have a large number $n=181937053$ and $f(x)=x^2+1$. And also we know that $n=12391 \times 14683$. The problem is that ,using Pollard rho method, can we find the algorithm iteration ...
140 views

### Frequency of letters change by the length of the texts?

In terms of the frequency of letters, how is it possible to have different frequent letters when the length of the text I'm analyzing is shorter? At the moment, I'm comparing the frequencies of a ...
221 views

Trying to find related answer for a long time, but not convinced yet. What I am trying is to encrypt using RijndaelManaged. To create Key, I am passing password, ...
275 views

### Does it make sense to have a 4000 bit long key?

My question is about the key length of a asymetric algorithm. How is it possible to memorize or remember a key that is about 4000 bits long?
107 views

### Attacking both authenticity and secrecy in authenticated encryption modes

looks like NIST only approved GCM mode for authenticated encryption and other modes don't have any approval or a good implementation available. Is that possible a weakness in $GHASH$ compromise ...
136 views

### Designing a secure IM protocol

I haven't been programming much lately, so I figured I would make an encrypted instant-messaging program (read: Skype clone) with groups to hone my skills. That's not important though, I can do that. ...
250 views

### Questions about OAEP for RSA

I have two questions about OAEP for RSA. How are the number of bits to pad with 0 chosen? For example, if I'm sending a 255 byte message with RSA-2048 I have 8 unused bits (1 byte). Should I split ...
254 views

### Non-standard signature security definition conforming ed25519 malleability

According to the paper “High-speed high-security signatures”… Malleability. We also see no relevance of "malleability" to the standard definition of signature security. Aside from the example, ...
64 views

### Sextic twist of BN pairing parameters vs security

I've previously asked questions on BN pairing parameters. Here's one more. In the BN construction, one is working in a subgroup of a curve over an extension field $\mathbf{F}_{p^{12}}$ for some ...
97 views

### Gallant-Lambert-Vanstone method

I am experimenting with the GLV method but cannot manage to get the right results according to the literature. I managed to find lambda, beta, split $K$ into $k_1$ and $k_2$ etc. for the curve I'm ...
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### Retrieve cryptographic key knowing cyphertext and plaintext [duplicate]

I was curious about cryptography so I started to learn about symmetric encryption. From what I understand a symmetric encryption works as follow: PlainText -> (Encrypt)K -> Cipher text -> ...
118 views

### What is the forward cipher function of AES-XTS?

We're using OpenSSLs EVP_aes_265_xts encryption on data (with unique, random, IVs for every new message encrypted) - which is working well. But, I've been asked; what is the forward cipher function ...
114 views

### RSA public key security issue

The public key for RSA is $[e,n]$. Since $n = p * q$, are $p$ and $q$ already exposed because it takes no effort to figure out $p$ and $q$ from $n$?
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### Detecting steganography in the stream of short messages

I have stream of millions of short n-bit (n<30) messages generated by some random number generator. The source of random number generator is not available to me. I suspect there are messages used ...
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I know about PBKDF2, bcrypt, scrypt, etc. and while I'm not a crypt professional, I think I understand why are they better than just "hash(pass+salt)". But a colleague of mine surprised me with the ...
120 views

### What RC4 key value will completely invert $S$ after initial permutation?

What RC4 key value will completely invert $S$ after the initial permutation, so that $S[0] = 255, S[1] = 254, …, S[254] = 1, S[255] = 0$?
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### How to generate initial vectors during DPA attack on stream cipher in real life?

I was trying to understand the procedure of the DPA attack on Stream cipher (like Mickey-128). I learned that, the attacker need to build hypothetical power consumption matrix with different initial ...
95 views

### Attacking hashed password by timing attack and other means

This question is inspired by this recent one, which raises a point that need to be made quantitative to be meaningfully discussed. I chose an unusual approach: a new question worded as homework that ...
125 views

### Is ed25519 a “hash signature”

Writing my last question, I saw the hash-signature tag. I tried to research it best I could, but I'm simply overwhelmed in this field. I don't think it means to simply hash data before signing, but ...
248 views

### Decode message $m = p * q$, where $p ^ 5 \bmod N$, $q ^ 5 \bmod N$ and $N$ are known

I been going through some cryptography exercises and stumbled across this problem. Discover message $m$. You know that $m = p * q$. Also $p ^ 5 \bmod N$, $q ^ 5 \bmod N$ and $N$ are known ...
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### Storing password or derived key in keychain?

Currently I am developing an application that stores and reads encrypted data. The data is encrypted with AES and the actual AES key is derived from the users password (and some nonce) with PBKDF2 ...
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### $f : \mathbb{Z}_n \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}^\times_n$?

Is there any function $f : \mathbb{Z}_n \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}^\times_n$ that is invertible? By invertible, I mean it given $y \in \mathbb{Z}^\times_n$, it should be easy to find $x \in \mathbb{Z}_n$ ...
107 views

### Sextic twist optimization of BN pairing - cubic root extraction required?

I found the following paper really interesting: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220378229_A_family_of_implementation-friendly_BN_elliptic_curves/file/79e4150b3a773beecd.pdf It allows ...
726 views

### Using ECDSA keys for encryption

I know that ECDSA is used for signature only, but I wonder if I can use the public/private Elliptic Curve keys for encryption too. I have ECDSA SSH public keys and I wonder if I can use them to ...
276 views

### Find out which keying option is being used in Triple DES?

As far as I know, there are three standard options for the three keys $K_1$, $K_2$ and $K_3$ used by 3DES: Three distinct keys. The first and last key are equal: $K_1$ = $K_3$. Three equal keys: ...
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### How has the “power” of cryptography evolved from its beginnings till today? [closed]

I'm looking for a historical overview for the change in cryptographic power, which I hereby define as How far state-of-the-art cryptography is ahead of state-of-the-art cryptanalysis. In other ...
423 views

### Digital Signature using symmetric key cryptography

Generally digital signature is a public key cryptography concept.But it needs high overhead. So is there any publication or link available where 'digital signature using symmetric key' has been ...
238 views

My question is related to PBKDF2. I am unsure how to validate user entered password with already existing hashes and salts. I have heard of the so called "length-constant" comparison which basically ...
534 views

### AES CBC Security

I am building an Apache webserver with TLS 1.2 and OpenSSL 1.0.1. So far, I have enabled 2 encryption algorithms - ECDHE AES256 GCM and ECHDE AES128 GCM. Firefox and Chrome(ium) use NSS which ...
218 views

### Timing Attack on RSA

So far I have researched on timing attack on RSA, We all know the ransomware named Cryptolocker it uses RSA 2048 bit encryption. Now is it possible to break the encryption using timing attack. I have ...
434 views

### Burmester-Desmedt (BD) key agreement protocols

How do you perform the Burmester-Desmedt key exchange Protocol, in Diffie-Hellman extension protocol? I've been searching high and low, but couldn't locate an example on how to prove if all the party ...
207 views

### PRP, PRF and modular arithmetic

Are there any arithmetic or mathematical functions that can be used as PRPs or PRFs ? Since, Conventional block ciphers like AES are that are proven to be good PRPs are not based on mathematics but ...