# All Questions

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### Given $g^a, g^b, g^c, g^{1/b}$, is it hard to distinguish $e(g, g)^{abc}$ from a random value?

where $g$ is a group element in bilinear group $\mathbb{G}$. I understand it is very similar to the conventional DBDH problem, but $g^{1/b}$ is also known, possibly making it easier? Does anyone know ...
7k views

### How does TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV help?

After reading through https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tls-downgrade-scsv-0, I could understand that this option is recommened for use when one has legacy SSL Servers which only support SSLv3. ...
214 views

### Why are we not using multiple ciphers per message?

I am aware of at least rsa, elgamal-encryption, and variations of elliptic-curves relying on different problems and that those problems are considered hard. However, if someone figures out a way to ...
221 views

### Spoofing protocol nonce

Amy and Betty have a shared key $k$, and the protocol below is to provide a mutual authentication for both Betty and Amy. A sends B : $n_a$ B sends A : $n_b \;\|\; E(k, n_a)$ A sends B : $E(k, n_b)$ ...
238 views

### Solving Vignere Encryption

I'm currently trying to crack a cypher that I believe is Vignere Encrypted and I'm currently stuck. I calculated the key length by finding repeated sequences in the cypher and calculating the the ...
480 views

### Is Chaocipher a secure cipher under ciphertext-only attack?

Chaocipher was invented by John F. Byrne in 1919. The algorithm was recently revealed – see Moshe Rubin's Chaocipher Revealed, the Algorithm (PDF). While a known plaintext attack successfully finds ...
803 views

### How secure is the AES master key if Round Keys are found

If an attacker finds some round key of AES256, is it possible to find the master key? How safe is the master key if an attackers finds multiple round keys?
1k views

### Why does Openssh use only SHA1 for signing and verifying of digital signatures?

I am learning SSH protocol. With my current understanding of SSH protocol, I think that message digest algorithms for using in digital signature should be derived from Key Exchange. But Openssh ...
186 views

### Should different key pairs be used for signing and encryption?

In the recent iOS Security white paper from Apple (February 2014), the section on iMessage discusses using two different asymmetric key types as part of its standard operation: When a user turns ...
286 views

I want to encrypt data and protect its integrity and confidentiality. However, I cannot increase the length of the data. Are there any cipher modes of operation which provide confidentiality and ...
1k views

### Can curve25519 keys be used with ed25519 keys?

Can curve25519 keys be used with ed25519? I'd prefer to use ed25519, but there isn't a fast java version. For my application, I'd like to use curve25519 until I can get a faster ed25519 for java. ...
236 views

### Is the following symmetric design secure?

Assume: $O$ be a reversible random permutation oracle on a finite set and $O^{-1}$ the inverse permutation (pretty much equivalent to a random permutation: What is the difference between a bijective ...
170 views

### Difference between computational and statistical indistinguishabilities

What is the difference between the two notions of computational and statistical indistinguishability?
271 views

### how to iteratively calculate a^emod n with modulus n sized 4096 bits

In most sites the exponent of the RSA public key is 24 bits. But the modulus can get to 4096 bits size. I have an accelerator that can get max. 2112 bit size modulus. It calculates ...
2k views

### Why does second pre-image resistance imply pre-image resistance

I am studying hash functions. I can understand why collision resistance implies second preimage resistance, but I don't get why second preimage resistance should imply first preimage resistance. ...
188 views

### Can S/MIME be still considered secure?

Previoulsy I had asked this question at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18235983/can-s-mime-be-still-considered-secure but I feel this forum is topic-wise the right place. Recently there has been ...
17k views

### What is the “shared secret” used for in IPSec VPN?

Can somebody explain what the "shared secret" and "password" do when opening/creating a VPN tunnel? In this specific case I setup a VPN to my Fritz!Box and I had to provide a shared secret (which was ...
413 views

### Does SRP reduce to DH key exchange when shared password is not secret?

I can find JavaScript implementations of SRP (Secure Remote Password protocol), but nothing that inspires confidence for Diffie-Hellmen key exchange. I also have a separate need for SRP later. I ...
682 views

### How do I unpack the x and y values from the BITSTRING in a DER ECDSA public key?

In ASN.1, the X and Y values for a 256-bit elliptic curve key are stored as a single 66-byte ASN.1 BITSTRING. Are the values just the first and second half of this bitstring? The private key is an ...
683 views

### Is it feasible to break Diffie-Hellman key exchange when the implementation uses a poor-quality PRNG?

I've come across an implementation of DH in Java that uses the Random class to generate the secret integer value $a$, as shown in in Wikipedia's description of the ...
893 views

### Is there a practical security difference between XXX-bit encryption?

I know I'm treading in dangerous waters asking this - my comprehension of cryptography math is sorely lacking. On the flip side it gives me massive admiration for what many of you are able to do. ...
3k views

### what kind of hash function can provide a short hash and be collision resistant?

When you try to connect via SSH, you see a signature which is short but I heard it is even stronger than sha256. It is perhaps stronger because it uses more rounds. Is there a hash function or a ...
435 views

### What is 'security margin'?

I have been academic papers about Rijndael, Serpent, and Twofish, and there is this term that is vague to me. I cannot find a tangible definition in google. Can someone briefly define, describe, ...
399 views

### Source for examples with broken cryptography

I've heard again and again that many crypto systems have been broken in the past for one reason or another and that it is best to use one that has been peer reviewed, etc etc. However, I've yet to see ...
4k views

### AES-GCM and its IV/nonce value

I was reading about the differences between the GCM and the CBC more here and I have a follow up doubt on the same. In the CBC mode the person who performs the encryption is the one who provides the ...
730 views

### Which block cipher modes of operation allow a predictable IV?

Recently I found out that in the modes CBC and PCBC the IV may be passed in cleartext but never must be predictable. However for this part of my app I rather have the IV be predictable and unique ...
610 views

First, just to make sure I understand "salting" correctly: You randomly generate a string to append to the password before hashing it, so as to increase its length and make precomputed tables much ...
467 views

### How secure is my OTP program?

I'm writing an One-Time Pad encryption program, because I got really interested in the idea of " encryption which has been proven to be impossible to crack if used correctly". I'm writing the program ...
246 views

### Do public/private pairs work both ways?

Public/private key algorithms such as RSA encrypt a message with a private key but only decrypted with another (mathematically related) key. Can the public key decrypt the messages encrypted with ...
4k views

### Big-O Notation: Encryption Algorithms

I am currently completing a dissertation concerning the encryption of data through a variety of cryptographic algorithms. I have spent much time reading journals and papers but as yet have been ...
348 views

### What challenge should I use in a challenge-response proof-of-work?

In order to guard against denial-of-service attacks, I want to require clients to do some work (more work than the server does fulfilling the request) before talking to them. Client connects Server ...
972 views

### If you had to implement the BGN Cryptosystem, how would you do it?

If you had to implement BGN, how would you do it? I'm looking for an implementation of the public-key cryptosystem due to Boneh, Goh, and Nissim (aka BGN), or at least some suggestions on ...
415 views

### Provable Encryption

Is it possible to encrypt data in a way that it can be proven that the data is encrypted, without revealing the key? Alice chooses some plaintext, then she encrypts it with a certain scheme. She ...
1k views

### Why is ElGamal considered non-deterministic?

One difference between RSA and ElGamal is that ElGamal isn't necessarily deterministic (while RSA is). What makes it non-deterministic? Is this advantageous to security? How else does this property ...
611 views

### Does the XML Encryption flaw affect SSL/TLS?

A "practical attack against XML's cipher block chaining (CBC) mode" has been demonstrated: XML Encryption Flaw Leaves Web Services Vulnerable. Does this weakness of CBC-mode which is used here also ...
184 views

### When is an asymmetric scheme considered broken?

Does the following quote imply that valid encrypted data can be created and decrypted by someone other than the owner of a private key: An asymmetric encryption scheme is considered to be broken ...
2k views

### Brute forcing CRC-32

I'm working on a cryptosystem which uses IDEA. The designer made the mistake of including a CRC-32B hash of the password unencrypted in the header, so that the system can quickly reject bad ...
94 views

### What is scale-invariance notion of a fully homomorphic encryption scheme?

I read this paper https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/078.pdf and I didn't understand what does the author mean with scale-invariance perspective. The perspective in which we view the ciphertext is ...
120 views

### CBC-MAC just to verify integrity

I have a message and I want to verify its integrity and authenticity. I have a shared secret (key) that is not used for other encryption. Is it safe to send a plaintext message containing all the ...
224 views

### Implementing CBC Encryption Using Decryption

I've implemented this algorithm, which, working from the end of the message backwards, creates a valid CBC ciphertext from any plaintext, using the block cipher's decryption operation instead of the ...
239 views

### Can a 1 byte difference in AES 128 bit keys make huge difference in output?

If we take some randomly generated key of AES-128 and we change any random 1 byte of that 16 byte key, will this make huge difference in the AES cipher text generated over same input string? Does ...
128 views

### Turning a 64 bit block cipher into a 128 bit block cipher

There are quite a few block cipher modes of operation that require 128 bits. There are also modes of operation where a higher block size than 128, e.g. a block size of 256 bit would even be practical. ...
439 views

### Are there some problems to use pseudo-random number generator in Smart Card?

A Smart Card is a kind of secure device, with limited storage capacity and computational resource. If we use a Pseudo-Random Number Generator to generate random numbers in a Smart Card, then is there ...
530 views

### How does MD5 process text which is shorter than 512 bits

MD5 processes a 512-bit block and produces a 128-bit (16 byte) message digest often expressed as 32-digit hexadecimal value For example if I hash the word "how" using MD5 , I get the following hash ...
101 views

### Authenticating Very Short (Sub-Block) Data

If I'm encrypting very short/small data - like an int or a long (32 or 64 bits), does it make any sense to authenticate the ciphertext, when using an "online" mode of operation (like EAX)? ...
2k views