# All Questions

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### RSA - PKCS#1 padding - overall correction of algorithm

From PKCS#1, page 24: After we create the EM byte string and convert it to an integer, we then encrypt that integer with RSAEP (page 10) to get the ciphertext (as an integer). My question arrives ...
427 views

### Stateless hash based public key cryptography?

Merkle-Winternitz signatures based on fractal hash trees are an attractive alternative to other post-quantum cryptographic schemes, in particular since they are conceptually simple, the security ...
111 views

### Ensuring integrity and confidentiality together with symmetric encryption

I've been required to answer a question: As usually, we have Alice and Bob. Suppose Alice wants to send a file F to Bob, ensuring integrity and confidentiality. They share a symmetryc key ...
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### CPA-security proof of “l-padded RSA” encryption scheme

The 10.9 exercise from the Katz-Lindell textbook creates a lot of confusion, let me state it here. Consider the following experiment for an algorithm $A$ and a function $l$ with $l(n) \leq 2n-2$ for ...
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### Hitting a counter example in homomorphic encryption over the integers

The paper Fully Homomorphic Encryption over the Integers talks about a super simple symmetric key implementation on page 1 and 2. It says that to generate a key, you pick a random odd number between ...
444 views

### Does Curve25519 only provide 112 bit security?

In a recent mail on the IETF CFRG mailing list it was claimed that: The (currently missing) security considerations (or somewhere) should describe why Curve25519 is ok when used in contexts where ...
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### Exchanging keys via third party

In many symmetric key ciphers sender and receiver have to exchange a single key. They may also do it through 3rd party who distributes it to both of them. since 3rd party can read all messages ...
238 views

### Can iterated hashing be used to mitigate collision and preimage weaknesses?

How much security does double hashing add regarding collisions and preimages? Is it helpful to iterate a hash function even more times than two? For example, can MD5 be fixed (in practice) by ...
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### Encipher the following plaintext message using the Vignere method using the key K = [4,2,3] [closed]

Encipher the following plaintext message, Exotic, using the Vignere method using the key K = [4,2,3] Can anyone help me get the ...
532 views

### Is there a way to generate sound one-time pads out of public information?

Is there a way to 'mangle' a public data-source (for example, the current date in YYYYMMDD or the top New York Times headline) to form a one-time pad that will sufficiently hide the pad's source? ...
142 views

### What was the NSA's reasoning for making their bitwise combination functions in SHA-1 the way they did?

I know that these functions are there to actually make the program work. What I want to know is why they made the functions one way but not another. For example, why did they pick F1(B, C, D) = (B ...
273 views

### Cryptography and FPGA

I see a lot of papers about FPGA implementations. For what kind of "concrete" application should we implement cryptographic algorithms on FPGA ? Which secured application require such a huge data ...
37 views

### Clarification of RFC2246 with regards to Finished Message

I'm working on a client handshake finished message for a TLS client, and I'm reading through the RFC 2246 spec. The spec states (in section 7.4.9): The hash contained in finished messages sent by ...
421 views

### Choose a random number that is different from a bunch of other secret numbers

I'm looking for an algorithm where n participants each have a different secret number between $[0..x]$ (and where $x$ is known) and where the participants then select randomly another, non-secret, ...
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I have an OLD work database that seems to have a simple encryption on the PW. I have one users whose pw is 7777 the cipher text is ...
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### Can RSA be securely used for “blind decryption”?

Assume we have the following setup: A client with trusted storage and computing capabilities (e.g. a smartcard) A server with trusted computing and short-term storage capabilities (e.g. RAM + CPU, ...
118 views

### Shamir Secret Sharing: Why cannot we recover polynomial's root if we have $t-1$ shares?

Imagine we have $t-1$ shares in $(t,n)$ shamir secret sharing. So at least $t$ shares are needed. Question: Why cannot we use $t-1$ shares to find a root of the polynomial and then recover the ...
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### Safe generation of $k$ points on a curve such that the mutual discrete logs are hard?

I have a multiplicative group $G$ of prime order $p$ implemented using a twisted Edwards curve (similar to Ed25519). I want to compute a set of $k$ distinct points $P_1,...,P_k$ that generate $G$, ...
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### What is matrix branching program?

Recently I am reading something about order-revealing encryption (by Boneh at al. in EuroCrypt 2015) and encountered "matrix branching programming". It seems like it took me forever to understand ...
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### In $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$, is $(a+b\cdot r)$ a random value for fixed $a,b$ and random $r$?

Let $p$ be a prime number. Consider two fixed values $a,b\in\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$, where $b\neq0$, and a uniformly random value $r\leftarrow \mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$. Is $v=a+b\cdot r$ a uniformly ...
159 views

### Assemble RSA keys from components [closed]

I'm studying openpgp cryptography and struggling to understand some things. I can't use pgp tool for generating keys and ecryption, but have to write a simple app to generate keys, encrypt and decrypt ...
130 views

### Supersingular Isogeny Key Exchange broken?

Found this report detailing a quantum algorithm for computing isogenies between supersingular elliptic curves. http://cacr.uwaterloo.ca/techreports/2014/cacr2014-24.pdf with the quote ...
124 views

### Is it possible to track down copies of WW2-era codebooks?

I've got an academic curiosity regarding some of the old Japanese naval codes used during World War II specifically. I'm wondering if any of the codebooks from this era have been made available, or ...
50 views

### Random Function size

I am new to cryptography. I have question regarding the size of the set of random functions. I found the text from "Introduction to modern cryptography" by Katz and Lindell, in another thread which ...
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I would love to have a system where the password is never send in plaintext (even with TLS) to authenticate a user. I've come up with this protocol, but I'd rather use something proven. Registration: ...
376 views

### ECC considered secure in OpenSSL?

If I perform the following command: openssl ecparam -list_curves using my OpenSSL version (1.0.1f), it spits out the following supported curves: ...
3k views

### Why is RSA encryption significantly faster than decryption?

I am designing an implementation of RSA . I recorded computation times in Java by using System.currentTimeMillis(). It returned an encryption time of 0.05 ms and ...
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### Email: Degrees of Security [closed]

It has been explained to me by IT that there is no such thing as totally secure email - but rather a spectrum. If systems are secured via https and SSL what degree of encryption/security are we ...
627 views

### Why does openssl BN_generate_prime return only a fraction of the safe primes within the given bit range?

I went into prime generation issues the last week and eventually calculated 10^7 primes using erik tews safeprimegen python wrapper for openssl. (https://github.com/eriktews/gensafeprime) (System: ...
105 views

### Pseudo Random Function

The definition of pseudo randomness that leads to pseudo random function talks about indistingishability of a key-ed function and a random function. i.e. The key-ed function family $\{F_k\}$ is PRF ...
190 views

### Changing SRP-6a message order

In SRP-6a, the public key $B$ of the server is normally sent after receiving the public key of the client $A$. Is it okay to send $B$ and $s$ after the client sends its username $I$, but before the ...
851 views

### Is SipHash cryptographically secure?

I'm evaluating different hash algorithms for use in my application. One of the kind of algorithms I am looking at are cryptographically secure ones to protect against DOS attacks. SipHash seems ...
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### Additive homomorphic encryption scheme without change in operator

I'm looking for an additive homomorphic encryption that the addition operator (+) in its plaintext space be the same as addition operator in its ciphertext space. (Schemes like Paillier do addition in ...
291 views

### A fast non-cryptographic hash function that is “strong enough”?

I'm designing a simple one-time-password mechanism for authentication against a possibly-insecure server - i.e. I don't want to use symmetric shared secrets. The first idea that came into mind was ...
937 views

### Generate a unique 64 bit numeric database key without collisions at $2^{32}$ birthday threshold?

What is the best way to generate a unique 64 bit numeric database key from a string? For example: if the string is a URL, you could generate a 64 bit key using SipHash or by truncating a SHA256 hash ...
98 views

### Cryptanalysis of Marvin32 compared to SipHash

So I am curious about the security analysis of Marvin32, the randomized hash algorithm used in .NET (to prevent hash-table DoS). I found the source code here: ...
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### Does SipHash have 64 bit (second) preimage security?

I was not able to find an explicit statement about the first and second preimage security of SipHash-2-4 or SipHash-4-8 anywhere. I think it should be 64 bits, but I'd feel safer if somebody who has ...
2k views

### Knowing pre-encryption data, can we find the private key CryptoLocker used?

One of our users seems to have been hit by CryptoLocker. As a result, he has a hard drive full of encrypted files. The ransom-ware claims to have used public key encryption on the files. If we know ...
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### How can I handle the situation if key size is less than 64 bits in DES?

If the data is not a multiple of 64 bits, then I can use padding. I know that it is not secure. But if the key is less than or more than 64 bits, should I ask the user to enter the key again, or ...
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### Digital signature algorithms within the European Union

I've just noticed that US NIST has accepted DSA as a digital signature standard. Does the European Union have a similar standard, specifying an algorithm to use when digitally signing messages? I ...
344 views

### Encryption of 8 bit of block data

I'm looking for a cryptographic algorithm that allows encrypting only 8 bits of data in a block. Is there any such algorithm that is considered secure? The reason I'm asking is because I have to ...
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### What is the difference between a random oracle and a probabilistic algorithm? [closed]

What is the difference between a random oracle and a probabilistic algorithm?
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### Envelope Encryption with asymmetric keys vs KMS

In Envelope encryption a symmetric secret key is used to sign the data and then another key is used to encrypt the secret to produce an encrypted secret key. The encrypted messages is packaged with ...
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### How to encrypt/decrypt data in an SPI BIOS FLASH

I need some info/suggestions about the cryptographic algorithm that make me sure that the executed bios by the CPU is an authenticated bios. The check has to be performed by a FPGA. I have SPI Flash ...
973 views

### Does it make sense to have a compression function that uses 64-bit of the message to create an output of 64-bit?

I have a very simple compression function, which looks like this in C++: ...
Lets say we have a message $m$ that we encrypt with two keys $k_1, k_2$ such that $k_1 \ne k_2$. This will produce two ciphertexts $c_1, c_2$ such that $c_1 = m \oplus k_1, c_2 = m \oplus k_2$. The ...