All Questions

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Why is there an extra block when encrypting?

I am passing input data 20 bytes long and java AES-CBC returns 48 bytes instead of 32 which is what I think it should output because of padding. My key is 16 bytes long. ...
28 views

Do OpenPGP SmartCards have the same or better security than an air-gapped machine?

Are OpenPGP SmartCards, such as the OpenPGP SmartCard V2, suitable enough to have secure communications? Meaning, if I connect my smart card to my Mac which is connected to the internet and always ...
103 views

RSA: Fermat-Euler Theorem - coprimality of message and modulus [duplicate]

I understand the implication of the Fermat-Euler theorem and how it applies to RSA and the detailed explanation by user Ninefingers at What is the relation between RSA & Fermat's little ...
23 views

The number of surviving key after “Meet in the middle stage” in 3-subset MITM attack

In 3-subset Meet in the middle attack, how can we calculate the number of surviving key after meet in the middle stage? and how can we calculate the complexity of Key testing stage? I have read about ...
68 views

Signature scheme doesn't seem to hold

I can't seem to verify the signature scheme described below. Key Generation Public Key: $$y_1=g^{a_1}y^{a_2} \pmod p$$ $$y_2=g^{b_1}y^{b_2} \pmod p$$ $g$ denotes a generator of $Z_p^*$ and $y$ ...
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What does $\mathbb Z_p^*$ contain?

I have a prime $p = 7$ and was tasked to select a random value in $\mathbb Z_p^*$ in my signature scheme. What does the full range of $\mathbb Z_p^*$ contain in this case? Is it $\{0...7\}$ or ...
146 views

As a cryptographer, what are the things I should care about in my implementation of pairing functions?

As a beginner in cryptography, I do not know anything about different pairing types more than their names. So far, I know these names: Ate pairing, tate pairing, eta pairing, and r-ate pairing. I am ...
88 views

Why is g is less than p in Diffie-Hellman?

In non-authenticated DH, p and g are made as public record. p needs to be a large prime number and g should be smaller than p. Why does g need to be smaller than p?
120 views

Why do we need to compute message digest of a message first while signing it?

Why it is more efficient to compute a message digest of message and digitally sign it then, rather than sign the message directly?
120 views

recommendation to see documentaries about history of cryptography

Can anybody recommend any good documentaries which go into some history about cryptography and state of cryptography as of date ? I am not asking for favorites or subjective good documentaries but ...
84 views

What is the value of Q such that Q|P-1 where P is a prime number?

For my crypto assignment, I'm asked to enter a prime P and generate Q such that Q|P-1 Can anyone guide me what is Q|P-1?
910 views

Which attacks are possible against raw/textbook RSA?

The PKCS#1 standard defines multiple padding schemes for signature generation/verification (EMSA-PSS and EMSA-PKCS1-v1_5), and encryption/decryption (EME-OAEP and the less safe EME-PKCS1-v1_5). ...
91 views

Random Permutation polynomial

I need to know, please: (1) Is there anyway to pick uniformly at random permutation polynomial in a field of prime order? (2) Are there many permutation polynomials in a field? (3) In a finite ...
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Available programs that can verify the working of a simple substitution cipher

Is there any tool available that can test whether a simple substitution cipher is working. I will put my scenario in detail. Lets say I built a simple substitution cipher that maps 8 bit data to 16 ...
138 views

Franklin-Reiter related message attack m2 = a(m1)+b

As shown in their paper, https://www.cs.unc.edu/~reiter/papers/1996/Eurocrypt.pdf, if one is given an equation relating the two messages m1 and m2 as well as other information one can crack both the ...
198 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 ...
152 views

Repeated XOR decryption [closed]

I have this message in Hex: ...
64 views

Davies-Meyer Hash Function

So the Davies-Meyer Hash Function is: Hi = Hi−1 ⊕ exi (Hi−1) Say I pick H0 = 1110 0011 And the message x1 = "5" or "0000 0101" Is this the correct way to compute H1? H1 = 1110 0011 ⊕ (0000 0101 ⊕ ...
175 views

Zero Knowledge Example using discrete log

I've been exploring Zero Knowledge Proofs and while the classic cave example by Jean-Jacques Quisquater makes sense, I find the discrete log example problematic. Since the Verifier is given p, g and ...
137 views

Is it possible to decrypt the entire message with one half of the key in this example?

In this scheme, a 256 bit key is split into two 128 bit sub-keys. Message blocks are 256 bits and are also split into two sub-blocks. Before encryption, each sub-block is xor'd with it's partner and ...
97 views

Is it possible to add OpenSSL engine for a block algorithm with different input and output block size?

I need to add a new symmetric cryptography algorithm to OpenSSL, and I thought that the best way to do it is via its engine API. This algorithm will later be used by an application via the OpenSSL ...
623 views

What does “circuits” mean in Cryptography?

I am not a hardcore cryptographer so this might be a really stupid question. I am looking through some papers in homomorphic encryption and discovered they describe computation as "circuits", why do ...
219 views

Cracking secret key of a MD5 hash?

I have a MD5 hash which is obtained by hashing certain strings appended by a pipe character ( | ). (I know the values of these) A secret key is added as a suffix to this (I don't know the secret key). ...
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Encrypting with Davies-Meyer hash function scheme

So I need to to illustrate Davies-Meyer hash function for a message “123” with 1-byte blocks. I can use the extended ASCII representation where each character is represented as a byte. And I can pick ...
466 views

What is the most computationally efficient way of generating pseudo-random permutations?

I have an application in which I need to create up to J randomly shuffled-copies of an array of length N. Then I will have millions or even billions of iterations such that, in each iteration, I will ...
85 views

In RSA, why does Alice's $N$ need to be relatively prime to Bob's $N$?

I was asked this by my professor and I didn't understand the reasoning behind it. If Alice has a the key pair $(p_a, n_a)$ and Bob has the key pair $(p_b, n_b)$, why do $n_a$ and $n_b$ have to be ...
70 views

Understanding Cryptography practically [closed]

I have just undergone a one semester course in cryptography. I was introduced to multiple theoretical aspects, the way several algorithms work, the methods and their stability and so on. Due to time ...
629 views

What is more secure, a ciphertext encrypted with AES-256 or encrypted with 3 different AES-128 keys?

Or better yet, is encrypting a block with 2 AES-128 keys just as secure as encrypting a block with 1 AES-256 key? By the way, I've only recently been learning cryptography stuff; I've made working ...
2k views

Is a die implemented in a physics engine truly random?

So, a fair die throw is really random, not pseudo. So, would a RNG implemented as the result of a die throw in a physics engine (say, Newton, Havok, Nvidia's PhysX) be regarded as both ...
83 views

NIST implementation of the Lucas primality test

The NIST standard FIPS 186-4 describes an implementation of the Lucas primality test in section C.3.3. I can follow the algorithm but I am puzzled by step 6.2: ...
249 views

Square roots, prime factorization

I´m stuck in my homework and since its homework, I would rather get some hints than full solution. The problem goes: factorize n = 88416763 in case that you know that the square roots of 51733469 ...
89 views

Timing Attack on OpenSSL by Brumley

I am referring to this paper by David Brumley and Dan Boneh: Remote Timing Attacks are Practical (In proceedings of the 12th Usenix Security Symposium, 2003). In this paper on page 4, Brumley ...
68 views

The use of the term “sound” in cryptography [closed]

We often see the term "sound" in cryptography. What is the sense of this word ? Thank you.
88 views

Is SEAL 3.0 broken?

I'll like to know if SEAL 3.0 (cf http://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/papers/seal.pdf) is broken. I stumbled on Bernstein's website that claimed that SEAL 3.0 has been broken. (cf ...
183 views

Cryptosystems used to generate public key certificate

Where can we find the cryptosystems used to generate public key certificate? Are the cryptosystems under the signature algorithm and signature hash algorithm? Do I need to analyze the packets ...
179 views

RC4 encryption/ decryption with hashing

I am working on RC4 encryption/ decryption algorithm based on the following: A wants to send M to B, for that A did: H = Hash (K||M) C = Ek (M||H) A sent ...
76 views

Multi-round Transposition/Playfair as a secure hand cipher in the computer age

Given that computers can be easily compromised, there is a need for a hand cipher that can withstand computer attack. Clearly the traditional hand ciphers fail. One time pads work. They also have ...
82 views

Is $(f(X), G(X))$ pseudorandom?

If $f:\{0,1\}^n \to \{0, 1\}^n$ is a one-way function, $G:\{0, 1\}^n \to \{0, 1\}^m$ is a pseudorandom generator, and $U_m$ is the uniform distribution over $m$-bit strings. Is the joint distribution ...
75 views

Using same key for encryption and ECBC-MAC k2

ECBC-MAC: $E_{k_2}(CBC-MAC_{k_1}(m))$ If we use same key for encryption (CTR or CFB) and k2 (end tag encryption) in ECBC-MAC in encrypt-than-MAC sheme, is it secure?
44 views

How good is middle cube method with jumbled digits?

I had to make my own prng for a stream cipher for an inter school science project (I am mentioning that a lot). So I thought of cubing the seed instead of squaring it (like in the middle square ...
75 views

Is XCBC where k2 and k3 might be the identical, secure?

XCBC paper says all three keys should be independent. It doesn't say they must always be different. However it seems this is necessary to differentiate padded message and message without padding. ...
187 views

Brute Force AES Calculations

I have an encryption service in which the user decides the length and the type of key, so I would like to build a tool that educates the user on the brute force times for the key they created if using ...
385 views

Is splitting AES ecrypted data safe?

Say I have a key, an iv and an AES/GCM/NoPadding encoded string and I want to split this information between three people such that only jointly can they reveal the ...
125 views

AES mix column stage

In a PDF related to AES algorithm for mix column stage is written: The multiplication mentioned above is performed over a Galois Field. The mathematics behind this is beyond the scope of this ...
109 views

Can DH_anon really be exploited by an attacker?

General consensus is that DH_anon (and ECDH_anon) ciphersuites should be disabled since they offer no way to verify if the server is the one you intend to communicate with. However, I have never run ...
86 views

Showing that $2^{N-1}\equiv1\pmod N$ when $N=2^p-1$ for prime $p$

I got this question on a previous exam and I got it wrong. I've gone back through it several times since then, but I can't seem to get it. I would really like to know how to do it, so if someone could ...
File format of an $2048$ bits RSA public key
From here, there are $14$ bytes specifying the file format of the key. I am still quite confused about the format bytes. For example, the following public key 30 82 01 0a 02 82 01 01 00 8e a3 d1 c7 ...