# All Questions

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### Generating non-repeating N-bit IVs, which are indistinguishable from randomness

I'm implementing a protocol which needs a 64-bit IV for every encrypted packet. The cipher in use (AES-GCM, more or less as specified in RFC 4106) does not require that these IVs are random, only ...
734 views

### What is the best method to determine the language used in a monoalphabetic substitution cipher?

Working on a cipher (which I assume to be a mono-alphabetic substitution cipher due to the letter frequency) I struggle with the fact that I don't know which language the plain text is written in. ...
281 views

### If a cryptanalytic breakthrough is made, what process should be followed?

If a researcher manages to make a cryptanalytic breakthrough on a cryptographic algorithm or protocol that is in use, what should they do? Has this ever happened before? What are the implications for ...
166 views

### Proof that Alternating Step Generator and modifed ASG' have equivalent security?

The Alternating Step Generator (ASG) is a PRNG combining 3 LFSRs. Output of the ASG is the XOR of the output of two clock-gated LFSRs. At each step, a single one of these LFSRs is clocked, according ...
430 views

### Sites to find crypto intermediate values

Does anyone know of any sites where intermediate values of multiple crypto algorithms (not just the famous ones), including hashes, can be found? I don't just mean intermediate values of encrypting. I'...
80 views

### Strange notation using dollar sign

In the paper Multi-Signatures in the Plain Public-Key Model and a General Forking Lemma, the authors Bellare and Neven use notation which looks like left arrow with dollar sign above it. Authors ...
102 views

### Does adding more characters to the Enigma rotors improve crypto strength?

This seems like an obvious question but I haven't been able to find it, so here goes: Enigma is based on an alphabet of A-Z (26 characters); obviously this directly affects message content (e.g. ...
110 views

### Encrypted firmware

I have seen many papers on "encrypted firmware" (for example, firmware on Apple Watch like devices) . Can you tell me how it works? Is there a stub in the firmware which is not encrypted and can ...
79 views

### How many blocks can securely be encrypted with XTS

I could not find in the NIST recommendations on XTS how many blocks can securely be encrypted with XTS-AES. Through the recommendations, I've found: The length of the data unit for any instance ...
98 views

### Generating an IV for AES-CBC

I am faced with the task of generating a secure 256-bit IV for AES-CBC. I possess the following resources: A 32-bit microprocessor A 32-bit PRNG (can read/reseed) A 64-bit clock counter (can read) ...
89 views

### How does the split mask countermeasure work on AES?

I am trying to understand the split mask countermeasure which is a masking method to avoid side channel attacks. Let's first describe the principle and then try to apply it to AES. I found this paper ...
81 views

### Does concatenation of two pair computational indistinguishable distributions still indistinguishable?

Let $X,X',Y,Y'$ be some distribution ensembles such that $X\sim X'$ and $Y\sim Y'$, where $\sim$ means computational indistinguishable. Define $(X,Y)$ be the distribution ensemble over $\{0,1\}^{2n}$ ...
131 views

### Fixed-prefix IV in CBC mode

I know the Initialization Vector needs to be unpredictable. Does it apply to the IV as a whole, or to every bit in the IV? I have multiple devices with poor entropy sharing the same key and I want to ...
449 views

### Applicability of birthday attack to AES brute force

Is the following snippet from a recently published cryptography book correct? EDIT: Expand the snippet from the book to make the context (symmetric key search) more clear. You can apply this to ...
146 views

### Can somebody help me understand RC4 Spritz? (Three Questions)

So ever since I first took a stab at understanding stream Ciphers, not one stood out more than RC4, because it's so fantastically simple. As most people reading this will know, with its fantastic ...
66 views

### Question about lower bound and upper bound key collision

I'm reading this article and I have a doubt in the page 7. First I going to describe the required definitions and next I formulate my question. Let be F(n)=\{f_k: \{0,1\}^n\rightarrow \{0,1\}^n| k\...
61 views

### Symmetric encryption algorithms with large IVs and authentication?

Most modern symmetric ciphers require a nonce/IV. If the nonce is reused, security is lost. If the nonce is large enough, it can be generated securely by using a CSPRNG. This avoids needing to keep ...
178 views

### Security game oracle queries

Concerning private key (symmetric) IND-CPA game definition: Attacker $A$ queries the encryption oracle polynomial number of times. $A$ sends the challenger $C$ a message pair $m_0$ and $m_1$. $C$ ...
65 views

### Comparing two definitions of one-way function

I'm reading Rafael Pass's lecture notes on one-way function and came across two definitions. The first one is: A function $f$ is one-way if $f$ can be computed in P.P.T. and there exists no non-...
189 views

### Is EncFS good for online storage services?

Conclusion from an EncFS audit: EncFS is probably safe as long as the adversary only gets one copy of the ciphertext and nothing more. EncFS is not safe if the adversary has the ...
293 views

### When is the Random Oracle model (not) necessary?

Hash functions are often used in cryptographic schemes and protocols, and that doesn't necessarily mean that their proofs are on the Random Oracle model. That leads to the following question: What is ...
942 views

### How to verify the integrity of RSA encrypted messages?

I need to encrypt messages using PublicKeyCrypto and send it to the server, where the message should be decrypted. I'm aware of the Padding Oracle Attack and want to apply a server side integrity ...
220 views

### EdDSA Signature Algorithm - hash of secret key

Why does EdDSA use the (SHA512) hash of the secret key as the exponent for the public key rather than using the secret key value directly? This seems inefficient and I can't see how it adds any extra ...
212 views

### How to generate own secure elliptic curves?

I know that the algorithm used to generate the Brainpool curves and the NIST curves is published. The algorithm should be this one (RFC5639 Appendix A). From what it looks like it's rather slow to ...
123 views

### Which attacks are possible against raw/textbook elliptic curve?

A quick question, we know that raw RSA is a no go. To solve this we have different PKCS standards forcing structure on the input messages. For EC the story is something else. For signatures we have ...
132 views

### Secure multiparty computation of conjunction

Suppose Alice and Bob each have bits a and b, respectively. How can Alice and Bob compute the function ...
415 views

### Does Ed25519 support cryptographic threshold signatures?

This is a loaded question so I'll list the concerns, not all of which need to be satisfied. Does there exist a threshold-signature scheme for Ed25519 that... Does not require a trusted dealer to ...
829 views

### Security analysis of Spritz?

Recently, a new cipher called Spritz has been released by Ronald L. Rivest and Jacob Schuldt. It should be a "drop-in replacement" for RC4. There are many differences to RC4, Spritz is "spongy" and ...
73 views

### Are HMACs based on hashes with larger bit-lengths also more secure?

When doing encrypt-then-mac, I can choose to use a hmac as the MAC. For example, I could use a hash like SHA-256 or SHA-512 (by using it as a keyed hash) to create that HMAC. Does it increase ...
172 views

### How to construct a next bit predictor from a distinguisher

I read the claim, without proof, that it is possible to construct a next bit predictor for any PRNG given an oracle distinguisher for that PRNG and vice versa. How do I prove that? A distinguisher ...
542 views

### Can a homomorphic encryption scheme be made CCA2 Secure?

Is it possible to modify a homomorphic encryption scheme so that it can be CCA2 secure? From the definition of a homomorphic scheme, it seems that it is malleable, which would result in lack of CCA2 ...
367 views

### Does salt size affect password hash security?

I use PBKDF2-SHA512 with an iteration count of 128,000 to hash my passwords. I use a CSPRNG to generate a salt per password. However, I am unsure about the ideal size of the salt. I have read a lot of ...
4k 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 ...
2k views

### Good entropy source for generating openssl keys

I need to generate a CA (4096-bit RSA) and server keys for openvpn and I want them to be "top quality". Here is my plan: gather entropy from multiple sources (saving individual files): FreeBSD ...
524 views

### Help with linear cryptanalysis

I am new to linear cryptanalysis, so I decided to try to break a toy cipher that was designed to be vulnerable to linear cryptanalysis. Unfortunately, I can't get it to work no matter how hard I try. ...
518 views

### Initialization Vector Properties

This is a multi-layer problem, and I want to take you through the whole thing rather than just asking about IVs. Bear with me. Also, all code below is in Common Lisp because that's what I'm using, but ...
117 views

### Is there any existing analysis for this construction to turn a tweakable blockcipher into a PRF?

I'm basically looking at this construction to turn a tweakable blockcipher $E_c(x)$ taking a key $k$, nonce $n$, counter $c$ (forming tweak $t = c||n$) and an input $x$ into a PRF on an arbitrary-...
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### How can I take advantage of repeated patterns in non random RSA prime factors?

I am researching vulnerable RSA moduli which are composed of primes generated with poor entropy. Having a list of these primes I searched for variable sized repeated patterns among them and I noticed ...
133 views

### Authentication protocols for authenticating devices to a server

The requirement is to authenticate 1000s of devices to a server when the devices try to contact the server. The problem I face is that all authentication protocols require some kind of shared secret ...
2k views

### Is encrypting a single 128 bit block with AES ECB “safe”

I want to encrypt a small piece of data that is less that 16 bytes in size (think SSN), and I'll be using a 256bit encryption key. The typical suggestion is to never use ECB, but if there is just a ...