# All Questions

661 views

### HMAC vs ECDSA for JWT

I will be implementing JSON web tokens into my website and have a question about implementing them. I have a choice of using two algorithms, HMAC-SHA256 and ECDSA-SHA256. I have used HMAC-SHA256 in ...
334 views

### Using a SHA512 hash to encrypt data

How can I judge the level of security with the following algorithm: I create a 64 byte hash using SHA512 via some input. I use this hash to iterate over the plaintext, byte by byte, and similarly ...
62 views

### Is it OK to use a secret IV as key when creating keyed MD5 checksum for fixed-size data?

Is it OK to use a secret IV as key when creating keyed MD5 checksum for fixed-size data? Because data size is known, attacker cannot append anything. And I think it's hard to raise chosen-plaintext ...
92 views

### Securely generating auth tokens

(Disclaimer: I'm an experienced server-side Java programmer, but with little crypto experience.) Objective: I've got a login server which, given a login+password pair, should issue a unique auth ...
77 views

### Improving security of (authentication) protocol

I have a basic protocol which tries to authenticate messages going from client to server. Basically it is like this: Imagine I want to send message M to server. Client computes a MAC over the ...
406 views

### Status of Algebraic Eraser key exchange?

Algebraic Eraser™ is a relatively new asymmetric key agreement protocol (also designated the Colored Burau Key Agreement Protocol), based on a simultaneous conjugacy search problem in a braid ...
40 views

### Is this ECC based messaging method secure?

I developing an encrypted messaging for ZeroNet (aP2P file-based network, website: zeronet.io) and would like to have some guidelines if any of this could work. My first idea: In ZeroNet every user ...
98 views

### How to prove that a SKE scheme is IND-CPA secure

There's an IND-CPA SKE scheme 1 $(\mathsf{Gen}, \mathsf{Enc}, \mathsf{Dec})$. Scheme 2 is defined as $(\mathsf{Gen}', \mathsf{Enc}', \mathsf{Dec}')$, where $\mathsf{Gen}' = \mathsf{Gen}$, ...
154 views

### Branchless AES Implementation

Imagine a branchless implementation of the AES-128 cipher. Are there any benefits over the implementation that contains branches, other than possible prevention of timing attacks? Is it even true, ...
121 views

### Is it an overkill to add external integrity check to the AES-GCM encoding?

There is a java library for android which implements integrity checking to predefined encrypting mode(which can be found here). Short class description from author page to avoid further questions ...
46 views

### Is it secure to use ciphertext feedback with RC4?

Consider the following modification of RC4 to give some "ciphertext feedback" ...
22 views

### Advantages of the general digraph trust model over the strict hierarchical model

Are there any advantages of using reverse certificates and the general digraph trust model over the strict hierarchical trust model as described here: In the digraph model each CA can generate ...
151 views

### Cracking simple RSA when just the ciphertext and one public key is known

Can someone explain to me (Or better yet, point me to a tool that does the brute forcing) how to crack a standard, simple RSA cipher (So don't bother with padding) if I know just one public key, the ...
147 views

### Symmetric encryption using RSA for random generated password

I'm fairly new to encryption, so I wanted to check the logic for a .net solution I'm working on that encrypts data between two parties. the receiving (decrypting) party will have an RSA key pair ...
71 views

### Why is Tor alone not enough to guarantee anonymity for Bitcoin?

Why is Tor alone not enough to guarantee anonymity for Bitcoin? Why do we need the constructions like Zerocoin?
146 views

### Proving collision resistance of a hash function?

Let $f$, $g$, and $h$ be hash functions that each map binary strings of length $2n$ to binary strings of length $n$. Suppose that $h(x) = f(g(x)||g(x))$. Prove that if $f$ and $g$ are collision ...
47 views

I've read the following paper and have one question on it. M. Luby and J. Staddon, "Combinatorial Bounds for Broadcast Encryption", EUROCRYPT'98. On page 523 (12th page of the paper) the authors say ...
47 views

### Key material leak from initialized cipher?

Let's imagine that cipher (say AES256 in CBC mode) is initialized when application starts: ...
59 views

### How is a group element converted into a key?

I've only just started research on cryptography so I apologize if this is a basic question or I'm getting terms confused. I'm researching braid group cryptography and currently looking at the ...
111 views

### Leading 00 in RSA public/private key file

I found these following values ALWAYS have the leading 00 in public/private key, public key: modulus private key: modulus, p,q, d mod (p-1), d mod (q-1), coefficient e.g., modulus ...
17 views

### Strength of a cryptography algorithm [duplicate]

I'm just read this article from Atmel corporation in comparing RSA with ECC cryptography algorithms. First of all please read these two paragraphs quoted from the article: P1: Strength of an ...
42 views

### Is a hash “reset sequence” possible?

Is there such thing as "hash reset sequence" that brings hash to the same known state? A hash function has a state. In MD5 and others vulnerable to the length extension attack, the attack works by ...
197 views

### Can the Smart-Vercauteren Homomorphic Encryption be implemented as a practical fully homomorphic encryption scheme?

Smart and Vercauteren proposed a homomorphic encryption scheme (PKC 2010) following Gentry's principles. ​ Though their scheme can achieve fully homomorphism theoretically, they admitted that "for ...
84 views

### IV larger than block size of cipher?

Is there any advantage to using an IV larger than a cipher's block size? Say I'm using AES-256 in Galois Counter Mode (GCM). My file format looks like this: ...
173 views

### Consequence of a change on the Guillou-Quisquater Protocol

In the Guillou-Quisquater Protocol, the prover convinces the verifier that he knows an $e$-th root of an element $y \in \mathbb{Z}^*_n$ ($p, q, e$ are primes, $n = pq$ and $e$ is coprime with ...
139 views

### How does a Hashing algorithm always result in a digest in a fixed size?

This question revolves around the Hashing Algorithm attribute that the resulting digest is always the same size (also known as Fixed Width). For example, whether you hash the word "hello", or 10gb ...
156 views

### Factorizing N to derive D [duplicate]

So I have the value of N. I have to use this value of N to find the value of D. N = 265291078722948385089717069136983657793 Now I read about RSA algos and found out that ...
87 views

### Do low-entropy fingerprints actually make any sense?

I'm thinking of ZRTP and OTR in particular here. From my understanding, after a Diffie-Hellman session is initiated, the shared secret is then hashed into a 4-digit number, which the two parties can ...
231 views

### What is the use case for XOF functions (i.e. SHAKE128/256)?

FIPS 202 defines 2 functions: SHAKE128 SHAKE256 As extendable-output functions (XOFs) that can have variable output length. But in Appendix A.2 marks: it is possible to use an XOF as a hash ...
86 views

### Time complexity of trial division

Suppose $n=pq$, where p,q are prime numbers. let $p ( \le q)$ be the smallest prime, then we know that $p \le \sqrt{n}$. In trail division, we check $n \mod i$ for the values of $i$ from 2 to ...
53 views

### Help with pseudorandom functions

I started a new lecture this year about crypto and I've had a few problems in the first few weeks with the exercises we got. I would appreciate a "guide" on how to solve problems like the following ...
104 views

### Are all encryption tools made equal?

I'd like to encrypt work-related data backups stored on an external drive. The backups contain proprietary company information and trade secrets. My current backup program, Comodo Backup, allows me ...
172 views

### Is there any relation between two strings with the same MD5 hash?

Is there any relation between two strings with the same MD5 hash? For example these two strings: ...
86 views

### what problem happen if we always use IV Zero in CBC Mode? [duplicate]

i have a question about CBC operating mode. what problem happen if we always use IV Zero in CBC Mode?
41 views

### Why we use operating modes in cryptography? [duplicate]

Why we use operating modes (CBC , . . ) in cryptography? i mean what is the essential of use it ?
126 views

### Relationship between exponent and modulus in RSA (as RSA properties as listed in X.509)

In one of my assignments, I had the following question (Please read on. Not a homework assignment :) ): X.509 (1998 version) lists properties that RSA keys must satisfy to be secure. One such ...
51 views