# All Questions

2k views

### Why is H(k||x) not a secure MAC construction?

If H(m) is a secure hash function, can't we implement a MAC using H(k||m)? However, it seems the more widely used MACs, such as NMAC and HMAC (both originally defined in Keying hash functions for ...
61 views

### Is script execution time a decent source of pseudorandom number generation?

This is for a PHP script for password generation. Naturally there are other things being calculated before the password is generated. But I figure the time it takes for the script to initialize and ...
45 views

### Why don't we use H(m||k) as a MAC? [duplicate]

HMAC seems a bit complicated. Why can't we use $H(m||k)$ as a MAC? Unlike $H(k||m)$, length extension attacks won't work. Is there some other obvious attack?
10 views

### Cracking DES(Unix)/MD5 ARP [migrated]

This is a basic exemple of Unix Pass Encryption. I have little Hash of MD5 ARP : ...
105 views

So these days I see everyone using AES-GCM. What are its advantages over simple CTR+HMAC modes? Is it speed? Or ciphertext length? And what are the security tradeoffs, both in terms of practical ...
213 views

### NTRU crypto from unseen.is; myth busting help

I am always on the look out for privacy enhancing technologies. I stumbled upon the service from unseen.is. I had a look at their site (specifically here) and even though I lack knowledge there are a ...
72 views

### Can I use asymmetric encryption for more powerful write-protection?

I have a game that I am developing which uses a locally-stored internal database. It does not matter to me whether a user can read the file (which, to me, means I don't need a symmetric cipher), but I ...
100 views

### Why does CTR mode XOR the plaintext into the output of the block cipher rather than XORing the plaintext into the input of the block cipher?

As I understand it, CTR mode essentially turns a block cipher into a stream cipher like so: ...
168 views

### Is it meaningful to consider the leakage of master key of KGC?

In the Identity-based cryptography, the user's private key in the systems is delivered by the key generation center(KGC). My question is : Is it meaningful to consider the leakage of master key of ...
117 views

### Questions about OAEP for RSA

I have two questions about OAEP for RSA. How are the number of bits to pad with 0 chosen? For example, if I'm sending a 255 byte message with RSA-2048 I have 8 unused bits (1 byte). Should I split ...
30 views

### Should layered use of crypto always have a cryptographic binding between the layers?

Reading the latest TLS weakness, it seems that multiple weaknesses have been found over the years caused by not ensuring that messages are sent over the same channel, and in general a lack of ...
145 views

### OpenSSL PBKDF2 documentation

I'm using OpenSSL 0.9.8 on OSX Maverick, and I want to use a PBKDF but I can't find any doc/man about it on OpenSSL's website. I'm working on QCA, an OpenSSL wrapper for Qt, and when I arrived there ...
101 views

### What RC4 key value will completely invert $S$ after initial permutation?

What RC4 key value will completely invert $S$ after the initial permutation, so that $S[0] = 255, S[1] = 254, …, S[254] = 1, S[255] = 0$?
126 views

### How does TLS generate the shared secret?

From many readings, I got to know that TLS generates master shared secrets using pre-master keys and uses the DH algorithm to generate the shared secret/Master secret. What values during the hello ...
129 views

### How do multiple parties agree on a target block to hash for?

Bitcoin style blockchain… I have party(node) A, B, C and algorithm X. Algorithm X generates the first half of a target hash input - the "solution" to the problem. I want A, B and C to sign their ...
61 views

### Machine Learning with Encryption [duplicate]

Machine Learning is sometimes associated with cryptography. Many of such cross field studies have been majorly done in use of machine learning for cryptanalysis/decryption. I am interested in knowing ...
95 views

### Frequency of letters change by the length of the texts?

In terms of the frequency of letters, how is it possible to have different frequent letters when the length of the text I'm analyzing is shorter? At the moment, I'm comparing the frequencies of a ...
64 views

### Check the validity of a rsa key pair with only the public key? [duplicate]

I am currently developing a messaging application that uses rsa end to end encryption. The client generates permanent rsa keys, and sends the public key to my server for account management. As it ...
60 views

### If $G'(s)=G(s0^{|s|})$ and $G$ is a PRNG, is $G'$ necessarily a PRNG? [on hold]

I argue it is because there should be no more correlation between the outputs $G(s0^{|s|})$ than between the outputs $G(s)$. Thus we can say the $G'(s)$ is a PRNG that satisfies $|G'(s)| \geq 4|s|$. ...
262 views

### How do institutions like banks do RSA with big primes?

When encrypting with RSA it is often infeasible to decrypt by just doing c^d mod n, because for example when using the primes $(p,q)=(12553,1233)$, which are small ...
103 views

### Which data to share in CTR mode?

Suppose I've got two clients $A$ and $B$. Client $A$ encrypts data in CTR (Counter) mode to get a ciphertext. What information will client $B$ have to receive from $A$ to decrypt the ciphertext? Just ...
80 views

### Need Help Reversing my Encryption Algorithm [closed]

So I wrote a simple encryption algorithm (Not very secure, just a starting point. I don't want criticism on it.) and I have been having trouble finding a way to decrypt the text. The algorithm is here ...
68 views

### File Encryption (EFS method)

I'm implementing (for learning purposes) a file encryptor, which uses the following method (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypting_File_System). I have 3 kind of keys: RSA public/private, AES ...
105 views

### Derive both MAC and AES keys from same PBKDF2?

When doing password-based encryption, is it OK to create one instance of PBKDF2 from the password, and then use it to create both the AES key and the MAC key? (Or should a new instance of PBKDF2 be ...
4k views

### Where i can find an AES implementation in python?

Where i can find a "reviewed" version of AES implementation in python. Not an API like PyCrypto whereby you can call AES algorithms in a single line.
311 views

### Estimating random number entropy for input into 256 bit hash

Assuming a random number generation process outputs lots of numbers between 0-9. First I gathered up a bunch of the numbers, converted them to binary and created a bitmap. Not so random as you can ...
193 views

### Is there a “brainwallet” for GPG keys? [closed]

Brainwallet is a program that takes a passphrase (hopefully a good one) and deterministically creates a Bitcoin wallet. This wallet can be used for transactions, then deleted from the computer. To get ...
76 views

### Using RSA key pair for file encryption

I'm looking for a way to perform encrypted nightly backups of a server I administer, without storing the decryption key on the server. A form of PK encryption seems ideal for this, as I can store the ...
44 views

### IND-CPA Security

Given a key $K$ (the key is fixed) and a nonce $N$ (changes from one message to another) Using a secure Key derivation function (KDF) such as the ANSI-X9.63-KDF with SHA-1 option to derive a key for ...
19 views

### Determine the iteration times using Pollard's rho Method for factoring

Let's say, we have a large number $n=181937053$ and $f(x)=x^2+1$. And also we know that $n=12391 \times 14683$. The problem is that ,using Pollard rho method, can we find the algorithm iteration ...
1k views

### How to calculate the time it'll take to crack RSA or DH?

Sometimes the easiest way to describe security of a type of cryptography is to say that "the time it takes to solve for an x-bit key would be y years". How would one go about doing such a calculation ...
137 views

### Solving a discrete logarithm using GDlog

I am trying to calculate an $x$, such that $t = g^x \pmod p$ in order to crack a weak ElGamal encryption for university. I found GDlog, but I cant figure out how I can use the input to calculate my ...
498 views

### Why Elliptic curve cryptography are not popular in practice

RSA and ElGamal can be implemented using the technique of Elliptic curves. I am confused on why the it seems that Elliptic curves are not so popular in cryptographic applications since they provide ...
176 views

### Does ElGamal Encryption create a different key for each block sent?

I ask about ElGamal algorithm. Is ElGamal algorithm used new key for each encryption process. in other word it should we use new key for each chunk? For example, if we have message that has four block ...
57 views

### Generating a valid signature on El-Gamal without knowing the private key

Suppose we are given $p$, the large prime, $g$ which is the primitive root for $p$, $b$ which is calculated as $b=g^x$ mod $p$ where $x$ is the private key and $0<x<p-1$. Also suppose we know ...
141 views

### Z*p Generator (Cyclic Group) in java

I am trying to implement ElGamal in java without using the in-built libraries. The problem occurs when I am trying to find the generators of the number(in this case 11). Everything works perfectly ...
513 views

### ElGamal signature without calculating the inverse

I stumbled upon this question in some textbook. Propose a variant of ElGamal signature scheme such that there is no need to calculate the inverse $k^{-1}$ as it is usually done using the EEA. ...
252 views

### ElGamal signature - exploiting fallacious implementation

This question is related to ElGamal signature scheme as defined here ElGamal signature without calculating the inverse Show how one could exploit an implementation ElGamal signature scheme in which ...
316 views

### Mapping between subgroups and the integers

This question is a companion to the equivalent question on elliptic curves. Preliminaries Diffie-Hellman, Elgamal, DSA, etc. are examples of protocols that work in the integers modulus a large prime ...
267 views

### ElGamal message signatures retrieving the secret value x

If the GCD(r, p-1) is small and the value k is used to sign a message using ElGamal is also small. Then the secret value of x can be determined. Why is this true? How would one retrieve x?
667 views

724 views

### What does SSL use? RSA? El-Gamal? Elliptic curves?

I'm not sure what SSL uses to share the symmetric key to both end users, i.e. at the beginning of the communication. Is it RSA? Or El-Gamal? Or something else?
1k views

### ElGamal Signature Scheme: Recovering the key when reusing randomness

Show how if Alice uses the same value of $k$ to sign two different messages $m_1$ and $m_2$, using the ElGamal signature scheme, Eve can recover the value of $a$ from the corresponding signatures ...
264 views

### Safe generator for ElGamal signature

What are the properties a generator $g$ should have to be secure for ElGamal signatures (original scheme)? I am aware that it is poorly chosen and not secure when $g|p-1$ or $g^{-1}|p-1$, where $p$ ...
354 views

### Besides key and ciphertext sizes what are other advantages of elliptic curve versions of various protocols?

There are elliptic curve variants of Diffie-Hellman, ElGamal, DSA and possibly other protocols/algorithms. I know that these elliptic curve variants have smaller key and ciphertext sizes which will ...
174 views

### Efficient algorithm for remainder calculation over prime field for ECC implementation?

I am working on 224-bit elliptic curve cryptography. In this 224-bit * 224-bit multiplication results 448-bit output. I am reducing 448-bit into prime field range( prime number $2^{224}-2^{96}+1$) ...
173 views

### ElGamal: Generation of “g” value?

I haven't been able to find a clear explanation on this (and I'm probably just confused in general). I have the following parameters of ElGamal signatures: $p$ = safe prime $q = (p-1)/2$ $g$ = an ...
I read that Silver–Pohlig–Hellman algorithm solves the discrete logarithm with prime module $p$ in $O(\log^2(p))$ if $p-1$ is a smooth number. This seems pretty fatal for cryptography, since it is a ...