# All Questions

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### What is the best current way to cryptographically secure databases?

I'm currently working on a proposal for some secure complete system and one of the things currently lacking is the database security. However I don't want to roll my own crypto there and thereby need ...
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### What size should the HMAC key be with SHA-256?

I'm trying to generate a secret key to be used for HMAC SHA-256 signature processing. I've seen many sample of keys with variable length from 32 characters to 96 characters. What is the ironclad rule ...
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### Contrasting Key Rotation Requirements : Asymmetric vs. Symmetric Ciphers

I'm trying to contrast key rotation requirements for asymmetric and symmetric ciphers. In the case of symmetric ciphers, we have the results such as the so called "CBC Theorem" (stated on pg. 24 of ...
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### How do I classify my RSA encryption strength?

So I generated 2 1024 bit prime numbers, I generated N and got a 2048 bit number, does that make my encryption 2048 bit or 1024 bit?
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### RSA Attack, known public key and ciphertext. Can decrypt the message m?

I'm stuck with this problem: Assume Alice and Bob are using RSA to communicate each other. Given Bob's public key $(217,7)$, Alice send the ciphertext $c=53$ to Bob through RSA encryption. Now, Eve ...
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### AES - What is the advantage of a 256-bit key with a 128-bit block cipher? [duplicate]

I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the decision to select the 128-bit Rijndael as the AES cipher, even with 192-bit and 256-bit keys. Even with a 256-bit key, you only get 2^128 possible outputs ...
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### Construct IND-CPA secure encryption scheme by combining two given schemes

I have two encryption schemes $\Pi_0, \Pi_1$, at least one of them is IND-CPA secure but I don't know which one. The task is to construct a scheme $\Pi$ that is guaranteed to be CPA secure and to ...
240 views

### AES Inverse Key Schedule

I have a 128-bit input-block and the corresponding cipher-block given. Additionally I have the last round-key given. Is it now possible to get (calculate) the associated cipher-key? I already ...
100 views

### ElGamal in a different group

Can Elgamal be secure in $\bmod {n^2}$? Meaning instead of using a prime order group to use a group where DCR assumption holds?
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### What libraries do people use to implement and evaluate cryptography protocols?

I want to implement this credential system: “Anonymous Credentials Light” (PDF). The implementation would involve some zero-knowledge proof and some exponentiation. For some basic group computations ...
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### How do I get the equivalent strength of an ECC key?

I know how to calculate the comparable symmetric strength of an RSA modulus: calculate the running time for a field sieve. This is how NIST gives approximate symmetric sizes for asymmetric algos in ...
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### Is PKCS#7 padding generated with a pseudo-random-number generator okay?

Let's take this PHP code. We use libsodium and libsodium-php. You have $text,$senderPrivateKey, ...
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### HMQV and MQV group representation attack

Currently reading Krawczyk's HMQV paper https://eprint.iacr.org/2005/176 and trying to follow what he says about the group respetnation attack on MQV: It says that for any group of prime order $q$, ...
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### setting the MGF hash to a different value other than the regular hash with openssl for PSS signatures

In PKCS1's Probabilistic Signature Mode you have the Hash and the MGF Hash. Both appear to be, by default, sha1, with the OpenSSL CLI client, however, I can change it to sha256 with the following: <...
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### PBEWithMD5AndDES Cipher does not check for integrity first?

I am running FindBugs with findsecbugs plugin to scan java code for security issues. I am getting "Cipher With No Integrity" error for a Cipher function implemented with "PBEWithMD5AndDES". The legend ...
144 views

### Theoretical decryption of RSA

I am currently looking into RSA and have some questions. I am interested in theoretical answers, assuming there is infinite time for decryption. Is it necessary to work out the private-key exponent ...
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### Why is Paillier Cryptosystem called probabilistic?

The definition of Paillier Cryptosystem says that it is a probabilistic asymmetric key algorithm for public key cryptography. Can some body explain why it is called "probabilistic"?
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### Is that simple additive homomorphic scheme secure?

I am doing a little cryptography research and stuck with question. Suppose $\bar m$ is a vector of 64-bit numbers. And i want to have an additive homomorphic encryption over them. I choose large (...
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### Transforming SHA-512 into SHA-512/256?

Based on my skimming over FIPS 180-4 it looks like the only difference between SHA-512 and SHA-512/256 is the initial hash value and the fact that the final output is truncated to 256 bits. My ...
3k views

### Signal vs Telegram in terms of protocols?

Some time ago, the question was asked in chat, why MTProto (Telegram's protocol) is supposedly worse than Axolotl (Signal's protocol) as both protocols have been the inventions of their respective ...
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### Compromise between HMAC and Digital Signature, by encrypting and sending secret key?

For achieving stateless authentication tokens (like JWT), is there a compromise between the performance of HMAC, and public key distribution of Digital Signature? Scenario: Sender is a centralized ...
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### What is the shortest fingerprint of a Curve25519 public key that is secure [duplicate]

My clients have to exchange public keys. To ensure security they are exchanging fingerprints and typing them into the computer by hands. I want the fingerprints to be as short as possible. I am ...
108 views

### Decisional Diffie-Hellman: compute Legendre symbol of $g^{ab}$ from $g^a$ and $g^b$?

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decisional_Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_assumption: Importantly, the DDH assumption does not hold in the multiplicative group $\mathbb {Z} _{p}^{*}$, where $p$ is ...
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### Is (1 bit HW signal) XOR (8 bits PRNG output) sufficient for a HWRNG?

This is really a follow up question to a comment made regarding How to roll a HWRNG In the situation of whitening a hardware generated random bit stream, "XORing the two bitstreams should be fine ...
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### What are the relative merits of padding algorithms pkcs7, iso7816, and x923?

I am assuming none of these padding algorithms are "the best"... But what are the advantages and disadvantages of using them? PKCS7 is certainly the most commonly used one, but I am interested in ...
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### HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) Keys using Safe Curves?

Bitcoin's HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) Keys as described in BIP32 allow for a master key to be created (a private key and a chain code) such that a tree of both public and private keys can be ...
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### Choice of the one-way function (OWF) for Lamport signatures

I am studying the Lamport signature scheme, and I found that in many sources (eg: Hash-based Digital Signature Schemes) the input and output bitstring of the OWF and the message digest have the same ...
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### Can I store the initialisation vector (IV) in the filename?

I'm encrypting a file and I'm using an initialisation vector. Given that the IV doesn't need to be a secret, is it secure if I add it to the encrypted file's name?
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### What do numbers in a crypto algorithm stand for? Is there a convention?

What do the numbers stand for in the names of cryptographic functions, for example AES-256, RSA-1024 or ...
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### Clarification regarding multiple modular exponentiation

If the base is same and exponents are different, for example: $R_1=b^x\bmod{p}$; $R_2=b^y\bmod{p}$; $R_3=b^z\bmod{p}$; ($p$ is large prime (2048 bit); $x$, $y$ and $z$ - 160 bit integers)) To ...
145 views

### What is the difference between RCCA and CCA2?

Well, I know it's easy to tell CCA1 from CCA2, but I failed to find the difference between RCCA and CCA2. What is the difference?
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### Secure Multiparty Computation with Secret Output

Is there any MPC scheme that allows a function with several secret inputs to be computed, while the output can only become known to one specific party? If not, is this even possible?
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### Efficient way to confirm identity

I am working on a multiplayer game. I have a central server which handles all data transmission and coordinates all games. Clients which involved in a single session send requests to do actions to ...
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### Is it okay to use an HMAC of the plaintext and a (possibly distinct) key as the IV for symmetric cryptography?

I was thinking of how to create an IV for a block cipher that doesn't require stored state, and I came up with the idea of using an HMAC of the (padded) plaintext and a (possibly distinct) key as the ...
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### Why SIVP Is Worst Case Problem?

I just started to study lattice cryptography. I'm now studying worst-case to average-case reduction for SIS. In previous question, "worst means any and average means random". And I wonder why ...
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### What is the purpose of Pseudorandom Function Families (PRFs)?

I'm currently in a course in Cryptography, and was wondering why pseudorandom function families exist at all. If there existed one pseudorandom function f(x), based on its definition, could that not ...
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### 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 ...