All Questions

2answers
345 views

Reason(s) for using a KDF for encryption keys

Assuming I already have a 256-key (32 char password) for AES encryption, comprised of random alpha-numeric characters and punctuation (95 possible ascii chars), generated by a decent PRNG, is there ...
1answer
177 views

brute force attack on KDF vs KEY

if we believe 256bit keys are secure in AES against any brute force attack, is that possible we use a KDF (convert user's weak entered password in truecrypt into a fixed AES key) with too much round ...
1answer
112 views

What information to include is the 'info' input for HKDF?

The RFC states the following: 3.2. The 'info' Input to HKDF While the 'info' value is optional in the definition of HKDF, it is often of great importance in applications. Its main ...
1answer
155 views

Why is Bcrypt called a Key Derivation Function?

I am trying to understand why is bcrypt called a Key Derivation Function? I looked up the details of Ekfblowfish on Usenix article here: ...
1answer
208 views

Key collision in scrypt and hkdf

I am developing a mostly-offline authorization system that authorizes a user using an deterministically generated AuthKey derived from a MasterKey derived from a high-entropy chunk of data (128 bits) ...
1answer
290 views

Can ElGamal encryption and ElGamal signatures be used together sharing the same key-pairs?

I'm working on a encryption system where each party can store exactly a single ElGamal private key in a device. This is a hardware limit. The system must be expanded to support signatures and ...
1answer
206 views

Cracking an RSA with no padding and very small e

I have a project wherein I have to crack a given cipher text encrypted using RSA and have been given N and e. Can someone suggest an RSA attack using a very small exponent e(here e=3) and no padding?
1answer
153 views

Is there a problem with constructing a CSPRNG using MD5 or SHA1?

Is there any security concerns with building a CSPRNG using a broken hash function like MD5 or SHA1? The design is such that a CRC-like function is used for mixing entropy and MD5 is used as the ...
2answers
241 views

CSPRNG in JavaScript using Audio and Video

I ported GnuPG to Javascript using Emscripten (not released yet). Now I need a good replacement for /dev/random//dev/urandom. ...
2answers
181 views

How is de-synchronisation of HOTP solved?

From RFC 4226 I understand how HOTP generates one-time passwords by incrementing a counter and uses the 'look-ahead' window to try to resynchronise (from this counter), if the user tries a few wrong ...
0answers
91 views

Storing counter value of HOTP at client side [closed]

How can we store counter value on the client side in HOTP??
1answer
168 views

synchronization of counters in HOTP

How is synchronization of counter values achieved in the HOTP protocol? As I understand it, the server increments its counter value only if a match (of the OTP value) is found. What happens at ...
1answer
196 views

Is it considered insecure in an HOTP implementation to publicly provide the next counter?

I am working on a project that needs to securely authenticating one or more smartphone clients with a server running on a microcontroller so it has very limited resources. I have found plenty of ...
2answers
259 views

Why does HOTP use such a complex truncate function?

In the HOTP protocol after calculating a 20 byte hash it is truncated to 4 bytes. For this first an offset is calculated (low-order 4 bits of the last byte) which determines the four bytes to be ...
1answer
1k views

How does HOTP keep in sync?

My understanding of HOTP is that each password is unique and based on a counter. $$PASSWORD = HOTP_1(K,C)$$ Where $C$ is an incremental counter. What I wish to know, is how you keep the client ...
1answer
135 views

Decimal to binary question [closed]

This is an easy question, but I can't explain it lol, how would you guys explain it? There is a procedure for converting a decimal number to binary in the following way: repeatedly divide the number ...
2answers
613 views

Which categories of cipher are semantically secure under a chosen-plaintext attack?

I am trying to get my head around the circumstances under which a cipher is (or is not) semantically secure under a chosen-plaintext attack. I can't seem to find a good reference explaining this. I ...
2answers
309 views

Is it generally possible to employ brute force methods when the encryption scheme is not known? Why or why not?

Lets say you are presented with an encrypted string of bits or text, and no other information. What would be necessary before you could apply brute force methods to decrypting the string? How would a ...
2answers
3k views

Why use an Initialization Vector (IV)?

Why use an Initialization Vector (IV)? How are IV's used? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using an IV? Why use an IV instead of a longer key in which some section of the key is pubic? What ...
2answers
114 views

GGM PRG construction: Why do we need to change keys all the time with underlying PRG

When constructing a PRF that has n bit input using the GGM PRG, why do we always have to recursively run the PRG using its previous output as a seed key n times. Instead, why don't we run the PRG n ...
1answer
95 views

2answers
3k views

In RSA, do I calculate d from e or e from d?

In the original paper introducing RSA, it is implied that one should first choose $d$ and then calulate $e$ from $p$, $q$, and $d$. However, I have found in other places (such as the wikipedia article ...
2answers
189 views

Amateur question: two-way RSA?

Is this a sensible scheme for 2-way client/server communication? A client connects to a server. The server and client both generate RSA keys, and send over the public ones to each other. If the client ...
1answer
134 views

Preimage resistance hash in digital signature

I'm studying about preimage resistance property of the hash functions. In particularly I'm reading as the missing of this property can be fatal in digital signatures that use RSA. Further details: ...
0answers
67 views

Why is it impractical to generate a semiprime dictionary? [duplicate]

This might be a very simple question. However, I am just learning the concept, so just excuse me. I am wondering why there is not any attempt to generate all semiprime numbers? (as an dict. attack to ...
1answer
250 views

length extension attack on an MD5 hash of a text file of about 10K Bytes?

How much computing time on a typical desktop computer would it take to find a new length and new data to extend a text file of about 10K Bytes with a given MD5 hash?
1answer
120 views

Can Poly1305 be used with block ciphers running in CTR mode?

Is the use of Poly1305 limited to stream ciphers? (note, I'm not talking about Poly1305-AES )? Can it be used with block ciphers running in CTR mode? If so, what other considerations/limitations are ...
1answer
202 views

Given a private RSA key, how do we get the public key?

Is it possible to pre-choose a private RSA key, then obtain a public key from it?
1answer
158 views

Difference entity authentication and implicit key authentication

From the Handbook of Applied Cryptography, in discussions of key sharing algorithms, I see definitions: Implicit key authentication is when one party is assured that no other aside from a ...
1answer
536 views

Finding CRC collisions for specific divisor

My current textbook (Information Security: Principles and Practice by Mark Stamp) discusses how to determine the CRC of data via long-division, using XOR instead of subtraction to determine the ...
2answers
95 views

Differential privacy definition

Differential privacy defines "privacy" of a mechanism $A$ as the "closeness" of the two distribution $Pr[A(D) \in S]$ and $Pr[A(D') \in S]$ where $D,D'$ differ in one element. And the distance between ...
1answer
766 views

Security strength of RSA in relation with the modulus size

NIST SP 800-57 §5.6.1 p.62–64 specifies a correspondence between RSA modulus size $n$ and expected security strength $s$ in bits: ...
1answer
101 views

Can substrings of a long string be efficiently authenticated?

Suppose one has a (strong) shared secret key and wishes to authenticate a very long string in a way that will allow the verifier to verify small substrings without reading much of the stored data and ...
1answer
116 views

What kind of cryptography should i use?

I have a trusted third part A that issues an access token (xml file) to an untrusted client C that uses this token to log into an untrusted server S and access to the authorized files. I want only ...
3answers
195 views

What are some good references for the implementation weaknesses in RSA

I'm pretty sure I understand textbook RSA. Choose p and q, large primes, and compute n=pq. Choose e such that $gcd(\phi(n),e)=1.$ Publish n and e. Compute d such that $de=1$ (mod $\phi(n)$). To ...
1answer
134 views

What's efficient MPC protocol for determining if sum's bigger than y?

My secure multi-party computation (MPC) in need is simply to determine if a sum of two private variable is bigger than a given value $y$, as $f(x_0, x_1) = [(x_0 + x_1) > y]$ in which the value ...
1answer
229 views

Can you identify the public key used to encrypt something?

If I encrypt a string with a public key, does the encrypted ciphertext reveal the public key I used to encrypt it? Basically, I don't want anyone to know who the ciphertext is addressed to. I'm ...
0answers
125 views

Can any one explain Circuit Privacy using fully homomorphic encryption from Gentry's thesis?

Craig Gentry's thesis talks about circuit privacy being straight forward from fully homomorphic encryption in the last chapter. Can somebody explain in simpler terms what that means ? I have read it ...
1answer
736 views

How long to bruteforce a RSA key [duplicate]

Suppose I have a 2048 bit RSA public key, and want to brute force the corresponding private key. I guess there are 2048^16 possible combinations? How long would this take me to brute force with an ...
2answers
226 views

When using HMAC, does key encoding matter?

Given: H is a good hash function with block size L. K is a key of length >= L (recommended by RFC 2104). Khex and Kbase64 are ASCII encodings of K. In the HMAC algorithm, is there a good reason to ...
2answers
239 views

Is triple des similiar to RSA in that they message size is limited to the key size?

Is triple des similiar to rsa in that the message size you can encrypt is limited (unlike AES)? Yes you can break the message size into parts and apply it, but I'm not interested in doing that so I ...
1answer
68 views

“proof of access” schemes

What is the state of the art way when implementing a scheme challenging a party to prove they have access to certain data? What I'm looking for something along the lines of Give them ...
1answer
112 views

Trying to finalize my understanding about password storing

am sorry, an a beginner, so please forgive me if i make mistakes, so here is what I understood: PBKDF2: uses HMAC, so, the message is the password, and the key that crypts the message is the salt? or ...
2answers
126 views

How to compare two datasets „anonymously”?

Ok, I hope this question makes some sense because I am not so sure how to word it any differently… Imagine the following situation: There are 10 defined colors (blue, orange, yellow etc.) There are ...
2answers
153 views

Is this OTP scheme safe?

I have a message $m_1$ and I want to encrypt it by XORing it with two keys $k_1$ and $k_2$: $$c_1 = m_1 \oplus k_1 \oplus k_2$$ So far so good. Now I was wondering if I could create a "fake" result ...
1answer
142 views

Is symmetric key encrypted with server's public key secure

I'm trying to implement lightweight yet secure protocol for communicating two trusted parties with each other. Consider following scheme: Alice wants to establish secure two-sided channel with ...
0answers
69 views

Password checking algorithm

I'm trying to reverse engineer key exchange protocol and faced with the following problem: Protocol is based on Diffie-Hellman key exchange method: g - generator m - modulus Alice: a - private key \$A ...

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