All Questions

345 views

RSA key pair generation using PRNG with same seed

I see a lot of Q/A where persons are trying to generate a specific key pair using static data such as a password. Now say we use a known PRNG (dangerous assumption), seeded with a the data as a static ...
108 views

Storing Credentials for a Third Party

(Originally posted to SOF, but I got no answers) I am designing a small application for use inside my company. My application needs to connect to a third party website on behalf of my application ...
153 views

random number generator and seed

I'm working with openssl cryptographic libraries, I'm new to all these cryptographic stuffs and slowly I'm learning all these. I have a doubt regarding random number generator, I'm using ...
148 views

Generating an IV for ESP 3DES-CBC

I have an application written in C, running in Linux. It uses IPsec (ESP) (manually putting the IPSec packet together) to send certain packets. The algorithm used ...
311 views

Do companies like CipherCloud really have the option to use homomorphic encryption?

I was reading How is CipherCloud doing homomorphic encryption? and was wondering: Is there a technically feasible way for companies like CipherCloud to use homomorphic encryption (HE) while ...
2k views

How does DES decryption work? Is it the same as encryption or the reverse? [duplicate]

If DES decryption is the same as encryption done in reverse order, then how can the reversed S-Box convert 4 bits into 6 bits?
107 views

salting with password hash to improve security?

Would something like the following improve security (against rainbow attacks, not brute force)? Assume that $P$ is a user-chosen password, and the objective is to obtain a hash $H$ for password ...
365 views

Converting Ed25519 public key to a Curve25519 public key

I understand that: $$x_{montgomery} = \frac{1 + y_{edwards}}{1 - y_{edwards}}$$ Using the libsodium ed25519 implementation, I have tried to write the following: ...
133 views

a possibly stronger type of attack on identity-based encryption

What is known about the security of identity-based encryption schemes against attacks that involve seeing multiple ciphertexts and then receiving the private keys corresponding to some of those ...
264 views

Digital Signature size requirement

What is an approximate length for a digital signature (SHA) given the following? Using RFID tags, size ranging from 100 to 2000 bytes (8000 bits), our project is setting aside a portion for a digital ...
186 views

Primality testing (deterministic vs. non-deterministic)

I noticed that non-deterministic primality testing algorithms are more commonly used in practice while there is a deterministic algorithm e.g., AKS which runs in polynomial time? I am right? if so, ...
105 views

The probability of finding a limited set of collisions for HMACSHA256

I need some input on the use of HMAC-SHA256 in an open source project, any help appreciated. The problem I'm solving is session fixation. We have a username, for that username we'd like to generate a ...
170 views

plaintext and its encrypted version known [duplicate]

I have a (long) text in two versions, encrypted and plaintext. I think it was encrypted using a substitution cipher method (I'm pretty sure, indeed). I'm not good in this matter, I know little about ...
220 views

Is OpenPGP vulnerable to the “crypto doom principle”?

From reading RFC 2015 (MIME security with PGP), and from looking at the raw format of (GnuPG) encrypted and digitally signed email messages, it seems that first a signature is calculated from the ...
196 views

Winternitz One-Time Signature

I am reading the page 38 in this "Post Quantum Cryptography" book (Equations 8 and 9). My question is, why to compute the verification key $Y$, $f$ is applied $2^w-1$ times? Are there any security ...
235 views

Block cipher with key longer than block size

When a block cipher key length is greater than the block length, is it the case that for some keys $k_0, k_1$ (with $k_0 \not= k_1$) and plaintext message $m$ that $E_{k_0}(m) = E_{k_1}(m)$?
87 views

Is Triple-DES a group?

I know for a fact that DES is not a group, but are any of the Triple-Des versions a group? Why, or why not?
150 views

How does Poly1305 in the NaCl library calculate a MAC?

I've been reading about Poly1305 as implemented in the NaCl library, more specifically I've been referring to this Java implementation of NaCl. My understanding of XSalsa20Poly1305 (in this ...
260 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?
163 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 ...
96 views

Encrypt user email but be able to find user by email

Sorry for my dumb question, but it's better to ask dumb question than to do dumb things silently. I want to encrypt user email in my DB so that if someone stole the DB (and not the key) - he won't be ...
146 views

Does SRP reduce to DH key echange when shared password is not secret?

I can find JavaScript implementations of SRP (Secure Remote Password protocol), but nothing that inspires confidence for Diffie-Hellmen key exchange. I also have a separate need for SRP later. I ...
621 views

Winzip AES256 vs PGP

If I use the AES256 option in Winzip to encrypt a file, is it any less safe or less secure than using pgp encryption?
143 views

Attacking AES/CCM with random IV

A cryptosystem is using AES-128 in CCM mode with random IV. Suppose an attacker capable of: asking the cryptosystem to encrypt a single plaintext as many times as he wants; and asking the ...
231 views

Attacking historical ciphers methodology

It's more a theoretical question of how would you approach it. All you know about the ciphertext it's was generated with a historical cipher. The ciphertext appears to be random, BUT it's divided into ...
235 views

How is ElGamal not secure under chosen ciphertext attack, but semantically secure in some cases?

I know that you can create a ciphertext c' using c and then find the corresponding m' for c' which you can use to find m for c. So, doesn't this mean that it is not semantically secure? But I also ...
246 views

How can mega store my login details and still be secure?

I understand how Mega's encryption works. For a quick summary of all those in the future looking for an answer on this... here is how it works: Upon first signing up for an account you make a ...
222 views

Is this method for exchanging private key using RSA sound?

Bob know's Alice's public key, and he wants to make sure he's connecting to the one which has that key. Furthermore, Alice wants to verify when she gets a connection from Bob who'll give his public ...
110 views

What information to include when calculating the HMAC of ciphertext

I'm aware that it's crucial to include the IV when calculating the HMAC of a ciphertext (assuming an IV is used). Can anyone explain, in simple terms, why this is? Furthermore, assume that there is ...
140 views

Nonce role on stream ciphers

Modern stream ciphers usually predicts the usage of a nonce (also termed as IV) in the cryptosystem. The cost of initializing the cipher with the nonce varies from algorithm to algorithm (for ...
478 views

Attack XOR encryption of binary data compressed by zlib with known key length (very short key)

I am trying to break a packet format. The packet format simply packs several files into one big file. The file contents are plain. But the index data which contain offsets, file sizes and filenames ...
62 views

How does padding in PMAC work? I have been told two stories: Firstly, I have been told that it works similar to CMAC padding, and secondly, I have been told that it does not need padding. I find the ...
79 views

Zero-knowledge identification of the majority commitment

Alice is communicating with $n$ people. We do not assume that the $n$ people don't trust each other or trust Alice. Alice doesn't trust them either, and needs to assume that they will not form a ...
184 views

Commutativity of keyed hashes

Definition ${H_1}^{K_1}(X)$ means data $X$ hashed by keyed hashing algorithm $H_1$ with key $K_1$. Short question Is $H_1^{K_1}(H_2^{K_2}(X))$ equal to $H_2^{K_2}(H_1^{K_1}(X))$? Is ...
136 views

Secure communication between multiple peers on a public channel

I am wondering how can I secure communications between multiple peers over a public channel, like an IRC channel. With two peers it is easy - they exchange their encryption keys and decrypt the ...
84 views

Discrete logs on elliptic curve with embedding degree 3 with the 'MOV' attack

The curve $E(\mathbb{F}_{47}):y^2=x^3+x+38$ has order $61$ and $61|47^3-1$ so the embedding degree of $E$ is $3$ and therefore the MOV attack, presumably using some sort of distortion map and a ...
331 views

How can I calculate the time complexity of modular arithmetic?

I'm doing modular arithmetic in a Java program, and I want to calculate the time complexity of the individual operations. $$c= a · b \bmod n$$ $$m = a^{-1} · b \bmod n$$ How do I get an ...
152 views

Finding a collision for a hash function

I'm trying to find a collision for the following (modified) Merkle-Damgard hash function. Suppose we already have a hash function $h : \mathbb{Z}_2^{2·n} \to \mathbb{Z}_2^n$ for fixed length bit ...
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367 views

How much extra information is in an RSA public key?

I'm trying to calculate the size of an RSA public key in Ruby. I've retrieved the key in PEM format, and once I've decoded the base64 part from the PEM format, I get the size in bytes. What I find is ...
573 views

Optimising Pollard's Rho algorithm for large semi-primes

I have programmed an implementation of Pollard's Rho factoring algorithm using C++ and the GMP library. It is reasonably fast with large numbers, however I haven't implemented any form of cycle ...
2k views

What exactly is addition modulo $2^{32}$ in cryptography?

EDIT: I've been confusing this the whole time. What I've been wanting to say this whole time is addition modulo $2^{32}$ not addition modulo 32 as the question originally said. Thanks for pointing ...
I have $\Pi=(Gen,Enc,Dec)$ and let it be semantically secure public-key encryption scheme. Security parameter is $n$, then the message space of plaintext is always $\lbrace 0, 1 \rbrace^n$. By using ...