# All Questions

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### 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 ...
89 views

### What's the difference between “HashX-512” and “HashX-1024”?

I need to make a Skein hash's, specifically, Skein-1024; however, I only have access currently to Skein-512. Is there any way to utilize a Skein-512 function to get the result of a Skein-1024 hash? ...
1k views

### “Weaknesses” in SHA-256d?

According to this answer, "SHA-256d" was proposed in one of the Ferguson/Schneier books like so: SHA-256d(x) = SHA-256(SHA-256(x)) Apparently, the motivation for ...
404 views

### RSA digital signature vs authenticated cipher

I want to provide both confidentiality and integrity for data at rest (many large files stored on disk). I plan to encrypt the data using AES, which will cover the confidentiality requirement. So ...
82 views

### Voice Call Safety [closed]

When i was dealing with an assistant of my bank through mobile call, she asked me to insert my bank login code after a beep. I was wondering if this procedure is secure against a Man In the Middle ...
457 views

### What's the difference between Trapdoor Functions and Encryption Functions?

From Wikipedia: A trapdoor function is a function that is easy to compute in one direction, yet believed to be difficult to compute in the opposite direction (finding its inverse) without ...
54 views

### Predicate Encryption supporting disjunctions

I am not sure if I missed some subtlety in the definition of Attribute Hiding found in this paper on Predicate Encryption, but isn't it possible to construct a scheme for Predicate Encryption ...
167 views

### How to make a message into a polynomial on NTRU encryption?

How to make a message into a polynomial on NTRU encryption? for example how we can conver 'hello world' to polynomial... i have read the converting operation on IEEE Std 1363.1- 2008, but i can't ...
270 views

### Client and server using same SSL certificate - any issues?

I'm working on software where multiple components will communicate with each other using SSL. There would be one central component acting as a server, which would also require the clients to present ...
124 views

### Using encryption schemes for identification

I've been researching how to implement a post-quantum SSL-like connection authentication, especially correct identification&authentization of the server/client. Because good post-quantum digital ...
202 views

### Single-purpose symmetric encryption scheme for single files

I'm writing a simple password manager program that will encrypt/decrypt a single file (it's size will most likely stay under a few K). This is my initial file format design: ...
144 views

### Which MAC scheme is quantum resistant?

will HMAC survive Grover algorithm ? if not then which MAC scheme provide post-quantum security ?
322 views

### Can two rc4 encoded messages be XORed and decrypted if encrypted with the same key?

If I have the following: E1 = RC4(M1, K); E2 = RC4(M2, K); If two different messages M1 and M2 are encrypted with the same key, K, can the key be recovered by ...
193 views

### It is reasonably safe to leave a SSH private key with a 30+ character passphrase public?

I'm curious about exploring uses for a distributing a single RSA private key with a passphrase instead of trying to secure the private key and distribute the public key. With the private key (and ...
293 views

### What does the expression $1^n$ mean as a function argument?

In a paper about predicate encryption or attribute based encryption, the setup function is mentioned with the $setup(1^n)$ or $setup(1^l)$. I want to know what is meant here. Is it multiples of ones ...
479 views

### Why are RSA key sizes almost always a power of two?

I know that other bit sizes are possible, e.g. this HTTPS server seems to have a 9000 bit key https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=qqq.gg, but it's very rare that one sees a key not of size ...
458 views

### one-time pad key related attack [duplicate]

In one-time pads we always say do not use same key twice to encrypt ASCII messages, but if we use a random key to XOR a random ...
105 views

### How can two UProve token holders prove to a 3rd party that they aren't the same user?

Suppose I have two users who are issued two different UProve IDs. The Issuer has guaranteed that one UProve token bearer will never have more than one UProve token ID. How can I use UProve to ...
212 views

### How do I unpack the x and y values from the BITSTRING in a DER ECDSA public key?

In ASN.1, the X and Y values for a 256-bit elliptic curve key are stored as a single 66-byte ASN.1 BITSTRING. Are the values just the first and second half of this bitstring? The private key is an ...
698 views

### How to choose between AES-CCM and AES-GCM for storage volume encryption

We are using the encryption built into Solaris 11 ZFS, which offers the choice between CCM (CBC counter mode) and GCM (Galois counter mode). What are the pros and cons of choosing each of these cipher ...
105 views

### Potential vulnerability in DH key selection - am I understanding this right?

I'm reading through a DH implementation, and I think I found a potential hole. Public $p$ and $g$ values are properly selected. A candidate secret value $\bar a$ is pseudo-randomly selected such ...
155 views

### How to design a practical and secure MAC scheme?

I am sorry, but I need to introduce some concepts which are not directly related to cryptography to make myself clear, I hope I won't stun you with this ... (I'd rather explain it here than redirect ...
244 views

### Is SpookyHash vulnerable to HashDoS?

Aumasson, Bernstein and Bosslet did an excellent job demonstrating fatal weaknesses in MurmurHash and CityHash, but what about SpookyHash? My first uneducated guess is that it would be much harder to ...
257 views

### Alice trusts Bob only when Bob trusts Alice

some story first: Alice and Bob both have public/private key pairs. Now Bob wants Alice to sign his public key id. Alice agrees but only when Bob signs the public key id of her. Is this something ...
232 views

### Assymetric password encryption - Viable? Which algorithm?

We have an application that requires cleartext passwords for user authentication because of the authentication mechanism in use (RADIUS/CHAP), which unfortunately we cannot change. Since we don't want ...
321 views

### Is it feasible to break Diffie-Hellman key exchange when the implementation uses a poor-quality PRNG?

I've come across an implementation of DH in Java that uses the Random class to generate the secret integer value $a$, as shown in in Wikipedia's description of the ...
420 views

### Is this hand cipher any more secure than the Vigenère cipher?

I know that inventing one's one crypto always sucks, but the problem is that hand ciphers are usually very insecure very slow. This is an attempt to make a relatively secure, keyable, and ...
72 views

### AES ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM [closed]

What is the amount of decrease in the probability of decrypting a data encrypted using an AES algorithm? (That is by introducing each round out of ten whole rounds, how the probability of decryption ...
636 views

### What is the probability of breaking the AES algorithm?

I am doing a project which requires the encryption to be done using AES. Is it really possible (technically) to crack AES? If yes, please tell me: What is the probability of breaking AES? How ...
140 views

### How to use HMAC for large ciphertexts over TLS

HMAC used to secure chosen cipher-text attacks. if we are encrypting a large file (video) and sending it over TLS for decryption, how server can check MAC for ciphertext when we didn't sent whole of ...
130 views

### which asymmetric cipher provide highest performance?

to get highest performance Which asymmetric cipher provide fastest encryption/decryption ? ECC or DH ? what key size is recommended today ?
161 views

### Solving hard problems in $\mathbb Z_{p}^{*}$ when $\mathbb p$ is close to $\mathbb 2^{n}$

Suppose, for some security parameter $n$ you choose a prime $p$ such that $p = 2^n+c$ for some relatively small $|c| < 2^m << 2^n$. I have seen such primes being called Pseudo-Mersenne Primes ...
1k views

### Where can I begin to study the math behind modern cryptography?

I've been studying crypto for almost a year now, implementing algorithms, reading books, studying code, etc. The deeper I go in, the more I realize there is; I feel like I've just barely scratched the ...
98 views

### Secure modulus length for Diffie-Hellman [duplicate]

What is secure modulus length for modular exponentiation so that finding discrete log is computationaly impossible?
67 views

### reduces the coefficients of a modulo 3 on NTRU

i'm still don't understand about 'reduces the coefficients of a modulo 3' on NTRU tutorial $a = f*e = 3 - 7X - 10X^2 - 11X^3 + 10X^4 + 7X^5 + 6X^6 + 7X^7 + 5X^8 - 3X^9 -7X^{10} \pmod{32}.$ Note ...
122 views

### In which disciplinary category can cryptography be put?

Is it a multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, or maybe even trans-disciplinary? What are the basis to describe each kind? I mean, how can we infer by which disciplinary field we ...
488 views

### Commitment scheme using hash functions

Let's say Alice and Bob are playing a game where Bob is trying to guess a number Alice has chosen. Alice chooses a key $K$ and a number $N$ at random and performs $C=Commit(K, N)$ where \$Commit(K, ...
162 views

### State of the art in zero knowledge proof compilers?

What is the current state of the art zero knowledge proof compiler ? I need one that can minimally handle double exponentiation by a known value E.g. $$Pok\{(\alpha):h=g^{\alpha^b}\}$$ where b, ...
604 views

### What is the difference between a hash and a permutation?

As defined by Wikipedia a hash function is [...] any algorithm or subroutine that maps large data sets of variable length to smaller data sets of a fixed length. For example, a person's name, ...
218 views

### How to compute the dot product on encrypted values?

Is there a practical homomorphic encryption scheme that can give reasonable execution time results in computing a dot product: $$a_1*b_1 + a_2*b_2 +a_3*b_3 +\ldots+ a_n*b_n$$ I imagine the scheme will ...
247 views

### How to calculate y value from ((y*y) mod prime) efficiently

i am working ECC-224 bit. can any one tell me, how to calculate y value from ((y*y) mod prime) efficiently for large bit numbers.
234 views

### Could a very long password theoretically eliminate the need for a slow hash?

Before I provide details, I want to clarify that I am not looking to implement this practically, but I'm only asking to get a better understanding. The way I currently understand it, we use slow ...
218 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?
134 views

### Encrypting and Decrypting a 19-digits long BigInteger

How can I take a maximum 19-digits long BigInteger and encrypt it with the following rules: The result must be based on digits and lower-case English letters ...
581 views

### How does the rand() function in C work? [closed]

I want to know how rand() works (even when I don't provide any seed how it produces PRNs?) thanks!
157 views

### Sensible usecase for restricting special characters in passwords? [closed]

Please See Why Not Allow Special Characters In a Password on Security. Several websites I've come across limit the allowed special characters for a password. My thought was, it should all be ...
879 views

### Even passwords are vulnerable to hash collision attacks?

As stated in this page large documents hashed using md5 maybe vulnerable to collision attacks. My question is even passwords of 6-30 character are vulnerable to such hash collision attacks? If yes, is ...
366 views

### Security of Deterministic Encryption Scheme

A deterministic encryption scheme is a cryptosystem which always produces the same ciphertext for a given plaintext and key, even over separate executions of the encryption algorithm. Although we ...