All Questions

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How is “post-quantum security” proven/shown?

Due to growing concerns over the threat of quantum computing to asymmetric cryptography (RSA, ECC, etc), a number of "quantum resistant" replacements have been proposed (SPHINCS, McBits, and many ...
125 views

What is tiger192,4 in PHP?

PHP supports hashing of the following Tiger algorithms: tiger128,3 tiger160,3 tiger192,3 tiger128,4 tiger160,4 tiger192,4 Wikipedia's entry on Tiger says there's Tiger and Tiger2 and provides ...
50 views

Symmetric-like cyphers with several steps

Are there any good symmetric-ish cyphers that involve three or more steps with independent key material for each step? Formally, there should be a function $K(s)$ that returns a tuple $(k_1,..,k_n)$ ...
91 views

How bad is it to use the identity function as hash for ECDSA?

I was recently asked whether a certain library supports the ECDSAwithNone Signature algorithm. Clearly this would mean ECDSA with the identity function as the hash function. I know this is a really ...
122 views

Algorithm to transform plaintext to a key of desired keysize, when using input plaintext as key for FPE?

Using a format preserving encryption scheme that uses AES internally as its block cipher, for a plaintext that I encrypt I want to use that input plaintext as the key. However using AES-128, my ...
216 views

RSA reconstructing private key knowing MSBs

PREMISE: This question is purely theoretical because usually an attacker will not know private exponent d and can't compare it with obtained MSB bytes. Suppose an RSA 1024 bit signature. An attacker ...
154 views

How to prove knowledge of discrete logarithm in a product?

Definitions Suppose I have two large safe primes $p$ and $q$, and a composite number $N=pq$. I have $G$, a large cyclic subgroup of $\mathbb{Z}^{*}_{N}$; $g$ and $h$ are generators of $G$. I commit ...
315 views

Is there an additively homomorphic encryption scheme that supports calculating a square root on the ciphertext?

I need an additively homomorphic encryption scheme that satisfies: $D(\sqrt{E(m)}) \approx \sqrt{m}$. It seems that the lifted ElGamal satisfies this, but it is hard to do decryption if the message ...
169 views

Parity of an encrypted key

Does encrypting a double-length 3DES application key (that has an odd parity) under a double-length 3DES zone master key (also with an odd parity) affect the parity of the application key?
104 views

Fast reduction in $GF(2^{128})$ using x86 PCLMULQDQ

Modern x86 CPUs support the PCLMULQDQ instruction, which does an XOR-multiply of two 64-bit numbers instead of an add-multiply (i.e. typical arithmetic ...
55 views

Is it possible to combine cryptography with steganography [closed]

Definitions: M - original message, Me - encrypted message M, S - watermark message, Ms - message M with steganography watermark S, e - encryption private key, d - decryption key (it is private too), s ...
85 views

public/private key: is it possible to have master public/private key

This may be a very primitive question which might not be possible but I have this question to understand. Assume Yahoo provides a messenger where yahoo users can chat in secure way (end-end ...
96 views

El-Gamal signature with two messages

Alice uses an ElGamal signature with base the group $Z^*_{107}$ and parameter $g=3$ of order $q=53$.The private key of Alice is some $x \in \{0,1,.....,52\}$ and the public key of her is $y=10$. To ...
59 views

Multiplication in GF(2^8)

I am trying to multiply 13 (sub 16) and 11 (sub 16) in $GF(2^8)$. I am given the following irreducible polynomial: P(x) = x^8 + x^4 + x^3 + x +1 Could someone explain to me how to express the ...
100 views

Memory hard password based key derivation functions?

How are memory hard functions designed for the purpose of password based key derivation? To protect against a brute force attack from a parallel machine. What design could work well with Skein? The ...
95 views

Galois Field ($2^{16}$) for encryption in place of $GF(2^8)$ in AES

AES algorithm is using $GF(2^8)$ Galois Field. What if we use $GF(2^{16})$ in place of $GF(2^8)$? Will this improve the algorithm or not?
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How to use CRT to compute 4 square roots while decryption in Rabin Cryptosystem

I'm reading Rabin Cryptosystem which requires to compute 4 square roots $r, -r, s,- s$ while decryption of cipher text $c$ such that r = (y_p \times p \times m_q + y_q \times q \times m_p) \mod n ...
126 views

Small Quantum Signatures - Reality check needed

I've been thinking a bit lately about how to get quantum resistant signatures fast and (relatively) small. One idea I've been keen on exploring is finding a crypto PRNG that allows fast-forwarding, ...
43 views

Designing an AES-based protocol for controlling and acessing ioT boards via RF

I'm designing an open ioT protocol to be used on ioT boards based on Texas Instruments RF-based MCUs. These MCUs have an AES module to easily encrypt and decrypt AES content, so that's why I choose a ...
51 views

How to compromise the privacy of NaCl encrypted messages, when nonce is reused?

I want to know to how break NaCl encryption when a nonce used more than once for a given key private key. According to PyNaCl docs: It is VITALLY important that the nonce is a nonce, i.e. it is a ...
170 views

HMAC-SHA256 on large data files

I currently need to encrypt large files (video, over 6 Gbytes) for our customers. To ensure authenticity and integrity, we chose HMAC-256 as we already use it in our internal messaging system. But ...
74 views

Carrying out a known-plaintext attack on a cipher [closed]

Previously posted here. Someone suggested I could post it here to get some answers. I am trying to solve a CTF challenge, here. Basically we're given message and key inputs to a cipher and its ...
696 views

How to implement HMAC SHA-256

I am trying to figure out how the HMAC SHA-256 hashing algorithm works. I know that we have to use the following: H (K ^ opad)|| H ((K ^ ipad)|| text)). The ...
911 views

Why is it OK for secretbox to leak the message length?

Most block cipher implementations expect users to pad so that the message matches the cipher block size. I understand the purpose of the padding is to make the input match the cipher block size. It ...
473 views

What is the most secure encryption algorithm to encrypt my password database?

The password manager I use lets me choose an algorithm from the list below in order to encrypt my password database: Microsoft Base Cryptographic Provider v1.0: RC2-128 RC4-128 DES-56 3DES TWO ...
2k views

Is there an existing cryptography algorithm / method that both encrypts AND compresses text?

So I'm trying to find a method of encryption that not only obfuscates text, but also compresses the result. For example, if I encrypted ninechars, the ideal result ...
94 views

What is the meaning of probabilistic encryption algorithm?

I am learning cryptography by myself and I am not able to understand the meaning of probabilistic encryption algorithms. How is it different from deterministic encryption algorithms ? How can the ...
120 views

Triple DES as cryptographic hash function

I need to generate a hash for a small piece of data (~50 bytes). I'd normally use MD5 or SHA but that's not available in the platform I'm programming for. Luckily, it provides Triple DES and I ...
67 views

SSL implementation in windows? [closed]

SSL (Secure Socket Layer). windows Webbroswers ( Chrome, Mozilla, Edge, explorer ) are using which winapi set to Encrypt and Decrypt Data. SSL is asymmetric encryption. So which Api set is being used ...
119 views

How is wpa2 authentication structured

I would like to understand the cryptography behind Wpa2. As far as I know, there are 4 messages on the 4-way handshake and three of them are values concatenated with hashes. First, I am trying to ...
322 views

Deciphering “easy” ciphers without hints

I've been keen on IT Security for a long time now and I've learned a lot about networking & security. However trying a "decryption challenge" I'm lacking what I think is basic ...
74 views

Output of using the same key in all 3 boxes of 3DES

I am trying to figure this one out: What would be the encrypted output for an input x if the same key K is used in all three boxes of 3DES? The encryption scheme for 3DES with three different keys, ...
106 views

Solving Vigenére with unknown alphabet

I'm trying to decrypt a cipher that I suppose has been encrypted with Vigenére. However I came about the following thought: The cipher consists of characters from ...
47 views

Is frequency analysis a viable attack on non-text data encoded by substitution?

Is frequency analysis a viable attack on non-text data encoded by substitution (eg image and audio formats encoded with a substitution cipher)?
82 views

How can I multiply an additively homomorphic encrypted value by a float number?

As we all know, if $E()$ is an additively homomorphic encryption, we can multiply $E(a)$ by an integer $b$, then we will get $E(ab)$. But what if $a$ is a float number? Can we still get $E(ab)$? Which ...
37 views

Deriving a Set of Seeds from a Seed

I need a set of seeds $S=\{s_1,..., s_n\}$, for pseudo-random function where seed $s_i$ is used to generate a set of pseudo-random values. Obviously I need to be able to regenerate the sets of ...
116 views

How to prove that a commitment hides the decryption of an ElGamal ciphertext?

I've decided to remove a previous unanswered question of mine and break it down into smaller pieces so it's not such a loaded question. For this question I need to prove that I've committed to a ...
123 views

Can the round function $F$ in a Feistel Network be practically any non-invertible function?

This question might seem silly, but how true is the fact that the round function $F$ does not have to be invertible? I am curious to know this, because non-invertible functions can be very lossy, ...
72 views

Designing Secure Multi-Party Computation Sub-Protocols Based on Homomorphic Encryption

When designing SMPC protocols using secret-sharing, it is a common approach to compose a protocol from several sub-protocols (each proven secure under the formal definition of security w.r.t. ...
664 views

Toy hash algorithm that can be broken

I'm looking for a toy hash function, where the idea is to have high school students break (i.e. find a collision) a hash function by hand, in order to teach them how one way functions and hashing ...
68 views

Discrete Logarithm problem with inverse

Let $\mathbb G$ be a cyclic group of order $q$. The Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) is, given $g, g^x \in \mathbb G$, to compute $x \in \mathbb Z_q$. I'm interested to know if there is a known ...
13 views

Transforming EC public key X and Y-sign into X and Y [duplicate]

I'm using bouncycastle which uses X and Y coordinates for public keys. An EC public key is more compactly represented by the X coordinate and the sign of the Y coordinate. How do I use bouncycastle ...
40 views

Proving the security of a one-way function with partially known input

Let's say we have a construction like in this question: We have a OWF $h(.)$, a secret salt TXT, and a counter starting at 1, and we compute ...
81 views

Collision likelihood from /dev/urandom for VMs using the same underlying hardware

We have multiple virtual machines sharing the same physical hardware. We use /dev/urandom for session key generation. But a question comes up: if ...
55 views

Need help implementing key management scheme

Scheme has following requirements Client application should perform encryption/decryption using component 1, component 2 and ZPK (zone PIN key. Client should get this key from host in encrypted ...
68 views

What is the lightweight key exchange protocol of choice?

Assume I have to implement a secure channel protocol by myself. Assume further that for some obscure reasons (library restrictions?) I can't use any of the pre-made libraries for SSH, TLS and such. ...
705 views

What Diffie-Hellman parameters should I use?

After reading this article, I started wondering how should I approach the problem of choosing p and g params in 1024-bit Diffie-Hellman key exchange. In my project, I am going to establish keys ...
139 views

Statistical saturation attack on block ciphers

I was wondering if anyone around here could give me some explanation on this type of attacks. Pretty much the only thing that I could find is A Statistical Saturation Attack against the Block Cipher ...