# All Questions

166 views

### Why not use CBC, not send IV, and assume first plaintext block is garbage? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Using CBC with fixed IV Forgive me if this has been asked before, I looked but haven't seen any answers that suit. Is there any danger in using CBC, encrypting a ...
242 views

### using Post-quantum asymmetric ciphers instead of RSA

We can't trust RSA to encrypt our Emails so what is best post-quantum cryptography system as alternative for RSA which provide good security and don't be breakable? because McEliece cryptosystem looks ...
913 views

### Is it safer to encrypt twice with RSA?

I wonder if it's safer to encrypt a plain text with RSA twice than it is to encrypt it just once. It should make a big difference if you assume that the two private keys are different, and that the ...
326 views

### Why is a non fixed-length encryption scheme worse than a fixed-length one?

I have the following definition (highlights by me): An (efficient secret-key) encryption scheme $(Gen,Enc,Dec)$, where $Gen$ and $Enc$ are PPT algorithms and $Dec$ is a Deterministic Polytime ...
1k 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 ...
366 views

### What happens to the entropy of a password when you hash it?

For example, if the entropy of a password is 30 bits, what is the entropy of the password when you hash it with MD5?
501 views

### Can Elgamal be made additively homomorphic and how could it be used for E-voting?

Elgamal is a cryptosystem that is homomorphic over multiplication. How can I convert it to an additive homomorphic cryptosystem? How can I use this additive homomorphic Elgamal cryptosystem for ...
213 views

### Security considerations for partially shared password databases

Programs like KeyPass and 1Password store password database files encrypted by a single password. If someone knows the protecting password ("Vault Key"), they can read the entire database ("secrets"). ...
286 views

### Entropy of system data - use all and hash, or trim least significant bits?

I'm working on a background entropy collector for key generation that monitors hardware and produces an entropy pool. Here's my list of sources: Mouse position Keyboard timings (i.e. time between ...
195 views

### Shannon entropy calculation: is $H(A|R·A) = H(A)$?

Suppose I generate a random $m×m$ matrix $R$, where each of its elements belongs to $\mathbb Z_n$. I ensure that $R$ is invertible in $\mathbb Z_n^{m×m}$. Now I take a non-random $m×m$ ...
737 views

### What is Implicit Authentication?

What is Implicit Authentication, in the context of authentication methods? I searched the Web but could not find any article that describes this. If anyone can describe, it would be a great help. ...
467 views

### Can we use elliptic curve cryptography in wireless sensors?

Can we use elliptic curve cryptography in wireless sensors? If so, how do you map points to message characters?
602 views

### Is RSA of a random nonce with no padding safe?

Consider the following protocol: Bob has a private RSA key $B_{priv}$, and Alice knows the public key $B_{pub}$. Alice wants to send confidential messages to Bob (no integrity intended). To send a ...
363 views

### Trying to find a different DES encryption system explanation

I need a mathematical explanation of what does the DES encryption system really do. This means I need more explanation than the one that offers FIPS, which is more an explanation for computer ...
102 views

### How can we get CA's public key?

To get a public key of some organization or someone we want to send an encrypted message to, we need to make a request to CA asking that organization's public key. CA then returns X509 certificate. It ...
67 views

### No Birthday Attack to TCR

I'm reading the paper “Collision-Resistant Hashing? Towards Making UOWHFs Practical” , which compared TCR (Target Collision Resistant) and ACR (Any collision Resistant). It says we wish to stress ...
42 views

### Dependence on Keyed Hash Function

I'm reading the paper “Collision-Resistant Hashing? Towards Making UOWHFs Practical” which states: With an ACR hash function $F$ the key $K$ is announced and the adversary wins if she manages to ...
464 views

### What makes RSA secure by using prime numbers?

I am just learning about the RSA algorithm. Looking at the first two steps: Choose two distinct prime numbers $p$ and $q$. Compute $n = pq$. I have some probably stupid questions: Why do $p$ ...
125 views

### IV Security Clarification

After doing lots of reading on SO and other websites relating to AES cryptography, I am trying to understand the security issues surrounding IV's. There seems to be a lot of confusion and ...
431 views

### AES key/ciphertext space sizes

This is giving me a brain ache now... If I have AES-128, block is 128 bit, then every plaintext (128-bit) can be encrypted to some ciphertext that is also 128-bit. This is the block size. But: 128-bit ...
1k views

### How does one calculate the scalar multiplication on elliptic curves?

I found this example online: In the elliptic curve group defined by $$y^2 = x^3 + 9x + 17 \quad \text{over } \mathbb{F}_{23},$$ what is the discrete logarithm $k$ of $Q = (4,5)$ to the base ...
258 views

### How can the Diffie-Hellman key exchange be extended to three parties? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Can one generalize the Diffie-Hellman key exchange to three or more parties? How can Alice, Bob, and Charlie share a common secret key using an extended version of the ...
414 views

### Cryptanalysing Affine cipher

I am trying to cryptanalyse a cipher–text encrypted by Affine cipher. The encryption formula is: $c = f(x) = (ax+b)\bmod m$, where $a$ and $b$ are unknown constants; $x$ is a plain-text symbol, and ...
590 views

### Why must IV/key-pairs not be reused in CTR mode?

Many sources mention that IVs must not be reused with the same key in CTR mode, for encrypting 2 different pieces of data, because that totally destroys security - but I haven't found an explanation ...
116 views

### I've got my private key compromised. How does CRL work?

How does certificate revocation list (CRL) work? How can I send a request to the CA to add my current private key to the CRL, so no one except me can add my certificate to the CRL? Related: - How can ...
301 views

### Is there any strong enough pen-and-paper or mind cipher?

Some ciphers are talked about here, but I don't see an answer, are they strong enough, or are non-computer ciphers more or less just a toy and one should abandon using them for practical purposes?
125 views

### ECKS-PS algorithm: searching in encrypted data; bilinear maps

I have found an encryption algorithm named ECKS-PS (published in the paper Efficient conjunctive keyword search on encrypted data storage system) that allows an user to search in encrypted data. All ...
116 views

### How to secure a mental poker protocol? [closed]

I would like to implement a mental poker protocol in a secure fashion. How should I go about that without (preferably) infringing on the Mental Poker Framework patent?
494 views

### Calculating the inverse modularity of the determinant for Hill cipher

I'm trying to decrypt a message encrypted with Hill Cipher, but I don't understand how to find the determinant so it solves the equation det * 1/det = 1 mod 26. The determinant for my key matrix is ...
805 views

### Removing Padded Value in Decrypted Message

How to remove padded value in Decrypted Message? I am using AES Algorithm.. ex: this is the decrypted message.. "abcdefghijklmn " there is a 2 space in that decrypted message which is equivalent ...
20k views

### Explaining weakness of Dual EC DRBG to wider audience?

I have an audience of senior (non-technical) executives and senior technical people who are taking the backdoor in Dual_EC_DRBG and considering it as a weakness of Elliptic curves in general. I can ...
2k views

### How can we reason about the cryptographic capabilities of code-breaking agencies like the NSA or GCHQ?

I have read in Applied Cryptography that the NSA is the largest hardware buyer and the largest mathematician employer in the world. How can we reason about the symmetric ciphers cryptanalysis ...
7k views

### Basic explanation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography?

I have been studying Elliptic Curve Cryptography as part of a course based on the book Cryptography and Network Security. The text for provides an excellent theoretical definition of the algorithm but ...
3k views

### What are the benefits of the two permutation tables in DES?

Why do we use a permutation table in the first step of DES algorithm and one at the end of algorithm?
2k views

### What is entropy?

We discuss a lot of topics and use measures of entropy to determine how difficult it is for an attacker to be successful. What does entropy mean in the context of cryptography? How is entropy ...
2k views

### How were the DES S-box values determined?

It seems like the S-boxes in DES have essentially random values. How were these chosen?
1k views

### Is every output of a hash function possible?

Is every output of a hash function (e.g. SHA1, MD5, etc) guaranteed to be possible, or, conversely, are there any output values that cannot possibly be created from any input? If so, what guarantees ...
944 views

### Cryptographic Challenge: How to Say Something Confidentially to Snowden?

The Snowden situation raises an intereting cryptograpic problem. At present, how can something be sent confidentially to Snowden? Claim: I have no particular political orientation. The above ...
2k 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 ...
360 views

### Purpose of outer key in HMAC

From what I know, the HMAC constructions has two strength: It's resistant to length extensions Since the key is consumed before the message, the attacker does not know the initial state, preventing ...
400 views

### What is the ideal cipher model?

What is the ideal cipher model? What assumptions does it make about a block cipher? How does it relate to assuming that my block cipher is a pseudo-random permutation (PRP)? When is the ideal ...
299 views

### How to construct a good PRF from a block cipher?

We want to explicitly construct a good (as tentatively defined below) Pseudo-Random Function $F$ with $b$-bit input and output, from (preferably just) one Pseudo-Random Permutation $E$ of $b$-bit, as ...
502 views

### Hash decrypts key, key decrypts cipher… why?

I noticed recently that a couple of pieces of encryption software (TrueCrypt being one of them) don't directly use a hash of the password as the key for the block cipher. Instead, they generate a ...
706 views

### Why is it important that phi(n) is kept a secret, in RSA?

Why is it important that $\phi(n)$ is kept a secret, in RSA?
1k views

### Information leakage from the ecryptfs filesystem

I'm wondering what information might be leaked from the ecryptfs filesystem. This is what Ubuntu uses if you check the box for "encrypted home directory" when using the desktop installer, so is ...
476 views

### What security authorities and standards reject $e=3$ in RSA, when, and with what rationale?

In RSA, some security authorities and/or standards allow the public exponent $e=3$, others require or recommend $e>2^{16}$ (or perhaps some other minimum). I gathered the following: PKCS#1 allows ...
604 views

### Encryption scheme for social-network-like data sharing data via untrusted server?

I am thinking quite a lot lately abut the problem of secure, privacy-preserving social networking. Distributing the network among trusted, preferably self-hosted servers (like Diaspora, GNU Social ...
1k views

### repeating-key xor and hamming distance

I read that to break repeating-key xor you can do the following: try a keysize $n$ and compute the hamming distance between the first $n$ bits of the encrypted string and the bits $n+1$ to $2n$ of the ...