# All Questions

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### What is the definition of “security beyond the birthday paradox”?

I'm reading a paper about MACs and I would like to be sure about the meaning of a security beyond the birthday paradox. Is there a definition?
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### Is it possible to change PGP / GPG Key Size on an exisiting key?

Is it possible for myself to change the key size (say from 2048 to 4096) on an EXISTING PGP / GPG key, and just republishing that key? Or do I have to generate a new key all together? I want to say ...
1k views

### Decrypting files with an unknown method but a known result

I am assuming there is a very simple way of working this out by brute force, but I am not sure if there is a better way. I have a file of data that I wish to get (my data, generated by a machine). ...
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### definition and meaning of semantic security

I'm taking coursera cryptography course. The definition of semantic security is hard to understand. I tried to slightly restate it (the word "efficient" was in the original definition). Do I get it ...
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### How do you find the inverse degree of a hash function?

I am trying to learn cryptanalysis on the Keccak hash function. One of the papers on zero sum distinguishers talks about Keccak having inverse degree of 3. I am unable to figure this out: how do you ...
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### Can two cipher letters per plaintext letter easily defeat character frequency analysis?

For a class 5 years ago I wrote a paper about "defeating character frequency analysis by using two cipher letters per plaintext letter" (jamesjava.blogspot.com/2009/08/defeating-character-frequency-...
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### How hard is it to generate a partial RSA fingerprint collision?

When I use SSH to log into a new system, I get asked to verify that the fingerprint (a 32 hex digits string) of the hosts's RSA key is correct. How much if it must I actually compare (by hand/eye) to ...
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### low-exponent RSA

I have questions from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F3-540-68339-9_1 Suppose we have 2 messages $m_1$ and $m_2$ related by a known relation $m_2=m_1+1$. Suppose further the messages are ...
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### Questions about the ideal cipher model

I've read that we can study the security of modes of operation by assuming the use of an ideal block cipher. I've also seen a paper suggesting that the ideal cipher model could be something else than ...
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### Hill-cipher, disordered alphabet

I am going to apply a simple substitution cipher to my input, then encrypt the result with a Hill cipher. How can this be broken, in a chosen-plaintext threat model? In other words, instead of the ...
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### 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?
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'Hybrid' encryption, where we combine symmetric encryption with public-key cryptography, is pretty 'tried and tested'. To summarise, we generate a symmetric key and encrypt it using RSA. We would ...
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### Diffie-Hellman key agreement with both Server Authentication and Perfect Forward Secrecy

I am trying to find the protocol with the least overhead, which still meets the following requirements: Server Authentication of server identity to client. The client has an authentic copy of the ...
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### Why does the SRP-6 calculation of B include a multiplier k = 3?

In SRP-6 $B$ is calculated as $B=kv+ g^b, k=3$. What is the purpose of $k$, and why was it fixed as $3$? (In SRP-6a, this value $3$ is replaced by $k = H(N,g)$, but this question is about SRP-6.)
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### Figuring out key in hill cipher (chosen-plaintext attack)

I have been wondering what approach to take in order to figure out what key was used to encrypt a message using the hill cipher. I know it is possible to obtain it even if it were just a known-...
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### Safety of a pre-keyed DH-Key Exchange

Asuming this scenario: Bob and Alice each have the public key of the other party for a D-H function and want to exchange data. Now, if they each generate their shared secret, is it safe to assume ...
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### Detect tampering of data

I have the following problem: There are $n$ users and each users fills in three data points per day, this are three integers between say $-10$ and $10$. I have access to the database and hence I am ...
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### How do ciphers change plaintext into numeric digits for computing?

For example, in RSA, we use this for encryption: $ciphertext = (m^e \mod n)$ and for decryption. If our message is "hello world", then what number do we have to ...
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### How to securely use Elgamal encryption in libgcrypt?

How secure is libgcrypt's Elgamal implementation of encryption (how different it is from textbook Elgamal), and how can I tweak padding and other preprocessing actions? For example, I know that usign ...
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### Is this a correctly formatted PGP session key packet?

RFC 4880 may be full of information, but it can be incredibly vague at times, so im looking for someone who actually knows the answer to this. Given this public key: ...
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### Using a derived key for CMAC

Consider the following authenticate-and-encrypt scheme that uses AES-128 in CBC mode for encryption and AES-128 - based CMAC for authentication: Two keys are derived from the master key k (16 byte): ...
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### What is the 'Version Incompatibility" Problem in TLS 1.1/1.2 and 1.0?

It's unclear to me if there are multiple problems, or a single one, (and just what that problem is) with servers incorrectly negotiating down from a client offering 1.1 or 1.2 to something they ...
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### Finding all polynomials up to a given degree to generate a bit sequence

Consider the following bit sequence: 00100000110 Using Berlekamp-Massey algorithm we can find the following minimal degree polynomial: $P(x)=x^6 + x^5 + x^4 + 1$ Now, is there a way to find all ...
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### How does the key size in supersingular isogeny schemes relate to their security level?

I'm looking at the De Feo, Jao, and Plût 2014 paper: Towards quantum-resistant cryptosystems from supersingular elliptic curve isogenies. My understanding of section 3.2 Key Exchange, is that Alice'...
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### Do the limitations of PRNGs apply to CSPRNGs when shuffling a list?

Suppose, as an example, we want to use the Fisher-Yates algorithm along with a pseudorandom number generator to shuffle a deck of cards. We know that there are limitations with respect to the internal ...
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### Differential & linear characteristics for integer multiplication

What are the probabilities of differential & linear characteristics for the function that XORs the high and low bits from a $n \times n \rightarrow 2n$ bit multiplication? I remember reading ...
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### How long should a HMAC cryptographic key be?

In the top answer to this question the answerer says 'with a sufficently long key'. I am using a SHA1-HMAC (may switch to SHA256-HMAC) algorithm to verify cookies sent to clients as authentication ...
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### Prove that the following MAC is insecure

I am trying to prove that the following MAC is insecure, but I don't know how to exploit the properties of the pseudorandom function $F$ involved: Gen generates a uniform $k \in \{0, 1\}^n$. To ...
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### (How) Can we use HOTP for file encryption?

I recently went through the list of available KeePass plug-ins and noticed one that advertises support for HOTP as a means to derive the database key. Now I trust the developer of this plug-in who is ...
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### How does order-preserving encryption work on string?

I have read “How does order-preserving encryption work?”. After that, I completed order-preserving encryption on integer data. Now, I have four questions in this subject: Is it possible to apply ...
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### Rainbow Table - Number of Chains and Chain Length

Is there a difference between having 10,000 of chains (with 1,000 chain length) and 10,000 chain length (with 1,000 of chains)? How does it affect the success rate of the rainbow table? I understand ...
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### Is there an example of a “robust, yet not private” SMC protocol?

I have been trying to understand the interplay between robustness and privacy of an SMC protocol. It is easy to come up with a protocol that is private but not robust. Can someone provide an example ...
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### Do other one-time signature schemes exist?

I'm curious to know if there are any one-time signature schemes other than Lamport's or its variants (Merkle trees are one such variant). The first I've discovered is called "Bins and Balls" which ...