# All Questions

2k views

### What is the post-quantum cryptography alternative to Diffie-Hellman?

Post-quantum cryptography concentrates on cryptographic algorithms that remain secure in the face of large scale quantum computers. In general, the main focus seems to be on public-key encryption ...
336 views

### How does the cyclic attack on RSA work?

I am trying to get the idea of cyclic attacks againts assymetric RSA encryption. Taken from Handbook of applied cryptography . Let $k$ be a positive integer such that c^{(e^{k})} = c\mod n ...
955 views

### Why is OCB-AES mode not becoming a standard for authenticated encryption?

The OCB mode of authenticated encryption (used for example with AES) is the fastest way to provide authenticity and confidentiality without having to strive into questions like: Encrypt then MAC, MAC ...
454 views

### How to break AES CBC with PKCS#5 padding?

If I have a string encoded with AES CBC with PKCS#5 padding, how can one possibly decrypt/crack it? What are the approaches that one can take to break its security?
243 views

### Is signing a hash instead of the full data considered secure?

I reference object in some of my code in hashes. The signature is itself is another object separate from the one I am signing (for obvious reason). I consider simpler to simply sign the reference to ...
88 views

### SRP6a client server exchanged message order

In SRP6a, the public key of server is send after receiving the public key of client A. Its that okay that B send along together with s right after client send the username, and then later on client ...
684 views

### PBKDF2 for key diversification

I am looking for a secure key diversification function to create individual AES keys for a local smart card deployment. The keys need to be derived from a secret master key and the smart card serial ...
126 views

### ASCII Message in TV show? [closed]

So I was watching a popular series tonight (Person Of Interest) when suddenly during a frame change I noticed a very quick blue screen with writing. At the time I never thought anything of it as it ...
1k views

### Why programming languages don't provide simple encryption methods?

In c#, there is a namespace called System.Security.Cryptography and there are many classes in this namespace, which help developers encrypt and decrypt data. ...
329 views

### Is AES reducible to an NP-complete problem?

Is breaking AES NP-hard? Can the security of AES be reduced to a NP-complete problem? If it is reducible, what does the reduction look like? If it is not reducible, why do we assume it is secure?
765 views

### How and why can a decryption program tell me that a key is incorrect?

I have noticed that some programs used for file encryption will tell you if an entered key is wrong when you try to decrypt. It seems (to me at least) that this would mean that the key somehow is ...
121 views

### Why does the SRP6 calculation of B included a multiplier k = 3?

In SRP6 $B$ is calculated as $B=kv+ g^b, k=3$. What is the purpose of $k$, and why was it fixed as $3$? (In SRP 6b, this value $3$ is replaced by $k = H(N,g)$, but this question is about SRP 6.)
226 views

### Measuring Shannon's diffusion

Shannon's idea of diffusion is fundamental to cryptography. Besides being a descriptive idea, is there any work on measuring or expressing it? Saying something like "System A has more diffusion than ...
881 views

### Can one reduce the size of ECDSA-like signatures?

Using $n$-bit ECDSA, a signature has a size of $2·n$. It is possible to recover the public key from this signature, which shows that there is a publicly visible redundancy in the signature. Is ...
184 views

### Is semantic security important in a hybrid cryptosystem?

RSA doesn't provide semantic security when used unmodified, and neither does the commonly used PKCS#1 v.1.5 padding scheme for encryption. Is this a problem for hybrid cryptosystems at all? My ...
141 views

### MD5 implementation

As a personal project, I want to implement MD5 on an FPGA, but I have some doubts about the specifics of the implementation. My first source of how the algorithm is implemented was the RFC 1321, where ...
153 views

### Can the hash of one message be used to make it easier to find the hash of a very similar message?

Background: I am trying to get an understanding of using a hash of a passphrase as a secret. Example: ...
163 views

### Request for 1024-bit primes $p$ , subgroup $q$ and subgroup generator $g$

I need to find a prime $p$ of $1024$ bits with a $160$ bit sub group size $q$, such that $q|p-1$ , and $g$ is the generator of the sub group size $q$. I'm looking for the numeric values of $p$ , $q$ ...
404 views

### Can we replace the XOR operation in DES with some other operation?

Can we replace the XOR operation in the DES algorithm with some other operation? If so, does it work for both encryption and decryption?
144 views

### Name for identical operations for encryption and decryption

Is there a name for the property of a cryptographic algorithm that the operations for encryption and decryption are identical, i.e. $E_k(x) = D_k(x)$ and accordingly $E_k(E_k(x)) = x$? An example ...
1k views

### Why is Diffie-Hellman considered in the context of public key cryptography?

In all textbooks I used the Diffie-Hellman key exchange is under "public key cryptography". As far as I can see it is a method to exchange a key to be used with a symmetric cryptographic algorithm, ...
900 views

### How to break an arbitrary XOR and Rotation based encryption?

I heard encryption based purely on XOR and Rotation is inherently weak. The paper Rotational Cryptanalysis of ARX says: It is also easy to prove that omitting addition or rotation is devastating, ...
163 views

### How to bring little changes in DES algorithm

I thought of implementing DES modes of operation as a project...But my guide asked to change or to modify the DES algorithm in such a way to overcome drawbacks of DES...So is there any way to do ...
240 views

### Two step encryption

Is there any asymmetric cryptography algorithm which will allow recursive encryption. ...
162 views

### What are rounds in the context of ciphers?

Another recent question on security margin included in its answer the discussion of how many rounds are broken so far. What is the definition of a round?
685 views

### How to check the strength of an encryption algorithm?

I asking for advice on how to check strength of an encryption algorithm.
150 views

### What is 'security margin'?

I have been academic papers about Rijndael, Serpent, and Twofish, and there is this term that is vague to me. I cannot find a tangible definition in google. Can someone briefly define, describe, ...
347 views

### Hashing a password with SHA256 on the client then bcrypt on the server

I'm trying to implement a cryptographically secured storage site (not Mega, or anything similar) and am trying to prevent the user's password from ever touching the server. The password is used to ...
108 views

### Secure way to compare two secret numbers without disclosing them?

For example, two people want to know who is the older, without disclosing their age. Is there a secure way to do this without a third party involved?
170 views

### AES implementation in java that allows key of 320-bit length [closed]

I need an implementation of AES(Rijndael) in java that allows use of a 320-bit key. Please suggest a reliable implementation
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### Tell me about non-MD5/SHA1 key fingerprints

I understand there are specifications for public-key fingerprints that use modern hash algorithms like SHA2. What are they?
101 views

### Obtaining a key that's using ice algorithm

I have a text file that has been processed by the SNOW steganography tool that uses ICE encryption. However, I do not know the key that would enable me to decrypt and retrieve the message hidden. ...
192 views

### What are alternatives to the random oracle model for modelling hash functions? [closed]

I was looking for more realistic alternatives to the ROM for describing hash functions in theoretical proofs. I came across the common reference string model (where hash functions can be modeled as ...
397 views

### RSA primes vs. largest known primes

In the context of a new largest (mersenne) prime number being found this week - The largest known prime number is now 2^57,885,161 − 1, and it took 5 years to find ...
615 views

### AES-CTR vulnerability to cryptographic oracle

I am new to cryptographic issues and from what I googled so far I could not retrieve the information I need. Consider the use of AES-128 in CTR mode. Let M be the set of possible plaintexts, for ...
207 views

### Source for examples with broken cryptography

I've heard again and again that many crypto systems have been broken in the past for one reason or another and that it is best to use one that has been peer reviewed, etc etc. However, I've yet to see ...
197 views

### FIPS 140 compliance for encrypted files

Does FIPS 140-2 require specific key sizes, or does it have specific requirements for the data? In other words, if I encrypt a file, how I can check whether it is FIPS-compliant or not? Does only the ...
398 views

### Why does the recommended key size between symmetric and assymetric encryption differ greatly?

In various articles it is mentioned that for secure communications, the recommended key sizes are 128-bit key size for symmetric encryption (which makes it $2^{128}$ possible keys?) and 2048-bit key ...
162 views

### Is such a crypto-system available?

$E(k_1, pt) = c_1, E(k_2, c_1) = c_2, D(k_{new}, c_2) = pt$, where $k_{new} = f(k_1, k_2).$ Sharing $k_{new}$ and $k_2$ should reveal no information about $k_1$. Clarifications: Being able to ...
226 views

### What are some approaches to attack an triple key polyalphabetic cipher when the IV key and PT key are known?

The cipher is an triple key polyalphabetic cipher also known as an Quagmire IV by the ACA. An example would be here: Quagmire IV example and info (pardon the ads) I posses the IV key and the PT key. ...
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 ...
350 views

### Bitcoin, couldn't a miner steal money? [closed]

What prevents a miner's block from being accepted across the network if the hash checks out when miner forges transactions in the block? For example, lets say I'm mining and I want to steal money ...
619 views

### Ideal passphrase length: old diceware method (5 words) vs. your Bitcoin wallet.dat passphrase lenght (8 words) and doubling passwords?

I made a cool 5 word passphrase back then using the old Diceware method and use it as a master password. The question is as computing power increases will we need to add more and more words to our ...
164 views

### Elgamal test vectors

I know that Elgamal algorithms have fallen out of fashion, and they are not included in any widespread cryptographic standard nowadays. However, they are still present in several popular crypto ...
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### What is RSA key normalization?

How can I understand the term RSA key normalization? What exactly is done in the process?? Please explain.
182 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 ...
280 views

### Is there any known malleability of scrypt outputs?

The scenario is single-use passphrase-based non-interactive message authentication. The obvious try to do this is to chose a random salt of the appropriate length and send: ...
615 views

### I have a few questions about the random oracle model

1.) Proving the security of a scheme with the ROM takes two steps; first you prove that the sceme is secure in this idealized world where a random oracle exists and then you implement this scheme in ...