# All Questions

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### Burn after read algorythm. Software verification on compromised environment. Software smart card

Please help me pick right design of software… I have to design client-server software, where the server should verify that the client runs software from specific source code. It has to be verifiable ...
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### Is using SHA256 to extract entropy from a p-rand nonce a good way to create keying material?

Using $SHA256(N)$, where $N$ is 64 bytes of output from the Microsoft Windows CryptGenRandom function. Are there any known vulnerabilities with using this method to ...
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### Would xoring 2 independant AES CTRs to produce p-rand introduce vulnerabilities?

Assuming $$AES_{k_1}(C_1) \oplus AES_{k_2}(C_2)$$ where AES is used in CTR mode, $C$ is a 128 bit incrementing counter, keys and counters for both transforms are random as well as unique, and the ...
339 views

### Elliptic curves in java

I am writing you because I want to implement the DPS signature with elliptic curves in Java. I found this library http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/security/spec/package-summary.html which ...
180 views

### Proof for composed signatures

Assumes that we have 3 signature algorithms, $S^A$ with key pair $(sk^A,pk^A)$, $S^B$ with key pair $(sk^B,pk^B)$,$S^C$ with key pair $(sk^C,pk^C)$. We denote by $\epsilon$, $\epsilon'$ and ...
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### ECIES: Purpose of optional shared information?

According to Wikipedia the ECIES algorithm has two optional shared information $S_1$ and $S_2$. They are used as follows: Generate a random shared secret $Z$ according to ECIES, which will never be ...
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### ECIES: Purpose of MAC?

Assumptions: $A$ wants to communicate with $B$ $A$ knows a public key $P_B$ which is trusted by a third party and belongs to $B$ $A$ knows the address of someone who pretends to be $B$ $A$ wants ...
211 views

### Encryption-Decryption-Encryption

I have learned from Applied Cryptography that triple encryption with three independent keys in encryption-decryption-encryption (EDE) process gives security not higher then $2^{2n}$ when it comes to ...
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### Hard problems in composite order group even when factorization is known

Composite discrete log problem has been proved to be reducible to hardness of factorization and discrete log on the prime factor groups. Are there any problems apart from that in composite order ...
36 views

### What is the restriction on k, for the kth composite residuosity problem to be hard

This paper considers the exponent to be an odd integer. When k = 2, it is called the quadratic residuosity problem (mod n where n is composite) which is hard and can be solved if the factorization of ...
573 views

### Entropy of the key

Suppose a $1000$-bit key used in the one-time pad is not randomly and uniformly generated. Suppose that the values of the first $5$ bits are $0$, and the other $995$ bits are randomly generated and ...
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### Statistical tests for pseudorandom permutations

I'm implementing a format-preserving encryption scheme similar to those described in the literature. I want to sanity test my PRP using some statistical tests like TestU01. However, I'm not sure how ...
527 views

### How is HMAC hashed message decrypted on the receiver side

We know that MAC algorithm and key are used in both sender and receiver side to get the matching MAC tages to prove that the data is authentic. Now in HMAC we know that, it makes use of crytographic ...
390 views

### AES-ECB as an authentication mechanism

ECB is considered to be insecure when used for confidentiality because identical plaintext result with identical ciphertext. But what if we use ECB for authentication? Assume A wants to transmit an ...
127 views

### Complexity of verifying OTP secret

What is the minimum number of unique pairs of digests and inputs to a one-time pass needed to verify that a secret is equal to a ...
60 views

### Advantages of using intermediate hash over full hash in digital signature application

Description of intermediate hashes Intermediate (or partial) hashes are canonical forms of digest state that can be transferred from one hash implementation to another, so that the other, limited ...
41 views

### Size of Messages Exchanged by PRV and VER for Schnorr Protocol

In this file Elliptic Curve Based Zero Knowledge Proofs and Their Applicability on Resource Constrained Devices I don't understand the Table 6 (Table 6: Size of Messages Exchanged by the Prover(PRV) ...
440 views

### How many bits of hash are realistically needed for key verification?

Say I'm connecting to a web server secured with TLS but with a self-signed certificate. Accordingly, I call the owners of the server and ask them what SHA1 fingerprint they have. They start reading ...
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### What is the exact purpose of length padding in Merkle–Damgård hash functions? [duplicate]

Is a length padding technique in a hash function used to avoid length extension attacks ?
2k views

### Why does the padding in Merkle–Damgård hash functions like MD5 contain the message length?

I understand the need for padding in MD5. But why do we append the message length to the padding? I heard it strengthens the hash but how? Please provide an example if possible and how it applies to ...
297 views

### Are SSL/TLS used for maintaining data confidentiality?

In SSL/TLS, we use symmetric and asymmetric keys to encrypt the data. Does that mean that the keys are used to encrypt the data (preserve the integrity) or provide a secure channel for the data to be ...
84 views

### What does Set Membership actually prove?

While going through this paper, I came across the idea of Set Membership proofs. The proof allows a prover to prove that a value is contained in some set. The point where I am confused is, all the ...
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### OCB and GCM security

Is OCB as secure as GCM or CCM ? Since OCB design is quite different from GCM and CCM, I was wondering if the security properties of these latters are satisfied by OCB, as well. Thank you.
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### How is the following different than RSA Signing of a document?

If the goal is to demonstrate that you are who you say you are, I think the following will work: Bob wants to know that you are Amy. Bob encrypts a number using Amy's public key and then asks her what ...
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### Is MAC algorithm same at both sender and receiver end

The MAC algortihm which is used along with a secret key to generate a MAC tag on the sender end ,is it same at the receiver end also who again uses a MAC algorithm to generate a tag? If yes, then how ...
55 views

### How to make a document truly read only

How is it possibile to cryptographically make a document truly read only? As in read only I imply that the user can obviously view it which can be achieved by coding which pixels have which colors. ...
6k views

### Can Pre-Paid Cards be cracked?

Is it possible to deduce the original function that used to generate those prepaid cards number that are used for charging your mobile phone credits? For example: If I've collected about 1000 of ...
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### Repeatable crypto

Is there a safe way to do crypto that will always produce the same result for a given input? My use case is transferring deltas of huge files, to a backup server. The backup server has no knowledge ...
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### FSB Hash Functions and Convetional hash Functions

I'm reading FSB cryptographic hash function and the authors say that security of this function depends on NP-Complete Problem: "Decoding Linear Code Unlike most other cryptographic hash functions in ...
162 views

### SIMONs Cryptoanalysis

I'm reading Cryptanalysis of the SIMON Family of Block Ciphers. In Section 3.1, it says: For SIMON, consider an n-bit input difference $\alpha= x\oplus x'$ to $F$ of Hamming weight one. As the ...
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### Is SHA related to AES or TLS in any way

I have been reading about SHA-2 family and I found a lot of in depth details, but I am confused about how it is related to TLS and AES. TLS encrypts data between server and client, but does it make ...
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### Is multiple encryption using NaCL and TLS better?

In general, the idea of multiple encryption sounds interesting - for creating stronger cyphers (especially against implementation bugs), one could always get the configuration details wrong and mess ...
128 views

### Prevent MITM attack while encrypting data by using ElGamal ECC?

I am using ElGamal ECC to encrypt my plain text data. I want to ensure that my data is safe from a Man-In-The-Middle attack. What methodology I can adopt to achieve this goal? How can we prevent a ...
128 views

### CBC-MAC based on PRF

Why is the block cipher in the CBC-MAC taken to be a pseudo random permutation (PRP) and not a pseudo random function (PRF)? We don't need the bijective property of the PRP. So why go with it?
113 views

### Should layered use of crypto always have a cryptographic binding between the layers?

Reading the latest TLS weakness, it seems that multiple weaknesses have been found over the years caused by not ensuring that messages are sent over the same channel, and in general a lack of ...
1k views

### Desirable S-box properties

What desirable properties should an S-box have? My current standard selection process is to just pick them at random and verify that they fit the following criteria: The probability that any random ...
187 views

### Asymmetric algorithm for one time signing of small cleartext

I want to generate a key pair such that the private key can be used once to sign a small message (1024 bytes) at some indeterminate point in the future and the public key can be used to verify that ...
125 views

### Secure Deduplication and Encryption in a data store

Assume: We have a centralized data store that can store whatever we need Every user is online Function $f : File \to Key$ gets access to the store, and is the same for all users. $g : Key \to File$ ...
561 views

### garbled circuit vs fully homomorphic encryption

Consider an outsourced database to an untrusted cloud (think CryptDb), the question is how to compute a function $f(.)$ on the data. I think I understand how (fully or partially) homomorphic ...
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### Are partial hashes used in cryptographic protocols?

In my question (and answer) about a partial hash code used within a signature application I found out that partial hash codes are sometimes used within protocols with a relatively restricted security ...
3k views

### Could RDRAND (Intel) compromise entropy?

I was recently discussing the issue of RDRAND in Intel chips and the whole issue about how NSA could potentially be influencing Intel to weaken or create backdoors in their design. This petition was ...
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### Hash collision resistance requirements for Lamport signatures

According to the original paper, Lamport one-time signature scheme uses two one-way functions: $F$ and $G$. The former one, $F$, is used to create a public key by hashing elements of the private key ...
227 views

### Homomorphic Encryption: how does the equality test on ciphertexts work?

Let's suppose we have a asymmetric crypto-system $H$ which is homomorphic with respect to some function $F$. Alice encrypts a message $m$ with her private key $e$ in the crypto-system $H$ and ...
614 views

### What are Cryptographic Multi-linear Maps?

I've encountered this term many times in the fields of Fully-Homomorphic Encryption and Obfuscation. I want to learn those subject and Cryptographic Linear Maps seems to be an obstacle in the way. ...
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### Managing data permissions/access through asymmetric cryptography

I want to manage authorization, as 3rd-party permissions, through asymmetric cryptography. I'm concerned about how is it possible to share access of encrypted data with N entities, and be able to ...
446 views

### How should I treat a new cipher release like Spritz?

I have been looking at both the paper as well as the sourcecode of Spritz — a spongy RC4-like stream cipher and hash function by Ronald L. Rivest and Jacob Schuldt. The paper states We have also ...
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### Implementing the Mceliece Encryption - making the Generator Matrix

I am working on an implementation of the Mceliece Encryption system (MCE) and the Niederreiter encryption system. I have been through the basics of finite fields, polynomial arithmetic and some coding ...