# All Questions

529 views

### Finite fields and ECC

I understand modular arithmetic(or at least I think I do!) and I've tried to read and learn about how the Math in RSA works(and I think it went pretty well). I've been reading up on ECC and it looks ...
3k views

### How to find generator $g$ in a cyclic group?

As generator $g$ is use in DH how to find combination of prime $p$ and $g$? eg: if we choose $p=23$ its generator is $7$ (given in book) how to find it?
493 views

### Map Bytes to Number

Using node.js crypto library I can generate cryptographically strong bytes. How can I use this to generate a random number between 0 and 9999 (both inclusive)?
3k views

### Why is RSA encryption significantly faster than decryption?

I am designing an implementation of RSA . I recorded computation times in Java by using System.currentTimeMillis(). It returned an encryption time of 0.05 ms and ...
233 views

### Can the encryption exponent e be greater than ϕ(N)?

So I was just wondering in RSA, can the encryption exponent e be greater than ϕ(N)?? For an examples sake, lets just say N = 707, so p = 101 & q = 7. So, we have ϕ(707) = 600. Can I have e = ...
2k views

### One-time pad and zero key

I'm doing some exercises before my exam, and I am stuck with task number 4 in this file: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~jkatz/crypto/f10/hw1.pdf Could you help me with this task? When using the one-time ...
729 views

### Calculating cycles per byte

Cycles per byte seems to be a critical concern in designing and choosing stream ciphers. For example, from Wikipedia, RC4 has 7 cycles/byte on original Pentium chips. How is this calculated? Do they ...
3k views

### Digital Signatures, Standard Hash Functions and MACs

I'm studying Hash functions and Digital Signatures in sequence, and came up with some doubts about their usage. First of all: What is the difference between hashing a document and signing it? And ...
3k views

### How to perform file encryption using 128-Bit AES?

I am confused, how can I encrypt a file using 128 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard? Do I need only to encrypt the file name and it's content or is there something that I need to do to encrypt it? Is ...
2k views

### Why do all hash functions use big-endian data?

I've looked at several hash function specifications, and they all emphasize the need for big-endian byte ordering. Is there a reason for this that has to do with security, or is it simply convention?
702 views

### Does RSA padding have to be unpredictable if the payload is?

I'm trying to understand the precise requirements on padding when using RSA for encryption. Suppose Alice uses RSA to encrypt a payload $M$ that cannot be guessed (say, a random nonce): Alice send ...
677 views

### Are there public slow-but-strong algorithms out there that resist brute-force attacks better?

I'm reading that AES uses 4x4 bytes (4*4*8 = 256 bits key) matrix for performances matters (since it's a requirement for common standard encryption algorithms), but are there implementations with ...
174 views

### Should I use XTS or GCM to encrypt my hard drives?

I want to start encrypting all of my hard drives, but I don't know whether to choose XTS or GCM mode. Why is it that XTS is recommended (since the most websites I visit use GCM in their HTTPS ...
72 views

### GCM: use the same key:IV pair to encrypt file and filename

Using Java, I wrote a piece of code that encrypts a given file with AES in GCM mode of operation. So far nothing uncommon. Now I would also like to encrypt the filename, in the following way: ...
305 views

### RSA: Recover e given factorization of N and plaintext/ciphertext pair

Is there a way to recover the public exponent e (assume in this case it is in fact not public) used in an encryption if I know the following: Factorization of ...
696 views

### Is AES solvable by reducing to SAT?

Consider a known plaintext attack on AES — just so we have an actual system of equalities that we can feed to a SAT solver. Is AES solvable in this way? In other words, will the algorithm eventually ...
225 views

### Constant time multiplicative inverse within a word

I was playing with an algorithm which at one step, calculated $f(x) = x^{-1} \mod p$ for $0 < x < p = 2^{64}-59$ (note $p$ is a prime). I used Knuth's Vol 2 Algorithm X algorithm for calculating ...
86 views

### How can there be AES-256-GCM, when GCM is defined for 128-sized blocks?

In both node.js and OpenSSL, I am seeing cipher "aes-256-gcm". However, in NIST Special Publication 800-38D, that defines GCM, I am reading: The underlying block cipher shall be approved, the ...
204 views

### Does complicating a flawed algorithm make it secure?

It's a basic question I guess, but I don't know the answer and I don't think that anyone asked it. Suppose I built a system, it relies on MD5 for security, suddenly I read am article on how easy are ...
683 views

### Is it usual for a signed message to contain the public key of the signer?

In protocols/systems which use ECDSA, is it common for the message to contain the public key of the message signer? If not, how do recipients know that the message has been signed by the correct ...
396 views

### Are all possible EC private keys valid?

I usually generate a key pair using openssl or Bouncy Castle. I'm using curve secp256k1. The 256bit private keys look fairly random. Do all values of "private ...
137 views

### Combine two sha512 hashes to a single hash

Assume I have two data fragments: $Frag_1$ and $Frag_2$. I can build sha512 hashes the usual way with $SHA512(Frag_1)$ and $SHA512(Frag_2)$ and then hash the two fragments appended to each other: ...
205 views

### Are all stream-ciphers IND-CPA?

A stream cipher usually generates a stream of pseudo-random bits which get XORed with the plaintext to form the ciphertext. The stream is generated using a given IV / nonce and a secret key. CTR-mode ...
126 views

### Is it OK to use a hash of the key as nonce for AES GCM?

I don't see an immediate risk of using the hash of the key as the nonce for AES GCM. Is there something I could be overlooking?
252 views

### How is information disclosed by modular multiplication?

Consider the case that $c = a \cdot b \mod p$ where $p$ is a known prime and $0 < a < p$ and $0 < b < p$ are unknown integers numbers. Furthermore, some bits on the value of $c$ are ...
644 views

### How to perform frequency analysis of a substitution cipher using a Base64 alphabet

Let's imagine a cipher that works like the following: Plaintext is encoded to Base64. The characters in the encoded plaintext are substituted with a randomly shuffled character set(A-z, 0-9, -, _, ...
214 views

### What, cryptographically speaking, is a “long message”?

I have read about long message attacks on some cryptographic hash functions. However, I don't quite understand what is being referred to as a "long message". Also, do long message attacks only apply ...
248 views

### SRP-6 vulnerabilities when N is small

I'm one of the developers of an application which uses SRP-6 as the authentication mechanism. The authentication part of the code is very old and uses N with only 256 bits (all arithmetic is done in ...
387 views

### Security issues of a MAC-then-Encrypt-then-MAC approach?

Encrypt-then-MAC does provide ciphertext integrity, but no plaintext integrity. With MAC-then-Encrypt it’s the other way around: Plaintext integrity but no ciphertext integrity. What comes to mind is ...
374 views

### Effective security of block cipher – equal the key size, or half the key size?

The Wikipedia “Key Size” article states: The security of an algorithm cannot exceed its key length (since any algorithm can be cracked by brute force), but it can be smaller. … … … Most ...
2k views

### What curve and key length to use in ECDSA with BouncyCastle

I'm developing a client/server system in Java which is not interacting with third party software, so I don't have to worry about compatibility. At a certain point, I need the client and server to ...
198 views

I was researching about hash, and I thought, If sites store passwords with hash algorithms, then can't this happen: User A has the password 'hello' User B finds out the hash code of the password of ...
407 views

### Avoiding overflow when encrypting with RSA

When encrypting with RSA one calculates $m^e \pmod n$ by doing the following: m^e % n Where $m$ is what we encrypt. Often $e$ is a very big number to make it ...
262 views

### Can you really insert the text you want in one-time pad?

The Wikipedia article "One-time pad ~ Authentication" says : For example, an attacker who knows that the message contains "meet jane and me tomorrow at three thirty pm" at a particular point can ...
1k views

### random number generator 10-side dice alternative

A lot of sites (e.g. Dirk Rijmenants') refer to 10-side dice to generate random number for one-time-pad. I was thinking about new ways to generate random numbers, letters and passwords. here what I ...
989 views

### CBC-MAC , fixed length, all blocks returned

CBC-MAC, with fixed length message. Is it safe to return all ciphered blocks instead of the last? My intuition says it is less secure, since is gives an attacker more information. But how could one ...
995 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?
303 views

### A situation where security by obscurity might be the best solution - or am I wrong?

Imagine the following situation. There is an application for a microcontroller-driven system. The profits are made from manufacturing and selling the device itself. However, it is expected, that the ...
291 views

### How to generate a random integer in interval $[1, 2^n-1]$ from random integer in interval $[0, 2^n-1]$?

For a project I am working on, I have access to a CSPRNG that outputs a random integer in the interval $[0, 2^n-1]$ for any integer $n$ greater than 0. I cannot use the zero values, so I have my RNG ...
698 views

### Randomized algorithms and the one time pad

The way I understand it, an algorithm is said to be randomized if it uses randomness as part of its logic (quoting Wikipedia). Now, in the case of encryption algorithms, I assume this means that for ...
753 views

### Is there a symmetric-key cryptography based on key establishment techniques?

Most of the current key exchange techniques are based on public-key cryptography. Are there any key exchange/establishment techniques based on symmetric-key cryptography too? In my setup primary ...
772 views

### What's the main difference between Pohlig-Hellman and RSA?

Both Pohlig-Hellman and RSA perform encryption and decryption by exponentiation modulo some integer ($p$ prime for PH, $n$ composite for RSA). They both use a key $e$ as the exponent to encrypt a ...
320 views

### What is the name of this kind of protocol

There is a communication protocol that I believe creates the equivalent of a one time pad, with the downside that the secret message must be transferred multiple times. The protocol is so simple that ...
459 views

### Can a “pattern” in a series of passwords be detected from their hashes (and maybe a single raw password)?

Let's say I'm a lazy user of a system with annoyingly frequent password change policies. I may have a "good" password I used initially that is only used for this system but since I have to change it ...
356 views

### Is there any recent cryptographic algorithm especially designed for low-level processors?

Most modern algorithms require relatively large amount of resources. Is there any recent (and freely usable) encryption/decryption algorithm which is specially designed for low-level microcontrollers ...
1k 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 ...
499 views

### Key space size when either of two public keys are valid for authentication?

If for authentication a user can own either A OR B public key instead of just one specific key is that equivalent to halving the key space. i.e. it it theoretically twice as easy to brute force and ...
589 views

### How can I encrypt more than 64 bit with the Data Encryption Standard?

The Data Encryption Algorithm is designed to encipher and decipher blocks of data consisting of 64 bits under control of a 56-bit key. If my data is more than 64 bits, (suppose 66 or 67 bits), will ...