All Questions

1k views

True random numbers generated by sensors

Is using sensor raw data a good way of generating true random numbers? I mean using an IPhone's gyro/accelerometer raw output as a base for generating an array of true random numbers.
330 views

Is the DES algorithm in OPENSSL random?

Look at the hex dumps of encrypted1.bin and encrypted2.bin . They both have same password A which was used to encrypt sampletext ...
721 views

Can two rc4 encoded messages be XORed and decrypted if encrypted with the same key?

If I have the following: E1 = RC4(M1, K); E2 = RC4(M2, K); If two different messages M1 and M2 are encrypted with the same key, K, can the key be recovered by ...
635 views

What are the differences between proofs based on simulation and proofs based on games?

what are the main pros and cons of proving the "security" of a crypto scheme under simulation proofs instead of game based proofs?
225 views

Does it take brute force to find a pair of plaintext and ciphertext that each follow a certain condition, given an AES encryption key?

Suppose that I have an AES key $K$, and I'm instructed to find a plaintext such that the first 32 bits of the plaintext are some string of bits $S_1$, and the last 32 bits of the ciphertext once the ...
3k views

AES key length greater than 256 bits - is it dangerous to do an implementation outside of the standard?

I'm making a digital-asset manager written in ActionScript 3, it will be used to manage highly sensitive information. I'm using the AS3Crypto library (which has quite a good reputation) to implement ...
320 views

Speeding up partially known plaintext preimage recovery attack on MD5

Suppose there are three messages A, B and C of different length, that are 16 DWORDs in ...
304 views

What cipher mode is suitable for independantly decryptable short messages?

I'm building a small VoIP client which transmits encrypted audio data via UDP, and some packet loss is expected, so each packet will need to be decrypted separately even if others in the stream don't ...
426 views

Safety of DSA key parameters sharing

I'm looking for a solution to use in a context where I need to be able to generate new asymmetric key pairs quickly (using a widely recognized algorithm, and EC-DSA is not applicable). It sounds like ...
368 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 ...
293 views

The security of data traffic over both SSTP & SSL

Suppose you're connected to a VPN server via an SSTP VPN, and then you're trying to sign in to your webmail account that is already secured with an SSL certificate, e.g. hushmail.com. However, it ...
163 views

Why do we need extra hashing if we could use simpler scheme?

Lets say that we use init vector IV, key K and HMAC key H. Message is M. Mode of operation is CBC !!! We usually encrypt this way: ...
1k views

93 views

What does signed fixed window method mean in ECC?

I am studying (sliding) window method in Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) but I am confused by the term, signed fixed window method. By the way term is used in a research paper and not in the book ...
70 views

Definition of the term “key”

I've looked in many places (NIST, text books, online resources) and I cannot find an answer to the definition of the term "key" from a semantic point of view. Is it the "key" to cipher-texts (i.e. ...
303 views

Toy public/private key example open to frequency analysis?

I've been looking at an online Public Key Encryption Example (summarized below). It seems to me that choosing cyphertext = plaintext^(key) mod n would produce the ...
113 views

What if OT breaks in Yao's garbled circuit?

Two semi-honest parties are computing F with Yao's garbled circuit. Sender garbles it with his inputs baked in then sends it to the receiver. At this point the receiver must use OT to get his keys. ...
66 views

Checking both Quadratic residuosity and Jacobi symbol simultaneously and efficiently

I have to randomly generate a number $u$ such that $u \in J(N)-Q(N)$ where $J(N)$ denotes the set of elements less than $N$, whose Jacobi symbol value is equal to 1; and $Q(N)$ denotes the set of ...
5k views

How does TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV help?

After reading through https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tls-downgrade-scsv-0, I could understand that this option is recommened for use when one has legacy SSL Servers which only support SSLv3. ...
599 views

Chosen plaintext attack on textbook RSA decryption

Let $(n,d)$ be an RSA private key and $(n,e)$ the corresponding public key. Generate a secret random $r$ from $(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^*$ Compute $C’ = C (r^e) \bmod n$ Submit $C’$ as a chosen ...
2k views

How can a Vigenère cipher be broken if the message is short?

I was watching a Stanford lecture on Vigenère cipher and in it the professor said that – to break the cipher – we assume the length of the key is known. We then break the cipher into groups of this ...
111 views

Empty message Hash length

I am learning Hash Algorithms and in a presentation (PDF) about these algorithms I read that: Length of $h(m)$ much shorter then length of $m$. Now my question is: What if we talk about an ...
250 views

RFC 5959 specifies the encrypted storage of private keys based on PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA-256 and AES encryption (in ECB mode). Is there a particular reason AES is used, instead of simply XORing the key ...
78 views

Familiar key signing over video call

Say that a friend of mine and I have both generated new PGP keys, and we want to use a video call to verify each other's new keys because we live on opposite sides of the planet. While we could both ...
304 views

One time pad: why is it useless in practice?

The symmetric cryptosystem One time pad (OTP) seems to be very beautiful since it is perfectly secret according to Shannon. Many books, however, point out that the main drawback is that one must ...
420 views

Does AES-128 have the same strength as AES-256 with a padded key?

When I use the same 128-bit key for AES-128 and AES-256 with a known/public padding for the latter, is there some weakness in AES-256 that is not present in AES-128 with essentially the same key? ...
199 views

Is the term “Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem” a misnomer?

I have just started studying Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and I have this doubt. In ECC the group operation is addition (and not multiplication). So, why is ECDLP stated as a variation of the discrete ...
787 views

Certificate signature with SHA-1 and RSA: where do 1888 bits come from?

Plenty of X.509 Certificates use "PKCS#1 SHA1 with RSA encryption" as the Certificate Signature Algorithm for generating a 2048-bit signature. The SHA-1 hash function generates a hash value of 160 ...
271 views

How can we sign a contract digitally between two parties?

I'm trying to sign a contract with another party, without using handwritten signatures. I've just read through Applied Cryptography, but there doesn't seem to be a protocol that can solve this ...
210 views

Why can't hashes be reversed with toffoli gates?

This is a follow up question to this question: Crack cryptographic hash functions using Toffoli gates?. Suppose there is a hash function $$H(x)=y,$$ where $x$ is the input of the function and $y$ is ...
402 views

What does “Worst-case hardness” mean in lattice-based cryptography?

In the wiki page of Lattice-based Cryptography the "Worst-case hardness" is defined as below: Worst-case hardness of lattice problems means that breaking the cryptographic construction (even with ...
269 views

Random numbers for Rabin-Miller primality tests

I've implemented a Rabin-Miller primality test fuction following Wikipedia and the book Applied Cryptography. Now I'm using it for generating primes with a string seed. The book suggests the following ...
2k views

OpenSSL PBKDF2 documentation

I'm using OpenSSL 0.9.8 on OSX Maverick, and I want to use a PBKDF but I can't find any doc/man about it on OpenSSL's website. I'm working on QCA, an OpenSSL wrapper for Qt, and when I arrived there ...
123 views

What is the impact of different modes on pseudo randomness of AES?

AES in CBC-MAC mode is proven to be good PRF . But is there any study done on other modes ? how good is ECB mode as PRF ?
136 views

Speed up modular exponentation with fixed base and modulus

Can someone explain, how $a^x \mod N$ can be speeded up, when $a$ and $N$ are known constants? How big is the gain and what resources are needed? ...
126 views

How does secret sharing solve the partial exposure problem?

I have been trying to understand how secret sharing methods like Shamir's secret sharing solve the problem of a share revealing information about the secret. I guess there are some random numbers ...
326 views

OFB or CTR mode without an IV

I'm reading the SSL specs here. The interesting thing seems to be that RC4 is not re-keyed with a new IV for each message. The stream cipher state is simply carried over to the next record. Why is ...
329 views

What does the linear assumption over bilinear groups mean?

In the abstract of "Cryptography with Tamperable and Leaky Memory", at the end of the 3rd paragraph, the authors say: In both schemes we rely on the linear assumption over bilinear groups. What ...