All Questions

2answers
375 views

AES-CTR with ephemeral keys vs IV

Let's say that we have a key exchange of some sort, which leaves A and B sharing the long-term secret $S$. Then, A and B want to use AES-CTR for the communication, which leaves us with several ...
0answers
200 views

Ring Signature - paper/code difference in trying to solve inverse trap door function?

there is a paper on ring signatures and a python implementation of it here. The Step 4 in the paper describes $y_s = v =C_k,_v(y_1, y_2, ... y_r)$ for all $1 \leq i \leq r$ where $i \neq s$. The ...
1answer
55 views

VIC cipher author known?

Does anybody know if the design of VIC cipher is attributed to anybody? I've tried Google and found nothing. There are quite a few sites describing the method in detail, a few implementing it ...
2answers
209 views

Alternative sources of random numbers

Considering that algorithmic methods for generating unpredictable streams are hard to come by, I've wondered if any of these potential sources are good for making keys, seeds, and the like: stocks, ...
4answers
907 views

Do any non-US ciphers exist?

Plenty of ciphers come out of the USA from government research or selection competitions. AES and DES are examples. Are there any public ciphers produced by other states, China or Iran for example? ...
2answers
1k views

Generate RSA-2048 private key for a VERY fast decryption (don't care if it will be unsecure)

Given public standard RSA exponent e = 65537, is there any (d, n) pairs so that RSA decryption becomes a trivial operation? The modulus n must be no less than 2048-bit. The goal is to get a real ...
3answers
680 views

How to submit a new method of encryption?

I came up with a truly new method of applying modulo-2-addition encryption function in stream ciphers which is inspired by a mechanism used to prove a mathematical theorem. How can I determine whether ...
8answers
820 views

Does a public key absolutely need to be used to initiate an encrypted session?

I am a software developer working on an application with the .NET platform. This application needs to provide a secure connection and encrypt all data between the client and the server. It is a ...
5answers
2k views

Approach towards anonymous e-voting

I want to implement an internet-based e-voting system. Voters shall be able to cast their vote for one out of n possible candidates. Each candidate has his own ballot-box kept by and at a trustworthy ...
3answers
4k views

How to use HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA2 in conjunction with AES

I understand how to compute HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA2 etcetera. Please explain why/how is the resulting HMAC value is used in conjunction with AES for encryption/decryption and signing/verifying. In ...
3answers
2k views

Malleability attacks against encryption without authentication

Suppose there is a message that is encrypted with AES-128-CBC. The message is as follows, new lines are used to delimit the 16 byte boundary for each block: ...
1answer
903 views

Authentication using AES

I need to implement an authentication mechanism in an embedded environment which does not support floating point operations but has an AES accelerator module which allows for encyption/decryption ...
2answers
509 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 ...
2answers
324 views

If Bob steals Alice's private key, how exactly would he read her encrypted documents?

So Bob grabs Alice's secret key when she isn't looking and her encrypted files, doesn't he need to know her passphrase to read her files? What I am reading is that no he does not need it but as far ...
3answers
460 views

For AES CBC, can I encrypt the IV with AES ECB and the same key and include it with the message?

Is it safe to use this process: Generate Key, IV Encrypt Message with Key, IV and AES CBC into EMessage Encrypt IV with ECB into EIV Send over EIV + EMessage Then the recipient Decrypt EIV with ...
5answers
2k views

Why is the private key generated first in public key crypto?

I'm still new to public key crypto. I'm trying to understand how it is that the private key is generated first in public key crypto? I would have expected the private and public key to be generated at ...
2answers
346 views

Why is “multiplying” $g^x$ and $g^y$ not possible?

The computational Diffie-Hellman problem states that for a cyclic group $G$ of order $p$ and a generator $g$, it is hard to find the value $g^{xy}$ given only $g^x$ and $g^y$ (but easy if either $x$ ...
2answers
7k views

What characters does AES output?

From what I understand after testing the Crypto-JS file here: http://crypto-js.googlecode.com/svn/tags/3.1.2/build/rollups/aes.js AES creates encrypted strings that contained letters, both ...
4answers
662 views

A mathematical explanation of the DES encryption system

I need a mathematical explanation of what does the DES encryption system really do. This means I need more explanation than the one that offers FIPS, which is more an explanation for computer ...
4answers
591 views

Verify product without revealing multipliers

Situation: Several participants contribute encrypted random numbers. These numbers will be used to generate community-agreed random (by simple multiplication). Question: Is there any way to detect ...
2answers
549 views

Why can't we use the first block of AES-CBC as MAC

As per topic, why can't we use the first block as MAC instead of using the last block? what's the rationale?
2answers
1k views

breaking fully homomorphic encryption schemes

Fully homomorphic encryption schemes allow one to evaluate any arbitrary computation over encrypted data. Intuitively this seems to be too weak, irrespective of how we achieve this. An adversary who ...
3answers
491 views

Advantages of 64-bit CPU smartphone

Advantages of having a 64-bit CPU vs 32-Bit CPU smartphone … 3. Complex Encryption. Improved Security: 64-Bit can process incredibly large numbers allowing you to better encrypt data against ...
4answers
3k views

Initialization vector in symmetric-key encryption

Can we use symmetric-key algorithms without an initialization vector? I am making an app where both the sender and receiver share a key and there is no way to create an initialization vector for each ...
3answers
364 views

Is it possible to work out the hash algorithm from a list of known message-hash pairs?

For example, in my situation I know hash(20) = 486e9638177faf1f34e49910491b77af. I also know the hashes for all values from 0 to 20. Is it possible to work out the ...
3answers
16k views

Where i can find an AES implementation in python?

Where i can find a "reviewed" version of AES implementation in python. Not an API like PyCrypto whereby you can call AES algorithms in a single line.
2answers
994 views

Tools for modelling and analysis of cryptographic protocols

I am designing some cryptographic protocols and I am new to it. Are there any well-known tools that can be used to model and design these protocols? And also verify or analyze their validity? If not ...
2answers
1k views

Could the Enigma algorithm be classified as a Feistel network?

The Enigma algorithm is a encryption method that was developed (I believe) by the Germans in WWII. It went a little something like this: When a letter was typed on the keyboard of the Enigma ...
4answers
1k views

Which is more secure using a CSPRNG for a One-time pad, or AES?

In reading about the One-time pad it appears to need truly random key for the pad. Since true random values are not practical to generate this presents a problem (thus making One-time pad less ...
2answers
3k views

Different implementations of SHA1, which one is correct?

I have noticed that different implementations of SHA1 give different results. As I'm currently programming my own SHA1 implementation (in MATLAB / GNU Octave), I wonder which one should I follow? ...
3answers
401 views

Is the new preprint “An Algorithm For Factoring Integers” by Yingpu Deng and Yanbin Pan worth reading?

I just discovered on the eprint server of the IACR the paper mentioned in the title. Scanning quickly over the paper I didn't find anything spectacular, so I doubt that their new(?) approach will be ...
4answers
122 views

If I am about to generate one-time pad, where should I generate my pads from?

If I want to generate a few one-time pads, is it OK to just read required number of bytes from /dev/urandom without weakening information-theoretical security?
2answers
585 views

Is double hashing collision resistant?

Double hashing can surely provide more security than only one layer of hashing but does that necessarily mean it is more collision resistant? This question in a more mathematical form: If $H$ is a ...
5answers
588 views

Can hashing become encrypting?

hashing some data and encrypting data share some similar attributes. Surely this is why "Difference between encrypting something and hashing something" has been asked. The point of this question is ...
3answers
1k 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?
3answers
1k views

How can I avoid calculating with huge numbers when implementing the RSA algorithm

There is 26-letter English alphabet. There is the plain text: TRYAGAINLATER. I need to encrypt it by RSA algorithm with the public key 53. What is the ciphertext? ...
2answers
216 views

What is the difference between PBE and symmetric key encryption?

What is the difference between PBE (password based encryption) and symmetric-key algorithms? My understanding is that symmetric-key algorithms like AES and Twofish are used in PBE. Hence PBE is just ...
2answers
630 views

Is it possible to apply hill-climbing algorithm to Diffie–Hellman?

If Eve intercepts all the values communicated between Alice and Bob in a Diffie–Hellman key exchange, and applies the hill-climbing algorithm to reverse the modulo function, how will the algorithm ...
2answers
555 views

What's the GCM-SHA 256 of a TLS protocol?

If we read the Google line information about how the cypher the https communication, it reads: TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 I understand it's using ...
2answers
277 views

Reusing message in One Time Pad

One of the main rules of the OTP is, that a key should never ever be reused. But if we use some commutative operation (XOR for example) for generating the cipher text, then I don't see any difference ...
2answers
2k views

How long does it take to crack PBKDF2?

How much time will it take to crack PBKDF2 while using a 9 character password? I'm not specifying any specific system or platform. If a brute force attack is made using the best ever super computer ...
1answer
3k views

Why is Serpent faster than AES in this benchmark?

I have a laptop without the AES-NI CPU instructions but with SSE4.1. I'm using Linux and tried the (in-memory) cryptsetup benchmark to get the rough tendency which returned: ...
2answers
460 views

Is prime regeneration necessary for every new session using a Diffie-Hellman key exchange?

As I understand it, bruteforcing a Diffie-Hellman generated secret key takes $P-1$ attempts to crack the shared secret, where $P$ is a very large prime used for modulus. If your $P$ is quite large, ...
2answers
3k views

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

As generator $g$ is used in DH how do you find a combination of prime $p$ and $g$? eg: if we choose $p=23$ and its generator is $7$ (given in the book) how do we find the generator?
3answers
668 views

How to avoid a chicken and egg scenario with encrypting passwords?

I am working on application that allows users to upload files containing company data and then share those files with a list of other users that have specific roles within the system. I want to ...
2answers
15k views

SHA-256 and AES-128

Does it make an encrypted string more secure if I use SHA256(x) instead of x as the secret key for AES-128 encryption? I do know that SHA-256 produces 64 characters of hashed string regardless of what ...
3answers
645 views

Can I pre-define the points in Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm

With Shamir's secret sharing is it possible to pre-define the points returned by the algorithm? For simplicity if I have (k, n) where k=2, and n=4, and I have the points X,Y,Z, and Q. Can I create ...
3answers
2k views

How do public key rings work in cryptographic applications?

I am wondering if there are any links to articles or resources available online, or explanations that you can give, that would help me to understand the concept of a public key ring, and why I might (...
2answers
2k views

How can I break REDSHIRT / REDSHIRT2 encryption?

Recently, a user on Gaming.SE asked a question about whether the user password in the video game Uplink could be modified after being initially set. The game does not contain an option to change the ...
2answers
386 views

Why not use an algorithm's code rather than data itself for one time pads?

Instead of using actual data for one time pads, what would be different if the code for an algorithm was exchanged so that to acquire the pad one would execute the algorithm and use its output? Why ...

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