# All Questions

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I have an OLD work database that seems to have a simple encryption on the PW. I have one users whose pw is 7777 the cipher text is ...
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### Knowing pre-encryption data, can we find the private key CryptoWall used?

I'm just repurposing a question already asked about Cryptolocker for CryptoWall: "If we know exact contents of some of the files prior to them being encrypted, would it be feasible to use those ...
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### What is the difference between a random oracle and a probabilistic algorithm? [closed]

What is the difference between a random oracle and a probabilistic algorithm?
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### How can I handle the situation if key size is less than 64 bits in DES?

If the data is not a multiple of 64 bits, then I can use padding. I know that it is not secure. But if the key is less than or more than 64 bits, should I ask the user to enter the key again, or ...
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### Request for review: known plaintext mitigation by rotation and xor encoding

When using structured data inside a plaintext (such as gzip headers, xml, etc.) they generate known plaintext which may be useful in cracking the ciphertext. So I had these two ideas on how to make ...
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### Safety of AES ECB when used with openssl_seal function

I'm trying to use PHP to encrypt files with a public key. I'm using the function openssl_seal that "encrypts data by using RC4 with a randomly generated secret key." RC4 is considered unsafe so the ...
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### Probability of $D_k(a*k+b) =p$ for a PRP

I'm wondering what the probability of a PRP having numerous keys (say 3 or more) with the same simple idempotent, or near identity, function. For example, does there exist values of $p, a, b, x_1,$ ...
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### Question about OR operation in fully homomorphic encryption

This page (which won't let me post a comment, sadly!) describes how the original FHE paper by Craig Gentry describes FHE. (Other references to this stuff can be found on this question.) It mentions ...
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### 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: ...
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### Is there a standard for public key encrypting and signing short messages?

Some systems, that operate over flaky bearers, need to send signed, encrypted messages that are entirely self contained - i.e. send a single 300 byte UDP rather than have a 10Kb, two-way, certificate ...
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### How to formally prove that a given hash construction is collision resistant or not?

Is there a precise procedure or strategy to follow in order to prove in a formal way the (not) collision-resistance of a certain given hash construction? I.e. let $H_1$ and $H_2$ be two hash functions,...
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### Is it possible to generate backdoored DH parameters?

I know it has been already asked and answered whether it's possible to generate weak DH parameters. But "recentely" we experienced the Logjam attack, which makes use of the pre-computation ...
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### RC4 via nonlinear mixer — sound?

We implemented a rc4 (ARC4) variant for creating a cryptographic stream - question is: Is this sound? (I'll give an example for 32 bit variant, though 64 bit/larger is possible) Algorithm is as ...
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### Diffie-Hellman in the wild

Say we have a public network and lots of peers. Each may need to communicate with another peer. Would there be any huge security issue to each peer making the the public part of their key openly ...
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### Digital Signature Attack

In a typical digital signature scheme in which in order to sign we compute: hash of the message: $h(m)$ resulting hash signed with the private key $[h(m)](private key)$ If there were a collision ...
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### Is a 256 bit HMAC-SHA256 key compromised if the tail is used for identification?

Using a truncated hash of a key seems to be a safe way to identify the key (i.e. key fingerprint), but what about truncating a key itself in the case of HMAC-SHA256? Example: ...
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### SHA512 vs HKDF key expansion

I'm working on a secure file storage server. This server allows users to upload and download files based on a "seed". This "seed" is a 128-bit value. From this 128-bit seed, we run SHA512 to derive a ...
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### How does the birthday paradox apply to random keys?

I'm developing a web app where I wish to use pseudorandom keys for items, perhaps akin to Imgur. I was thinking about how many combinations I need to reduce the chance of someone guessing any random ...
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### Using scrypt to generate key + IV/nonce together

Is there any security issue in using scrypt for Key + IV/nonce generation? In other words, can I safely use only a salt for scrypt and derive the nonce along with the key? For example: I have data I ...
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### Is entropy being lost when the hash of a secret has a specific format?

Bitcoin's mini private key format works by brute forcing random data to produce a secret so that when appending ? and then hashing with sha256 it will produce a ...
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### Combining several symmetric ciphers using XOR

I have seen a talk by Rüdiger Weis, where he says that you can combine two symmetric ciphers using XOR. According to him, that has the effect that its sufficient if only one of the ciphers is secure. ...
157 views

### Hashing a Diffie-Hellman result

In many implementations, the result of the Diffie-Hellman algorithm is hashed. I read that: Hashing the shared secret point prevents an attacker from gaining more information about the EC private ...
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### Possible to detect if a message is PGP encrypted/signed (ciphertext)

Let's say I have a text field somewhere (i.e. an interactive user submitted text field on a PHP script, or a console application. Basically anything that accepts user input.) How can I detect if said ...
236 views

### Is full Homomorphic encryption quantum resistant?

Since most of our asymmetric encryption algorithms are going to be out-of-date in a couple of year due to Shor's algorithm, I was wondering about the future of FHE schemes. I have found this paper, ...
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### Calculating $\mathbb F_{p^2}$-rational points of an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb F_p$

How can I calculate points on an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb F_p$, for example $y^2 \equiv x^3 + 1 \pmod p$, with coordinates in $\mathbb F_{p^2}$? (points might have complex number format in ...
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### Small subgroup confinement attack on Diffie-Hellman

I am trying to understand the small subgroup confinement attack on the Diffie-Hellman algorithm. I will present the attack and try to explain why it works. Small subgroup confinement attack on the ...
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### How ECDH algorithm selects modulus value?

I am curious to know how an ECDH algorithms select a module value, if both ends A & B can generate same shared key using the public key of each other ? If I understood DH correctly, both A and B ...
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### Let $G$ be a PRG. Are the following $G'$ constructions based on $G$ necessarily PRGs?

$G$ is a PRG where $|G(s)| > 2 \cdot |s|$. $G'(s) = G(s0^{|s|})$. $G'(s) = G(s_1...s_{n/2})$, where $s = s_1...s_n$. My question here is whether my own proposed solutions are correct and do ...
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### What is this encryption system called?

Let's say you want to break down a message, for simplicity it is just a bit $0$ or $1$, $m$ into two messages $(m_1, m_2)$ as follows: If $m =0$, then $(m_1, m_2) = (0, 0)$ with probability $1/2$ and ...
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### variant of Diffie–Hellman key exchange protocol

Motivation Consider the following variant of Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol for two parties: Assume Alice and Bob share $\mathbb{G}$ of order $q$ generated by $g$ Alice samples $a$ ...
Having a large set of ECC public keys $P_i = n_iB$ on a fixed curve $E$ over a prime field, is there a way to determine if coefficients $n_i$ were generated using a bad PRNG? In other words, can a ...