# All Questions

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### Does OpenSSL apply ASN1 encoding to the hash before signing using ECDSA?

I read on stack overflow that OpenSSL performs ASN1 encoding to the hash before signing it for, for ECDSA. In other words, OpenSSL performs the following steps when for an Elliptic curve key ...
1answer
172 views

### What is the meaning of IND-CCA secure under standard model? [duplicate]

I notice that in many research papers (viz. "Universal hash proofs and a paradigm for adaptive chosen ciphertext secure public-key encryption" by Cramer and Shoup) the authors showed that their ...
0answers
27 views

### Weaknesses of RSA for $e_A\neq e_B: \gcd(e_A,e_B)=1$ [duplicate]

If two people, A and B, are using a common RSA modulus N, and they select distinct exponents $e_A$ and $e_B$, such that they are coprime, why does this mean that someone can decrypt (in polynomial ...
0answers
32 views

### Increase in security with increase in size of salt [duplicate]

Does increasing or doubling the size of salt result in improved security? It will require some extra time to brute force the passwords, but any added advantage?
1answer
75 views

### Why is 128-bit considered “medium term” security?

Why is 128-bit encryption considered good enough for medium term security only? How is expected to be eventually broken? Quantum computing or brute force attack?
2answers
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### Confusion about definition of homomorphic encryption

I am trying to better understand homomorphic encryption, but I feel like I keep getting inconsistent information in the papers that I am reading. One of the papers I am reading says the following: ...
0answers
38 views

### What is the definition of Selective Security?

What exactly is the definition of "selective security"? For instance, it is used in [KSW'13] (Predicate Encryption Supporting Disjunctions, Polynomial Equations, and Inner Products), but is there a ...
1answer
71 views

### Inverting RSA using an oracle

Say you are given an efficient deterministic algorithm 'I' that can invert the RSA function on 1% of the points in $Z^*_{N}$. That is to say that if y $\in$ $Z^*_{N}$ is a "good" point for 'I', ...
1answer
99 views

### ElGamal - What if the Decisional Diffie-Hellmann problem could be solved?

I have read that if the DDH problem could be efficiently solved, the IND-CPA would not hold for ElGamal. I don't see why it makes ElGamal less secure if you have $g^a$, $g^b$ and $g^c$
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### What is the security strength of an n-bit HMAC?

HMACs depend on preimage resistance, or so I have read. The security strength of hash function with an $n$-bit output against collision attacks is $2^{\frac{n}{2}}$. Against preimage attacks, it is ...
1answer
23 views

### What is the starting point of Hellman's TMTO method?

I understand what is happening and how the endpoint is computed but I'm still a bit unsure of where "SP" (Staring Point) came from. Are the starting points, randomly selected keys from the key-space ...
2answers
223 views

### Is GCM still recommended?

I stumbled across a forum thread where a security researcher seemed to have negative feelings towards GCM. I had always thought from prior readings that GCM was the current gold standard for ...
1answer
35 views

### Do I need to use null bytes and \x80 in hash length extension attack?

Say I want to perform a hash length extension attack. All the tools I have used use \x00 and \x80 to pad hashes (hlextend and hashpump). But is it necessary to use these bytes? Based on my ...
0answers
25 views

### Composing hash functions

Suppose there is a cryptographic hash function $H : \{0,1\}^* \to \mathbb G$. Now, we want to define a hash function $H' : \{0,1\}^* \to \mathbb G \times \mathbb G$. My first idea is to define $H'$ ...
1answer
71 views

### Schnorr signature security level as compared to AES/RSA

As per the Schnorr's original paper (1991), The Security Complexity $2^t$: We wish to choose the parameters $p$, $q$ so that forging a signature or an authentication requires about $2^t$ steps by ...
1answer
51 views

### Disk encryption using AES-CBC: is reliance on previous block data a downside?

I have seen drives that boast that they use AES with CBC mode, which doesn't really make sense in my opinion, sure it's more secure than ECB (but actually, leaving security aside, ECB is better suited ...
2answers
74 views

### Brute force knowing a part of the password

So here is the problem, my brother forgot about the eight digit numeric part of his password, he is using Ubuntu 15.04 default whole disk encryption To make it clear, this was his password (example) ...

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