# All Questions

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### Anonymous offline digital cash scheme

Can a digital cash scheme exist that is anonymous and offline using blind signature and anonymous signature?
459 views

### How hard is the Solitaire cipher to crack?

Assuming your deck is completely random and that it is not retrivable, how hard would it be for a casual person to decrypt a message encrypted with the Solitaire cipher?
111 views

### Hash and salt or salt and hash?

People say "hash and salt", but aren't you supposed to salt password the first, and then hash it? So that means its called "salt and hash" right?
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### Given just the hash of a file, can I verify that the file contains a specific data block?

Imagine I only have the hash of a file which we can call hash(file). Then a user sends me a data block (or section) of the same file, which we can call ...
406 views

### What does “a 15360-bit RSA key is the equivalent to a 256-bit symmetric key” mean?

NIST key management guidelines suggest that 15360-bit RSA keys are equivalent in strength to 256-bit symmetric keys. If a 15360-bit RSA key is the equivalent to a 256-bit symmetric key, does that mean ...
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### How badly does disclosing an M-bit prefix of an N-bit private key compromise security?

I apologize profusely for knowing nothing about cryptography, please go easy on me! I'm working on a project where I have a 2048-bit RSA private key and a public certificate generated from the ...
131 views

### Example describing Baek and Zheng’s threshold identity-based decryption scheme

I am trying to work through an example of Baek and Zheng’s “threshold identity-based decryption scheme” and I tried a lot to solve this, but somewhere I’m doing something wrong. I hope someone can ...
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### Same 64-bit preimage resistance security for SipHash and SHA-512/64?

If I have to chose a 64 bit preimage resistant hash function; will there be any difference in security between SipHash and SHA-512/64 (SHA-512 truncated to 64 bits)? How long will it take an ...
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### What kind of operations are involved in NTRU?

I've read that lattice based algorithms involve matrix-vector products. Is this the case of the NTRU algorithm? When I've read the details of the NTRU algorithm, I've seen products of polynoms. Where ...
207 views

### How does the HOTP dynamic truncation function generalize to longer hashes?

HOTP, the HMAC-based One-Time Password algorithm from RFC 4226, uses a "dynamic truncation" function to turn the 20 byte HMAC-SHA-1 value into a 31 bit string. The dynamic truncation (from Section 5.3)...
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### Validate per round rather than cycle-walking in FPE

I was thinking about FPE specifically for numbers, CC, phone, SS #, etc. and I thought of some small "optimization" that could be implemented. Can I validate the string length after each round in the ...
102 views

### Are there simpler FHE methods than Craig Gentry's original paper?

Craig Gentry's 2010 paper on FHE is very cool, and I'm planning on implementing a basic proof of concept FHE. I was wondering though, are there any simpler methods that have been discovered since ...
577 views

### Is (AES-)GCM parallelizable?

I recentely faced the issue of random access decryption while AES-GCM was being used. I said this person that the underlying CTR should allow parallelization but I have no idea how authentication ...
189 views

### How to hash similar strings to the same hash value?

Suppose that $s_1$ and $s_2$ are two stings that have a small hamming distance. Is there a preimage resistant "hash" function ($H$) that can map them to the same value i.e., $H(s_1) = H(s_2)$?
164 views

### Chopping off SHA256 entropy?

I have a NoSQL key-value database. I want to insert couple million of records to it. For the key generation, I'm, using a prefix (something like data-one-) and ...
243 views

### Is SHA-1 safe for signing ECDHE parameters?

Is using the SHA-1 algorithm insecure for hashing the ephemeral ECDH public key in the signed_params structure? There are some worrying articles about using SHA-1: ...
146 views

### Secure method of encrypting data within a database

I'm designing a program which makes queries to a database stored locally which could potentially contain a lot of sensitive information. As such the information must be kept secure as possible from ...
85 views

### Difference between RSA-617 and RSA-2048

according to wikipedia: RSA-617 has 617 decimal digits (2,048 bits). RSA-2048 has 617 decimal digits (2,048 bits). What is the main difference between them?
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### Why is it good to split a CTR-mode counter into nonce and counter?

When discussing the CTR mode of block ciphers, Wikipedia says the following: Simply adding or XORing the nonce and counter into a single value would completely break the security under a chosen-...
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### Secret Sharing Encryption

Suppose Alice shares a secret block cipher key, $K_{AB}$ with Bob, and a different secret block cipher key, $K_{AC}$ with Charlie. Describe a method for Alice to encrypt an m block message such that ...
335 views

### Standard format to encode AES cipher and random IV

As far as I understood, a secret key (same length as CBC block size) and an initialization vector (IV) are needed to decrypt a AES-256-CBC encrypted string. As the IV should better be random, it has ...
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### Is hashing data with dynamic keys still worth effort?

some years ago it took long time to "decrypt" hashes because they took slow cpu to brute force. Nowadays they use graphic cards for stuff like this and can do this most time in less than 20 Minutes ...
230 views

### How does the simulator of the special-honest verifier zero-knowledge property works?

I’m a bit confused about what the simulator of the special-honest verifier zero-knowledge property of a $\Sigma$-protocol is supposed/allowed to do and how to prove that it is indeed efficient (i.e. ...
64 views

### Can one construct OTPs without using XOR?

The typical version of the one-time-pad (OTP) uses XOR to combine a key pad and a message. ($c=m\oplus k$) Now let's assume some other scenarios which have the practical application of blinding. Do ...
71 views

### NTRU test vectors

Where can I find NTRU test vectors? In some research work in 2001, it is stated that test vectors were not publicly available at the time. Then in this ESSS1v2 standard under IEEE1363 here , the ...
72 views

### What are the current known weaknesses/attacks on quantum key distribution?

I am writing a paper on the implementation of QKD in the future. I want to know if there are any viable attacks on the BB84 protocol or QKD in general? I know of the Photon Number Splitting attack or ...
133 views

### Security impact of signing small data using RSA

I have an application which consists of a client and a server. Both have a pair of public and private key (RSA). For communication, both sign their messages and send them to the other part. So a ...
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### IND-CCA1 RSA padding?

I've found a way to complete a task which I'd solve with passwords or by sending keys over the wire (otherwise) by using RSA's homomorphic property. I'm restricted to RSA (any padding; for hardware ...
155 views

### How to generate a large random number from smaller ones?

I'm using a function randInt that takes as input two integers as upper and lower bounds (inclusive) and outputs a pseudorandom number in that interval. ...
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### How can I calculate the probability of collisions of a hashing algorithm?

I'm pulling a “Dave” and I'm designing my own hashing algorithm. Not that I intend to use it, I'm not certifiable or anything, I just want the challenge of creating something. I'm not going to get ...
162 views

### Modular Multiplicative Inverse and RSA?

In trying to understand this specific part of the RSA algorithm, I found this online: $$e \cdot d = 1 \pmod{(p-1)\cdot(q-1)}$$ Therefore: e \cdot d \cdot d^{-1}= d^{-1} \cdot 1 \pmod{(p-1)\...
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### How to calculate the avalanche effect in aes-256?

I am a beginner in cryptography. I'm testing AES-128 bit key, AES-256 bit key, and Camellia-256 bit key. I'm using AES-256, 9 character salt, CBC mode, PKCS #5 padding, and the ciphertext using ...
133 views

### How can I compare two hash algorithms? [closed]

In studying the algorithms of cryptographic hash functions, I have tried out a few (educated) modifications to the code for academic purposes only. For example, I modified the algorithm by applying an ...
67 views

### Understanding a faulty Needam-Schroeder protocol

Give this mutual-authentication protocol (along with the attack) in which Alice wants to communicate with Bob, I can't understand how the attack works. A chooses $N$ (nonce) and sends to C (trusted ...
130 views

### Padding size with a CBC Block cipher in TLS

I'm currently looking at an encrypted Client Finished message in Wireshark from a TLS session. The cipher suite that was agreed on in previous messages was ...
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### How do we generate AES S-BOX?

I am new to AES and I am too much confused about the generation of S-box in AES. I don't have any idea of $GF(2)^8$ field and how the things are happening around. Please answer this question with a ...
274 views

### Order of MACing and Encrypting in TLS

I've been working through how TLS1.0 works, and think I've basically understood most of it. One thing I can't seem to find a explanation of though is the order in which MACing and encrypting should ...
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### Worst case to average case in Ring LWE

I am currently trying to understand this Ring LWE article and I have a question. I don't understand how to apply Lemma 5.11 in order to get the worst case to average case reduction in Lemma 5.12, as ...
305 views

### What are the problems of IKEv1 aggressive mode (compared to IKEv1 main mode or IKEv2)?

I would like to seek confirmation/clarification of the following statements about IKE: IKEv1 aggressive mode is supposed to be “insecure” if used with PSK. But as far as I can see, correct (or more ...
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### Factors of the group order to secure against Pohlig-Hellman

I am looking into the security of Diffie-Hellman and the discrete log in general. To make sure an attacker can not use Pohlig-Hellman to solve the discrete log quickly we need to make sure that the ...
177 views

### Cryptographic random numbers for key generation

I am trying to understand how a cryptographic library works (for example, one that provides assymetric encryption such as RSA), but I'm running into a few problems about the key-generation. There are ...
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### Defining correct secured channel from endpoint to server

I'm new to cryptography and have a question regarding encryption usage. The scenario is as follows: I have an endpoint hardware device (CPU - ARM A7 1.2 ghz) which runs Ubuntu 14.04. This hardware ...
168 views

### Base point in Ed25519?

The paper "High-speed high-security signatures" by Bernstein et al. introduces the Edwards curve Ed25519. Concerning the base point $B$, it says that $B$ is the unique point $(x, 4/5)\in E$ for ...
159 views

### Proving security of TLS handshake with ProVerif

Background For my dissertation I am working on an application protocol for which I require a TLS session. I am looking to achieve Perfect Forward Secrecy, which means I have selected ephemeral Diffie-...
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### Attacking RSA signature verification that ignores padding

I am looking at a RSA signature verification that is quite obviously flawed and am wondering if there's a way to exploit that flaw in practice. Signature is generated using RSA with PKCS 1.5 padding, ...
204 views

### How is message length involved in public/private-key encryption?

I've just read this question regarding why to sign only the hash of a message. I kind of understood the answer, but the question arisen is now: Why can I encrypt any text messages with the same ...
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### Generating random vector for Full Homomorphic Cryptography

The site below explains that part of doing homomorphic encryption, you need to generate a vector of random numbers that have the property that its dot product against a randomly generated bit vector ...
230 views

### Any reason to use Shamir given faster XOR threshold secret sharing algos?

TL;DR: Is the Kurihara algorithm really what it purports to be (dramatically faster but equally secure replacement for Shamir Secret Sharing)? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=kurihara+secret+...
If you take a convergent encryption algorithm and replace the hash $H$ used to derive the key with HMAC-H, keyed with a secret key $k'$, does the resulting algorithm provide you with deterministic ...