# All Questions

3answers
852 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
377 views

### Can PBKDF2 be used to create an XOR cipher key to encrypt random plaintext?

I want to encrypt a truly random plaintext (a key file) based on a user password. I'll use PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 to generate an encryption key from the password, but I'm wondering if I even need to ...
1answer
167 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 $x$ ...
4answers
439 views

### RSA with composite numbers

It has been said that RSA uses a modulus product of two prime numbers for security reasons. But does RSA even work correctly if we allow composite integers instead? I think that the answer is "NO". ...
2answers
821 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 ...
2answers
129 views

### SHA-1 colission resistance proof

I'm searching Why the SHA-1 is collision resistance? Anybody could help me with the proof or say me where I can find this proof?
2answers
172 views

### What security flaw exists in MAC authentication scenario?

What security flaw exists (if any) in the solution of this non-encrypted authentication scenario? An unencrypted message passes one-way from computer A to B. Its transmission is viewable by the ...
3answers
314 views

### Does it make sense to block RSA keys under 1024 bits?

A paper I found (http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/064.pdf, which was submitted to a cryptography conference about two years ago), is based on the analysis of some 7.1 million 1024-bit RSA keys published ...
3answers
784 views

### Why crypto hash functions must be collision resistant and how to find resistant?

Why cryptographic hash functions must be collision-free and is there any methods to evaluate whether a function is not resistant to collision? Thanks,
2answers
787 views

### Custom crypto library in C

I will be making (in the near future) an app that will contain some pretty heavy crypto. As it is possible that my app will be ported to different devices (initially it will be iOs only, but Mac, ...
4answers
812 views

### “Padless” One-time-Pad encryption

I have just read about the perfect security of an OTP encryption and what came to my mind was that what if the Pad used for encryption/decryption did not have to be transported separately from the ...
2answers
317 views

### Is there an algorithm for factoring N, which is just as simple as this one, but faster?

I found a simple algorithm for factoring semiprime numbers, you can read about it in Factoring Semiprimes and Possible Implications for RSA. It basically works like this: You reverse the digits in ...
1answer
4k views

### How to solve MixColumns

I can't really understand MixColumns in Advanced Encryption Standard, can anyone help me how to do this? I found some topic in the internet about MixColumns, but I still have a lot of question to ...
2answers
162 views

### Is there a secret sharing scheme which allows sharing of a secret (one-out-of-n)

Is there a secret sharing scheme where the knowledge of just one share is sufficient to find the secret, in other words a (one-out-of-n) sharing scheme ? Plz I need to know if it is possible to make ...
2answers
116 views

### Parallel hash construction

I'm wondering why hash constructions aren't parallel like CTR mode for encryption? For example: We have ideal block cipher E, where we encrypt message block with counter and xor output block with ...
3answers
702 views

### Is AES really used for Top Secret stuff?

I've read almost everywhere that AES-256 can be used for Top Secret material (in the US). Is it really used or is it some kind of decoy to hide the more advanced algorithm they might use ?
2answers
506 views

### AES key padding

Is the initial AES key (expanded to the key schedule) byte padded if less than e.g. 16 bytes? Is there a safe way of determining if decryption was successful (i.e. used the correct key)?
2answers
248 views

### Secure Hash Function based on AES

How secure would a hash function be which appends an extra block of 16 zeroed out bytes to the end of the message and then AES-encrypts it with a well-known password (say the first 128 bits of pi) ...
3answers
303 views

### How does one provide a secure and authentic communication channel?

Let assume two participants Alice and Bob who perform a given protocol which is a sequence of messages exchange between them. My question is: How can I provide a secure and authentic communication ...
2answers
126 views

### Decryption issue with self-coded AES-128

I have written my own AES-128bit implementation in Java, till yesterday I thought it would be alright. (I was working on the encryption) Now I’m trying to decrypt my encrypted cleartext, but this ...
3answers
223 views

### random access stream cipher

Some time ago I was working in a pet project for a type of database engine. And I thought about securing the data in disk with encryption.. and since the main code was already developed.. I had a few ...
3answers
262 views

### Extracting only the entropy

(I cleaned up the question a bit, It was previously titled "extracting entropy without hashing" .. thus some of the comments / answers) I'd like to extract the entropy of data without injecting ...
1answer
1k views

### What is the meaning of “trapdoor” in cryptography?

I do not really understand the meaning of a "trapdoor" in cryptography, so here are my questions: What is the meaning of trapdoor and how can I convert a word or string using a trapdoor in ...
2answers
204 views

### How resilient to attackers with extreme resources available is this encryption method?

How could the following scheme be made more resilient to attacks capable of utilizing massive amounts of resources? Assume all random values are cryptographically secure. Key derivation: scrypt ...
1answer
138 views

### What parts of AES encryption result are safe to pass on the network

I'm using AES to encrypt the message. both sender and receiver know the passphrase, but only sender knows IV and salt I assume that receiver also needs to know IV and salt to decypher text; is it ...
2answers
271 views

### Help me describe/identify this challenge-response protocol/algorithm?

My area of expertise is reverse engineering, specifically embedded systems. I do attack cryptographic systems, but this largely involves key recovery or exploiting the implementation. I was asked to ...
2answers
263 views

### What's the difference between AES and earlier block ciphers?

Is there any difference except speed and key and block size from user's point of view? Or does AES have something that ideal block cipher doesn't have?
1answer
226 views

### Is there a preferred way/standard on how to transmit an initialization vector for AES encryption

Is there a preferred way on how to transmit the initiliazation vector with witch AES encryption was made? I could imagine that, if the encrypted data is stored to a file, the IV is preppended at the ...
2answers
417 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 ...
1answer
386 views

### Why are these specific values used to initialise the hash buffer in SHA-512?

I'm reading the book Network Security Essentials written by William Stallings. To create a message digest with SHA-512, we have to go through some steps: append padding bits. append length ...
1answer
127 views

### Slow hash algorithm that does not require salt?

I usually choose bcrypt when hashing as I can set the work factor to slow down the calculations of the hash. However, I have to keep a copy of the hash in order to verify it (since it includes the ...
2answers
183 views

### Subgroups generators with respect to group generators of composite order

If I have a group $\mathcal{G}$ of order $N=npq$ and subgroups $\mathcal{G_n,G_p,G_q}$ of order $n$, $p$, $g$ respectively and if $g$ is a generator of $\mathcal{G}$ why then $g^{nq}$ is a generator ...
2answers
720 views

### Why do all hash functions use big-endian data?

I've looked at several hash function specifications, and they all emphasize the need for big-endian byte ordering. Is there a reason for this that has to do with security, or is it simply convention?
2answers
179 views

### Given $g$, $b$, $g^{ab}$, is finding $g^a$ a hard problem?

As in the title, given $g$, $g^{ab}$ are big elements in a prime group $Z_p$ and $b$ in prime group $Z_r$ ($p > r$, $g$ is one generator of $Z_p$). $a$ is unknown and also in $Z_r$, is finding ...
1answer
284 views

### Fastest random number generator

I just read High performance physical random number generator by K.H. Tsoi, K.H. Leung and P.H.W. Leong. It proposes a physical RNG of speed 400 Mbps. Is this the fastest random number generator at ...
2answers
80 views

### Preimage of SHA512 with a known suffix

Is it possible to figure out what $arg1 is if I know both$arg2 and \$arg3 in addition to ...
2answers
111 views

### Standard or guidance for entropy collection

I need to write some high-level security requirements which include a random number generator suitable for use in cryptography. I don't need something very formal, this isn't a security certification ...
2answers
144 views

### Why do these Python XTEA implementations require different deltas?

I once needed to an XTEA snippet to from C++ to Python and it did not work properly. I then found a function on ActiveState.com and noticed that it looks almost exactly like mine, with one exception - ...
2answers
243 views

### RSA performance

I was wondering what is the performance bottleneck in RSA algorithm? Is it the size of message, calculating the modular inverse, exponentiation? Say I have a fixed value of n to encrypt and decrypt ...
3answers
154 views

### Does MAC provide origin authentication? Why not just use symmetric encryption?

Let's assume Bob and Alice has a secret key for MAC. If MAC is constructed by the key and the message, that means that both Alice and Bob can construct the exact same message and MAC. So, Bob can ...
1answer
3k views

### Difference between linear cryptanalysis and differential cryptanalysis

What is the main difference between linear cryptanalysis and differential cryptanalysis? For example in relation to DES?
1answer
179 views

### why AKS is so slow in practice? [closed]

This note (http://maths-people.anu.edu.au/~brent/pd/primality4.pdf) states that AKS is not practical. However, it is known that AKS runs in polynomial-time, and I cannot understand where the slowness ...
2answers
204 views

### Is entropy affected by time?

I'm quite new to cryptographic systems, and today we discussed entropy at work. Since entropy is used to ensure the difficulty for an attacker to break in, I was wondering if the more time the high ...
2answers
431 views

### Is storing original file size in an encrypted file header a bad idea?

I'm encrypting a file using AES-256 in CBC mode. I'm padding to the 16-byte input multiple by using the PKCS#7 limit. The problem I'm currently having is that if I'm transferring or reading the ...
2answers
95 views

### What is RSA key normalization?

How can I understand the term RSA key normalization? What exactly is done in the process?? Please explain.
1answer
142 views

### Do practical key-less cryptosystems exist?

Hopefully the question isn't too broad or off. Basically, are there any practical, and by practical I mean secure enough that a ciphertext only attack is infeasible, key-less cryptosystems? For ...
2answers
607 views

### decrypt AES without whole key

Is there a way to decrypt a AES cipher Text which was encrypted twice with some key, when having a part of this key? (the last 3 bytes of the key are missing)
3answers
386 views

### two public keys with same passphrase insecure? | can two hashes be compared?

Suppose someone had generated a 2.048-Bit RSA GPG/PGP key pair and published the public key on the usual key servers. Then he withdraws this key and generates a new one in 4.096-Bit RSA using the same ...
2answers
1k views

### How exactly would someone crack a private key passphrase? [closed]

Lets say for a PGP/GPG pair with a passphrase.
1answer
63 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 ...

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