# All Questions

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### How do I create a short signature? (e.g. less than 100 bytes)

I want to put information into a QR code and have it signed so that the authenticity of the information can be verified. But QR codes have limited storage capacity and when I used e.g. gpg I get ...
83 views

### Is substitution with random prefix codes secure? [closed]

The following paper interests me very much: D. W. Gillman, M. Mohtashemi, R. I. Rivest, On breaking a Huffman code. IEEE Trans. Inf. Th. Vol.42 (1996), pp 972-976. However, unfortunately due to my ...
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### Can a monoalphabetic substitution cipher attain perfect secrecy?

Can a monoalphabetic substitution cipher attain perfect secrecy? Definition of perfect secrecy: $${\rm Pr}[\,{\rm Enc}_k(m_1) = c\,] = {\rm Pr}[\,{\rm Enc}_k(m_2) = c\,]$$
116 views

### Mapping of message onto elliptic curve and reverse it

I would like to perform a variant of Elliptic Curve ElGamal in java using the BouncyCastle libraries. I currently face the difficulty of mapping a message $m$ onto the elliptic curve $E_p$. I have so ...
218 views

### why inverse in diffie-hellman protocol will not give same value?

Security of diffie hellman protocol is $K=g^{ab}$.if sender want to calculate value of $b$(given $a$) he can do $g^{{{ab}^b}^{-1}}$(where K=$g^{ab}$) which will give $g^{a}$ as we are cancelling value ...
77 views

### Can I use asymmetric encryption for more powerful write-protection?

I have a game that I am developing which uses a locally-stored internal database. It does not matter to me whether a user can read the file (which, to me, means I don't need a symmetric cipher), but I ...
111 views

My question is related to PBKDF2. I am unsure how to validate user entered password with already existing hashes and salts. I have heard of the so called "length-constant" comparison which basically ...
68 views

### Necessity of changing $p$ and $q$ when your private key is exposed?

Suppose your private key $d_1$ has been exposed. Instead of changing $p$ and $q$, instead you just choose a new public and private key (say $e_2$ and $d_2$) and use these instead. What kinds of ...
78 views

### Homomorphic crypto allowing anonymous yes/no votes?

I'd need a crypto system allowing online yes/no votes but without revealing who voted what. Is a "partial" homomorphic crypto system what I'm after? Would, for example, Damgard-Jurik work in my case? ...
147 views

### Exercise: Attack on a Two-Round DES Cipher

Working through the exercises in Cryptography Engineering (Schneier, Ferguson & Kohno) I have stalled on the following exercise: Consider a new block cipher, DES2, that consists only of two ...
87 views

### If its possible to derive the public key from a private key, why can't we go in reverse?

I'm looking at source code for BitcoinJ that derives a public key from the private key. ...
102 views

### Current standard for hash function security parameter?

When designing a hash function, what should be the secure input and output lengths? In particular, what lengths do I need for collision resistance?
71 views

### Generating Diffie-Hellman parameters efficiently

I am working on an Android project for school and I am supposed to do a DHKE (Diffie Hellman Key Exchange). Everything works well. The problem is that it takes a lot of time (really a lot) to ...
74 views

### Why does a one-time-pad key have to be at least as long as a message? [closed]

I am studying one time pad and find it hard to understand. What happens if the key is one bit or 100 bits shorter than the message?
105 views

### What does “Worst-case hardness” mean in lattice-based cryptography?

In the wiki page of Lattice-based Cryptography the "Worst-case hardness" is defined as below: Worst-case hardness of lattice problems means that breaking the cryptographic construction (even with ...
98 views

### Is it ok to send part of digital signature if we have bandwidth constraints?

When creating digital signatures is it ok to send part of it when we have bandwidth constraints?
141 views

### Shamir's ID based signatures

I am currently implementing Shamir's ID based signature algorithm as proposed in Adi Shamir, Identity-Based Cryptosystems and Signature Schemes. Advances in Cryptology: Proceedings of CRYPTO 84, ...
104 views

### Cryptanalysis of an certain algorithm

Is an attacker of an cryptographic algorithm allowed to change order of sub-keys but not changing their number in attack? Would it be called an attack on broken algorithm of cipher?
67 views

### Secret key model for a compression function cryptanalysis?

How do we analyze the security of a compression function in the secret key model? More formally, let $H$ be a hash function and $F(IV,M)$ its compression function. Suppose we generate a MAC as ...
129 views

### Efficiently computing the neutral element in a ring isomorphic to Z/NZ?

Edited to clarify question So my question is whether anyone knows of an efficient way to compute the neutral element (I'm gonna call it 1, but the operation doesn't have to be multiplication) in an ...
88 views

### Attack on BB84 algorithm for quantum key exchange?

I have a question which is related to the BB84 cryptosystem. We are not able to send single photons so instead we send $K$ photons at a time all with the same polarization. An enemy can separate one ...
487 views

### Multiplicative inverse in $GF(2^8)$?

I know how to do multiplication over $GF(2^8)$. Logic is... ...
56 views

### Keyed-hash of a lot of small numbers

Let's say I have a list of several million numbers, with only 6-9 digits of secret information per number (this means that an attacker might efficiently guess the other digits). I have to store the ...
115 views

### Is it possible to decrypt double-key crypted file knowing public key and a having one or more original files?

I have some encrypted files with double-key. I know public key and don't know private key. Can I obtain the private key (and decrypt all files) using two version of one file - crypted and decrypted? ...
90 views

### Time complexity to solve Discrete log problem

What is the time to complexity to solve Discrete log problem now in $Z_p$? Initially for $n$ bit prime $p$, it was $Exp(n^{1/3})$.
76 views

### Is OCB with short MAC malleable?

At the beginning of OCB's white paper [pdf], OCB is compared to other modes, and non-malleability is one of the properties advertised. At the end of the paper, it is mentioned the MAC length can be ...
88 views

### Generate keys with k3d3 / ed25519-java

I'm trying to use a java implementation of ed25519 for transaction and block signatures of an open source cryptocurrency that I'm currently writing. In the code, I can't find any functions that ...
70 views

### Is it possible to use structures other than finite fields?

I have some difficulties to understand why we are using finite fields in cryptography. Why do we use field? Why not ring or group? Is that really necessary that the field is finite? Why not real ...
111 views

### RSA key length choice for TLS when confidentiality not important?

I've a couple of questions about this, the scenario is embedding a key pair in a hardware device which will speak with other hardware devices over tls. computing resources are an issue so i want to ...
142 views

### Short length asymmetric encryption?

I want to send out short messages to the world which listeners could verify to be send from me. The way this is usually done is to encrypt the message with a private key where the readers decrypt it ...
91 views

### Does the key schedule function need to be a one-way function?

For some key schedule $e_n(e_{n-1}(k))$ (where $e_{n-1}(k)$ is the result of the previous round) , does $e$ need to be a one-way function? In the case of DES or Rijndael the key schedule doesn't ...
97 views

### Can the passphrase of a PGP key be deduced from an old backup?

Let's assume that Bob, at some point in time, has created a PGP (key length and other parameters are not relevant at this point). For some reason, he has chosen a very poor passphrase, for instance ...
83 views

### Forgery Attack Against RSA Digital Signature

I have been reading about attacks against RSA Digital Signature in a book The attacker chooses the signature first and then computes the message. As a consequence, he cannot control the ...
74 views

### How to use HKDF to combine two keys

I have heard that to combine two keys HKDF is better than using XOR function. But if you look at the HKDF RFC I could not figure out how to use it for concatenating two keys. What I can see is HKDF ...
140 views

### Attacks against El Gamal private key

El Gamal encryption involves picking $(p,g,b)$ which is our public key. We compute $b=a^x$ $mod$ $p$. Here, $x$ is the private key which we don't know. What are some efficient and strong algorithms ...
144 views

### What exactly is inside a private key?

May sound stupid to many, but I would like to have some pointers on what exactly is contained inside a private key. I have decent understanding of public/private keys/certificates (have created them ...
158 views

### Encrypt and decrypt data accessible by multiple users within a team

I'm currently working on web services which allows to send and retrieve data. The data belong to a team. A team is composed of users. Each authenticated user can send and retrieve data to/from their ...
90 views

### Difference between implicit signature and explicit signature

In most of time, what I see is explicit signatures such as ElGamal, it's rare to see the implicit signatures. So I wonder why it's rare to be seen? what aspect is it mainly used? what's the ...
64 views

### collision resistant summarizer for long hash values

how we can summarize SHA-256 into shorter values when we for example can't handle more than 128 bits on system? its better just use first 128bit and ignore the rest of bits or split full value and XOR ...
131 views

### Does SpongeWrap (from the Keccak team) absorb ciphertext or plaintext?

I have been reading the Cryptographic sponge functions paper, but I'm still confused. Does Keccak in authenticated encryption mode absorb ciphertext or plaintext? Edit: Are there any test vectors to ...
63 views

### PRP representation size

I'm now studying the block cipher substitution-permutation network construction and realized that it uses several small pseudo-random permutations instead a big one for saving memory (or that is one ...
191 views

### How do I calculate the private key in RSA?

Given $n=pq$ for $p,q$ known, I can calculate $\phi(n)$. $e$ is selected such that $\gcd (e,\phi(n)) = 1$. Using this, how do I calculate the RSA private key? Example: I have $n = 35$, with ...
115 views

### Why doesn't this dummy mutual authentication protocol provide mutual authentication?

I am a student taking a cryptography course so forgive me if this comes off as a silly question. This is an assignment question: ...
139 views

### How does Google's “authenticator number generator” work?

I have two-factor authentication enabled on my Google account, and I have this app on my phone which generates a number I have to type when I'm logging in to Google-Mail. But I don't understand how ...
67 views

### Adversary to Any Collision Resistance Hash Function

I'm reading a notion Any Collision Resistance for Hash Functions. In the lecture define a collision finder CF. CF is said to $(t,\epsilon)$-break the family of hash functions $F_K$ if the ...
115 views

### Difference between Pedersen commitment and commitment based on ElGamal

Does any of you know what is the difference between the Pedersen commitment and the commitment that uses the ElGamal encryption scheme? For the sake of completeness, I recall what both of them look ...
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In this paper on pg. 1241 the authors discuss bullet point on Adaptive Zero-Knowledge : I am new to Zero-Knowledge and I am having trouble understanding what they are saying. I think they are ...
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### How does the length of the plaintext affect the cipher strength?

Let the block length 64-bit, 256-bit key, cipher text accordingly - 64 bits. What is the strength of the block cipher, if any unknown attacks, which could reduce its strength. We can only brute force. ...
Consider 3 parties, Alice, Bob and Charlie. Suppose each party has a bit as input, i.e. Alice, Bob and Charlie hold $a, b, c \in \{0, 1\}$ respectively. Show how construct a scheme with which ...