# All Questions

4k views

### Is it possible to validate a Public Key in RSA?

If I have a 1024-bit number, and someone is telling me that it is in fact a valid RSA public key, is there any way I can quickly validate that it is indeed so (without cracking RSA)? (I suppose I am ...
113 views

### How can I compare two hash algorithms?

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 ...
65 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 ...
66 views

### 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 ...
111 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 ...
134 views

### Why develop Edward curve formulas that deviate from unification?

Edward curves were considered initially because they provide a unified formula for both doubling and addition, thus having inherent side-channel resistance. But a lot of work has been done recently ...
268 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 ...
87 views

### 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 ...
573 views

### Block-cipher based vs Hash based MAC

When it comes to MAC algorithms one can have many choices. CBC-MAC, CMAC, PMAC etc are some MAC algorithms that rely on block ciphers (ex AES) to generate a MAC. On the other hand HMAC is very popular ...
92 views

### SHA256_HMAC for deriving session keys using a counter

I need to generate some session keys from a master key that was generated from an ECDH key exchange. The master key is 256 bits and I need 256 bit sessions keys. Is it safe to use SHA256_HMAC with ...
89 views

### How are messages from server secured when using SSL certificate

In case of using SSL the certificate server has a primary key and a public key that is published to all clients - as far as I understood. So in this case when message is encrypted by public key (on ...
131 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 ...
207 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)? ...
101 views

### If classical ciphers are used with compressed plaintext, how much does it make frequency analysis attack harder?

Classical ciphers, such as Vigenère cipher, are weak and no longer be used. They can be broken by using frequency analysis, that is a well-known fact. But, the frequency analysis often depends on the ...
349 views

### How to crack SHA256 only letters

I recently created a program that hashes a password using SHA256 and potentially using salt. How can I crack that if I know that the password only contains lowercase letters?
123 views

### SSL pinning - how to safely hide the certificate?

We are doing an iPhone app and read multiple forums which says SSL pinning makes it possible to avoid man in the middle as we trust our web services server through the certificate which will be pre ...
83 views