# All Questions

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### Can anyone tell me the name of this cipher please?

Can anyone tell me the name of this cipher please? I know it's a simple substitution cipher, I just don't know the name of it. Cipher Key: help Cipher alphabet: ...
151 views

### Why is it that researchers prefer finding secure software solutions over secure hardware solutions?

My understanding is crypto researchers tend to prefer solving a problem in software without the need for secure hardware. Why is this? What is the big problem with using secure hardware if the ...
441 views

### Can ECB mode really leak some characters?

In an Ars Technica article about Adobe's use of 3DES in ECB mode, there's a paragraph The passwords, according to password expert Steve "Sc00bz" Thomas, are encrypted in a mode known as ECB. That ...
239 views

### Why is Bcrypt called a Key Derivation Function?

I am trying to understand why is bcrypt called a Key Derivation Function? I looked up the details of Ekfblowfish on Usenix article here: ...
661 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 ...
247 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 ...
1k views

### Is my pseudo-random initialization vector secure?

How can I know if I am generating a secure pseudorandom initialization vector? Currently I am planning to generate a pseudo-random initialization Vector using current date and time - is this secure ...
659 views

### Is it usual for a signed message to contain the public key of the signer?

In protocols/systems which use ECDSA, is it common for the message to contain the public key of the message signer? If not, how do recipients know that the message has been signed by the correct ...
347 views

### Are all possible EC private keys valid?

I usually generate a key pair using openssl or Bouncy Castle. I'm using curve secp256k1. The 256bit private keys look fairly random. Do all values of "private ...
402 views

### Is it safe to reuse a symmetric key when using asymmetric encryption?

I've written a C# Library that I hope will be used for security purposes in a commercial application. The application will communicate through the internet and not on an internal network. I am using ...
726 views

### I hashed my bag and in it I put… “Is there a hash for unordered items?”

(By items I mean hashable objects.) As an example (with obviously way too short hashes for readability), say I packed my bag and in it I put a shovel (hashed to ...
559 views

### What does ⊕ mean in cryptography?

Can someone please help me with the question below? Explain why 0 ⊕ x ≠ 1 ⊕ x, whatever the value of the bit x. Hence, explain why flipping a bit in the plaintext produces a predictable ...
232 views

### Known plaintext, unknown 128 bit block cipher

I have an encrypted configuration file from an embedded device which I'm trying to decrypt. The file seems to be encrypted in 128bit blocks, as changing a single option causes a 16 byte block to ...
239 views

### Choice of MAC and handling it correctly

I have recently learned that Encrypt-then-MAC is recommended when using symmetric encryption. I have two closely related questions related to that, which is why I am posting them as one: Looking ...
187 views

### How can one parallelize tasks in CTR-AES for maximum performance?

From what I have read it seems like one of the purported benefits of using CTR mode AES, is that it can be parallelized to a greater degree, or maybe more easily than the other block cipher modes, ...
1k views

### Problems with using AES Key as IV in CBC-Mode

I'm a pentester and currently analysing a web application which are using some strange encryption scheme. The point is: They encrypt using AES-128, generate a (not cryptographic secure) key and use ...
277 views

### Frequency of letters change by the length of the texts?

In terms of the frequency of letters, how is it possible to have different frequent letters when the length of the text I'm analyzing is shorter? At the moment, I'm comparing the frequencies of a ...
423 views

### How does this happen in RSA malleability?

I don't understand how the $E(m)$ turns into $E(mt)$. I mean, I don't know how does that transformation happen and how does the equation occur. $$E(m) \cdot t^e \bmod n = (mt)^e \bmod n = E(mt)$$ ...
491 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 ...
1k views

### How does one deal with a negative “d” in RSA?

I'm trying to write my own RSA implementation using the textbook approach — which I know is not optimal — of picking primes $p$ and $q$, then computing Euler's totient $phi$, then randomly picking an ...
8k 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?
4k 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 ...
738 views

### Why is public key cryptography (RSA) used in sites like Google or Facebook?

The RSA algorithm is used for encryption (plain text to cipher text) and decryption (cipher text to plain text) of data. What is the need for using public keys in these sites; why is data is encrypted ...
479 views

### encrypt message with one digest 0-9 instead of 01-26

How much will the security of one-time pad decrease if I use one digit from 0-9 instead of 1-26? for example plaintext = "blue" and ...
808 views

### What are the differences between proofs based on simulation and proofs based on games?

what are the main pros and cons of proving the "security" of a crypto scheme under simulation proofs instead of game based proofs?
847 views

### Benefit of combining classical substitution ciphers with modern cryptography

I know that a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher is considered extremely weak, on account of linguistic frequency-analysis attacks. However, assume the following: cleartext is encrypted ...
1k views

### One-time pad and zero key

I'm doing some exercises before my exam, and I am stuck with task number 4 in this file: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~jkatz/crypto/f10/hw1.pdf Could you help me with this task? When using the one-time ...
708 views

### ABC Conjecture's Impact on RSA Encryption

A recent proof of the ABC Conjecture has been released by one Shinichi Mochizuki. Now, I'm not well versed in mathematics but it would appear that this proof implies that finding prime factors could ...
334 views

### Is the Blum Blum Shub PRNG suitable to create initialization vectors?

Is it a good idea to use a Blum Blum Shub Generator to create my initialization Vector (IV) in AES-OFB (Output Feedback Mode)?
611 views

### Generating unbiased numbers with a biased six sided die?

Eve takes a fair six-sided die and adds some heavy paint to the side of the die with the 6 on it. This results in a biased die that rolls a 6 with probability 2/7, and each other number (1-5) with ...
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### Do $v_1=\alpha\cdot r_1$ and $v_2=\alpha\cdot r_2$ leak information about $\alpha$

Please consider we have finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$ for large prime number $p$. We have a fixed field element $\alpha$. By $r_i\leftarrow \mathbb{F}_p$ we mean we pick $r_i$ uniformly random from the ...
295 views

### Encryption of 8 bit of block data

I'm looking for a cryptographic algorithm that allows encrypting only 8 bits of data in a block. Is there any such algorithm that is considered secure? The reason I'm asking is because I have to ...
420 views

### How to encrypt dates using format preserving encryption and avoid collisions

I'm encrypting with an FPE algorithm in C#. What I did is convert the date I want to encrypt to the day of year value and a year value like so. ...
495 views

### AES + CBC encryption for a stream of UDP packets

I am developing an application that is based on UDP, and I need to send a stream of packets. As you can imagine, packets can get lost or corrupted. I need to make sure that the content of those ...
162 views

### What is this cryptosystem called?

From a paper Outsourcing Large Matrix Inversion Computation to A Public Cloud (IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, Vol. 1, N°1, 2013; alternate source requiring registration; preprint), I got to ...
140 views

### how to let other people respond to emails only decrypt-able with my private key

First of all I have to say it's a homework question but since I have no one to consult with, I ended up here :) Suppose a case in which you are the manager of a company and all employees encrypt ...
228 views

### Would xoring 2 independant AES CTRs to produce p-rand introduce vulnerabilities?

Assuming $$AES_{k_1}(C_1) \oplus AES_{k_2}(C_2)$$ where AES is used in CTR mode, $C$ is a 128 bit incrementing counter, keys and counters for both transforms are random as well as unique, and the ...
590 views

### CMAC vs HMAC security strength

From the perspective of a Birthday Paradox attack, isn't it true that CMAC based on AES-128 is weaker than HMAC-SHA-1? The attack on CMAC-AES-128 requires about $2^{64}$ operations whereas the same ...
431 views

### How do I produce a stream of secure random numbers from AES-Counter mode?

I have just made my own program to encipher, using AES in counter mode, and have validated it using NIST data. So I know I have done it properly. I have read that AES-CTR can produce a stream of ...
229 views

### Is $H(x) = x^2 \bmod p$ pre-image resistant, second pre-image resistant and/or collision resistant

I have the function $H(x) = x^2\bmod p$ , where $p$ is a prime of length n bits and this function maps to the message $x$ to a n-bit hash value $H(x)$. I need to find out if it is pre-image ...
167 views

### Is there a metric (term) for work required to decrypt a public key?

Any public key decryption can be decrypted given enough time and computing power. Is there a metric or term for this? Something like it would require on average 2^43 1024 bit hashes to find private ...
142 views

### Could someone reuse client certificates?

To my understanding, if a server “cert+key” (RSA) is compromised, than the SSL/TLS network traffic can be decrypted. What about a client “cert+key” (RSA)? Could someone reuse client certificates? ...
779 views

### what is the state of the art algorithm to encrypt credit card data

We have a business requirement to keep credit card data. What is today's (Nov 2013) state of the art algorithm to encrypt credit card data that will be saved on disk? Additionally, I'd appreciate ...
573 views

### Certificateless cryptography

While reading "Certificateless Public Key Cryptography" by Author Sattam S. Al-Riyami and Kenneth G. Paterson, they have considered generation of private keys by a Key Generation Center (KGC). If the ...
631 views

### Difference between collision resistance and target collision resistance

For a hash function, what's the difference between Collision Resistance and Target Collision Resistance?. I understand the definition of hash function collision resistance, but I don't know about ...
457 views

### Hide a weakness in ECC by choosing the prime or one of the curve coefficients

Suppose you are given a value $c$. Can you find a prime $p$ and an integer $b$ such that the elliptic curve $$E: y^2 \equiv x^3 -3x + b \pmod p$$ is cryptographically weak? You need to choose ...
255 views

### How did they factor RSA-704?

I don't understand the 'Wiedemann algorithm' works. Can someone explain the factoring of RSA-704 in an easy way?
628 views

### Secure use-cases of block cipher with 64-bit block size

In what cases can we use a weak block cipher like DES ? More precisely, Are there specific situation in which a weaken block cipher can still be used, for instance for certain types of plaintext ?