# All Questions

239 views

### What is a block cipher?

I have read about block ciphers, but I do not understand the topic completely. Is a block cipher a way to send data or a way to encrypt data? How is the data divided into multiply blocks before it ...
318 views

### Is there a length-preserving encryption scheme?

Is there a length-preserving encryption scheme, that preserves the lengths of input sizes such that the length of the input plain text is same as length of the output cipher text ?
159 views

### Why does Rijndael with a 256-bit block require the bottom two rows to be shifted one more space than usual?

From Wikipedia: For a 256-bit block, the first row is unchanged and the shifting for the second, third and fourth row is 1 byte, 3 bytes and 4 bytes respectively. Why the change? Is there any ...
114 views

I was wondering if hashing a password with the password would be a good way of encrypting the password. So, the user must know his/her password to get the same result as the one in the database. Also, ...
566 views

### Initialize a PRNG with a password

Let's assume that we have a secure PRNG. Is it "safe" to initialize it with password, or seed based on a password like SHA256(password)? If yes, is it "safe" to generate an RSA or DSA key from it? ...
368 views

### In the Paillier cryptosystem, is there a method to judge whether an encrypted number is less than 0 (without the private key)

Or, is there a cryptosystem that is both order-perserving and additive homomorphic?
513 views

### RSA private key format for Mega

I've been trying to reverse engineer Mega's (mega.co.nz) API calls. And stopped on the step where client needs to decrypt session id with provided RSA key. I can get key data, but I have no idea how ...
135 views

### How to generate a key using any m passwords out of total n?

My application requires an AES-256 key K for some secure operation. In order to avoid saving this key in application, I have implemented following scheme: There ...
242 views

### Understanding padding oracles - is an attack plausible in my scenario?

I have a scheme that, long story short, uses AES in CBC mode to encrypt third-party credentials for user accounts with a password-derived key. It's been mentioned that the use of CBC mode is a ...
700 views

### Is Encrypt+HMAC stronger than AEAD?

There are a few posts that I've come across that seem to infer that using regular encryption and a MAC might be better than using the newer AEAD (ie: AES/GCM) modes. ...
224 views

### Encrypting or HMACing password digests

Assuming I'm using bcrypt to digest passwords, is any additional security gained by either encrypting or HMACing the resulting digests? By requiring a key to compare password hashes, I would expect ...
176 views

### Non-cryptographic hash function as MAC for stream ciphers

I understand that for a stream cipher to be useful, there must be a way to verify that the message was not tampered with (bits were flipped by an attacker). So, instead of using some cryptographic ...
179 views

### Does it take brute force to find a pair of plaintext and ciphertext that each follow a certain condition, given an AES encryption key?

Suppose that I have an AES key $K$, and I'm instructed to find a plaintext such that the first 32 bits of the plaintext are some string of bits $S_1$, and the last 32 bits of the ciphertext once the ...
134 views

### Discrete logs on elliptic curve with embedding degree 3 with the 'MOV' attack

The curve $E(\mathbb{F}_{47}):y^2=x^3+x+38$ has order $61$ and $61|47^3-1$ so the embedding degree of $E$ is $3$ and therefore the MOV attack, presumably using some sort of distortion map and a ...
93 views

### Two files encrypted with related data versus one file

I have some code that takes a list of credit-card numbers, splits the number into two chunks, one chunk is 8 characters long, the other chunk is the remainder. Each series of chunks is saved into ...
1k views

### Any efficient text-based steganographic schemes?

While there are sophisticated and efficient steganographic schemes with images as cover available, I am yet ignorant of the existence of any fairly efficient and secure schemes with texts as cover. ...
311 views

### Security for IV in AES-GCM mode

I'd like to use AES-GCM instead of HMAC for authentication and privacy in a token used in a web application, but I'm unsure how to securely tag each token with an IV. Is it safe for me to prepend the ...
307 views

### Modulus for elliptic curve point multiplication

I want to implement a point multiplication ($k \cdot P$) operation on FPGA. I have a BN curve $y^2=x^3+2$, and a scalar value $k$. The $x$ and $y$ coordinates of point $P$ are of 256 bits. In the ...
183 views

### Why work in a subgroup QR(n) of an RSA group $Z^*_n$?

I sometimes read in papers that a (sub-)group generator $g$ is taken from $\mathrm{QR}(n)$ instead of $\mathbb{Z}^*_n$, where $n = p \cdot q$ and $p$ and $q$ are prime. Is there a reason for this? ...
425 views

### How compared encryption algorithm in terms of efficiency

I want to compare two cryptographic algorithms. The first algorithm is RSA, and second algorithm is ElGamal elliptic curve cryptography. Now, I’m looking for a way to compare the speed of the two ...
116 views

### Any implication of a Yale result to security of quantum cryptology?

Quantum key distribution depends, if I don't err, on (irreversible) damages done by MITM's measurements on qbits. Now news.yale.edu/2013/01/11/new-qubit-control-bodes-well-future-quantum-computing ...
461 views

### How can I calculate the time complexity of modular arithmetic?

I'm doing modular arithmetic in a Java program, and I want to calculate the time complexity of the individual operations. $$c= a · b \bmod n$$ $$m = a^{-1} · b \bmod n$$ How do I get an ...
124 views

### How does this Cesar Cipher work?

Suppose I have this cryptogram: http://pastebin.com/QpfRMBg1 Clearly it's a Ceasar Cipher which decrypts to: http://pastebin.com/r50heZuU with a simple shift of 10... OKay, no big deal. Let's take a ...
385 views

### How does using salt reduce rainbow table attack?

I could create a rainbow table for a particular salt value and still create a successful attack similar to one without salt value.
182 views

### Finding a collision for a hash function

I'm trying to find a collision for the following (modified) Merkle-Damgard hash function. Suppose we already have a hash function $h : \mathbb{Z}_2^{2·n} \to \mathbb{Z}_2^n$ for fixed length bit ...
111 views

### CBC with fixed IV but changing data [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Using CBC with fixed IV I am using AES in CBC mode. For some reasons I have some issues for transmiting the IV. So I am using a fixed IV. If the first 128bits of the ...
6k views

### AES CBC mode or AES CTR mode recommended?

what's benefits and disadvantages of CBC vs CTR ? which one is more secure ?
1k views

### Which categories of cipher are semantically secure under a chosen-plaintext attack?

I am trying to get my head around the circumstances under which a cipher is (or is not) semantically secure under a chosen-plaintext attack. I can't seem to find a good reference explaining this. I ...
169 views

### Is it safe to use RSA as a proof-of-work system?

Suppose I devised the following challenge-response proof-of-work system: A server generates a 2048-bit RSA modulus, and uses the "public" exponent (usually 65537) to sign a random nonce a fixed ...
532 views

### estimate of time required to crack sha512crypt password with JtR + OpenCL

OK, I have a shadow file with a password that I know, it is 4 letters followed by two numbers. Using John The Ripper with OpenCL support, on a laptop with AMD Radeon Mobility graphics, how long would ...
8k views

### Many time pad attack [duplicate]

I've already sent my correct solution to a homework exercise from Dan Boneh's Introduction to Cryptography class on Coursera: "Let us see what goes wrong when a stream cipher key is used more than ...
117 views

### elgamal based decryption mixnet

Can anybody help me to understand elgamal based decryption mixnet? Pure elgamal can be used in mixnet (re-encryption mixnet) and its very easy, and I have implemented decryption mixnet using RSA also. ...
4k views

### Difference between Rijndael 128 / 256 blocksize implementations? (and impact of block size in general)

Can anyone shed some light onto the advantages/disadvantages of using Rijndael with 256-bit block size, as opposed to the 128-bit (AES) implementation? (please note: I'm not referring to key-size ...
1k views

### How to break an arbitrary XOR and Rotation based encryption?

I heard encryption based purely on XOR and Rotation is inherently weak. The paper Rotational Cryptanalysis of ARX says: It is also easy to prove that omitting addition or rotation is devastating, ...
1k views

### Cryptographic Protocol using NaCl

Why? I wanted to add some security and privacy to a chat-type server for playing various games (with a few things that are done on the server to limit cheating). Going by the "Don't implement ...
285 views

### Streaming API to authenticated encryption

In regards to NaCl, I asked DJB he had any intent to add a streaming API to an authenticated cipher. His response was obvious in retrospect, that one should never release a decrypted plaintext before ...
7k views

### Where i can find an AES implementation in python?

Where i can find a "reviewed" version of AES implementation in python. Not an API like PyCrypto whereby you can call AES algorithms in a single line.
1k views

### LFSR for small numbers with large periods

I want to generate a few random numbers using an LFSR. However, the LFSR output depends on the number of taps, so for a large period I use large (relative) number of bits. This causes the numbers to ...