# All Questions

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### Is there a hash function with 2048bit output?

Is there a publicly available cryptographic hashing algorithm with 2048 bit output? The standard ones are "only" up to 512 bit (SHA-512, WHIRLPOOL). (2048 bits are 256 bytes, so it would be useful ...
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### How can I encrypt + authenticate short strings into similar short ciphertexts?

I wish to manipulate short ASCII strings (namely unpredictable domain names) into a form which cryptographically assures authenticity and confidentiality, for use in the local part of email addresses. ...
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### uniquely identify a symmetric key

Is there a safe way to uniquely identify a symmetric key? I know with asymmetric keys you typically use a hash of the public key, but I assume that using a hash of a symmetric key would reveal too ...
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### An Elliptic curve cryptography implementation which can be terminated

I'd like to have an implementation of elliptic curve cryptography along the lines of secp256k1 which is secure until some information is published after which it is broken. One idea would be to use ...
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### Does AES have any fixed-points?

Is there any pair of 128-bit strings M and K such that AES$_K$(M) = M? If yes, how do I go about (efficiently) finding such a pair?
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### How can I store confident data with OpenID?

I want to make a system that needs to store some confident user information in a database. I intend on using OpenID for user authentication. I would like encrypt the data in a way that it can only be ...
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### AES in ECB mode weakness

In a project that I'm currently working on, we are encrypting some data using AES with ECB mode in a database. Each piece of data being encrypted is very small, no more than 10 characters long. Very ...
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### Key Length & Hashing

I need to use a hash function to generate a 128-bit key for a symmetric cipher. The specific cipher is from the eStream portofolio, called Rabbit. I am using the SRP protocol for authentication (a ...
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### Strength of multiple hash iterations?

Is it correct that increasing the iteration possibly decreases the cipher strength but increases the amount of time it would take to find the original hash values if using brute-force on a given hash? ...
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### RIPEMD versus SHA-x, what are the main pros and cons?

RIPEMD is a family of cryptographic hash functions, meaning it competes for roughly the same uses as MD5, SHA-1 & SHA-256 do. The Wikipedia page for RIPEMD seems to have some nice things to say ...
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### Why has the RSA factoring challenge been withdrawn?

Wikipedia states that RSA challenge has been withdrawn. Does it mean that an efficient factoring algorithm is "just around the corner"? or are there some other reasons? If the challenge was still ...
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### How well does scrypt perform on different architectures / OSes?

The scrypt algorithm seems to be a prominent feature in the "CPU friendly" Bitcoin clones for the proof-of-labor part. I've heard claims that it's relatively slow on Windows and/or Intel compared to ...
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### Encrypt-then-MAC Confidentiality, Integrity and Authenticity

Does Encrypt-then-MAC provide equal confidentiality, integrity and authenticity as other constructs such as EAX? If yes, how do I go about using it? My current understanding is: E = ...
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### When is an asymmetric scheme considered broken?

Does the following quote imply that valid encrypted data can be created and decrypted by someone other than the owner of a private key: An asymmetric encryption scheme is considered to be broken ...
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### Is there an algorithm or hardware that can sign/verify natural time?

PGP/GPG can used to sign text, others use public key to verify them. So one could say, that these cryptographic algorithms deal with space. Are there any algorithms that can deal with time? E.g. I ...
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### How common are SEED certificates outside of Korea? When is support required?

I'm looking at the SEED algorithm and would like to know if this is still in common usage. Can anyone tell me when I would need to implement this standard, either as a client or a server?
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### How do other, non-RSA algorithms, compare to the PKCS #1 standard?

Arguably the PKCS suite of standards have a profit-oriented bias as they are promoted by RSA and promote their algorithms over others in the form of RFCs and other means. I'm considering the ...
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### Generating non-repeating N-bit IVs, which are indistinguishable from randomness

I'm implementing a protocol which needs a 64-bit IV for every encrypted packet. The cipher in use (AES-GCM, more or less as specified in RFC 4106) does not require that these IVs are random, only ...
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### Can ECDSA signatures be safely made “deterministic”?

Using the terminology of the ECDSA wikipedia page, ECDSA (and DSA) signatures require a random k value for each signature which ensures that the signature is different each time even if the message ...
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### How did the Koblitz/Menezes papers affect the cryptography community?

Two highly-critical papers by Koblitz and Menezes (two well-regarded mathematicians who've contributed to the crypto community) were published years ago: Another Look at “Provable Security” in 2004, ...
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### Is there a secure cryptosystem that can be performed mentally?

I, myself, do not plan on getting into a situation where I would be unable to use a computer in order to communicate securely. However, I can think of many practical situations in which mental ...
1k views

### How does HOTP keep in sync?

My understanding of HOTP is that each password is unique and based on a counter. $$PASSWORD = HOTP_1(K,C)$$ Where $C$ is an incremental counter. What I wish to know, is how you keep the client ...
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### How to enhance randomness of AES?

I'm using PHP to encrypt a string and Java to decrypt it on a remote server. To perform the encryption, I'm using the strategy that can be found here. My problem is that the strings I encrypt are ...
2k views

### Why can't Diffie-Hellman be used for signing?

I understand that signing is often a case of hashing data and then encrypting the hash with the private key. What properties keep Diffie-Hellman from being useful for this?
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### What is wrong with using SHA1 in digital signatures? Why is a robust hash function needed?

For the purposes of signing and verifying signatures, what is the value of the hash function? Why would it matter if SHA1 is later determined to be easy to break? Since a Public/Private key process ...
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### For Diffie-Hellman, must g be a generator?

Due to a number of recently asked questions about Diffie-Hellman, I was thinking this morning: must $g$ in Diffie-Hellman be a generator? Recall the mathematics of Diffie-Hellman: Given public ...
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### Is it possible to spoof an identity cert modulus?

I was looking at FOAF+SSL and wondering if its possible to spoof the modulus of the browser certificate so that the FOAF and browser certificate's modulus match?
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### How does one calculate a primitive root for Diffie-Hellman?

In the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, one of the steps involves calculating a primitive root of a prime number $p$. How would one go about doing so, considering that $p$ could be very large? Is there ...
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### How exactly would someone attempt to analyse ciphertext produced by popular encryption products such as Truecrypt/PGP?

I am interested in understanding what the process would be if an attacker wished to attempt to decrypt data secured by common tools such as OpenPGP, Truecrypt or the like. Are there any documented ...
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I developed a p2p-app in C# which sends and receives encrypted text messages (50KB). For encryption, my app uses AES 128 bit in CBC cipher mode. For each message it uses a new randomly-generated IV. ...
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### What is the difference between a stream cipher and a one-time-pad?

A (synchronous) stream cipher is an algorithm which maps some fixed-length key to an arbitrary-length key-stream (i.e. a sequence of bits): $C : \{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}^{\infty}$. This key-stream is ...
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### Would the ability to efficiently find Discrete Logs have any impact on the security of RSA?

This answer makes the claim that the Discrete Log problem and RSA are independent from a security perspective. RSA labs makes a similar statement: The discrete logarithm problem bears the same ...