# All Questions

109 views

### Jumblar: Using map locations as passwords

I had the idea of converting map locations into passwords. Basically Jumblar takes a hash of the user's location and stores this as a comment on the PGP network. The 'stored-hash'(Vague-Hash) ...
156 views

### repeated use of HKDF-extract on the same PRK

Regarding HKDF (RFC 5869) - HKDF has two steps, extract and expand. Some answers on this site suggest that you can extract once, and then generate multiple keys from the resulting PRK by multiple ...
128 views

### using random encrypted RSA challenge as key material

Assume a simple protocol for authentication - one side sends a randomly generated challenge string and encrypts it with RSA. The receiver decrypts it and replies with a hash of the challenge, proving ...
128 views

### estimating entropy/randomness as fail-safe mechanism

Real-world encryption systems are often not broken algorithmically but because the implementation has a bug. Sometimes the bug only happens in circumstances that could not have been foreseen, such as ...
132 views

### Can you explain what the AES paper means by “sharing active S-boxes”?

I am reading the "Biclique cryptanalysis of the full AES" paper. What do they mean by "sharing active S-boxes"? How can this concept can be advantageous to make a bicycle? If there is someone who ...
305 views

### Secret sharing scheme with possibility to change the secret

Here's a scenario I want to handle with a secret sharing scheme: Alice wants to share the secret $S$ with Bob, Charlie and Dave. Alice generates private shares based on $S$ for Bob, Charlie and ...
536 views

### Why is asymmetric encryption IND-CPA?

According to Wikipedia, the IND-CPA game is: The challenger generates a key pair PK, SK based on some security parameter k (e.g., a key size in bits), and publishes PK to the adversary. The ...
155 views

### Why do fully homo-morphic constructions use 'ring' or 'lattice' structures?

Is there a significantly advantage to these data structures, or is it simply the status-quo and the easiest to use for describing constructions?
289 views

### What is meant by $\tilde\Omega(\lambda^4)$?

I'm currently reading the paper (Leveled) fully homomorphic encryption without bootstrapping , and the following paragraph was near the start: What is meant by the symbol used? Is it merely to ...
92 views

### Can CBC-encrypted files be modified in-place?

When changing a (small) part of the plaintext of a CBC-encrypted file, how much of the file will have to be rewritten? My suspicion is that everything after the modified block will have to be ...
884 views

### Why does Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme need a finite field?

I read ampersand's question "Necessity for finite field arithmetic and the prime number p in Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme", where he asked why Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme uses arithmetic in a ...
414 views

### Solve a system of non linear equations over GF

I have the following set of equations: $$M_{1}=\frac{y_1-y_0}{x_1-x_0}$$ $$M_{2}=\frac{y_2-y_0}{x_2-x_0}$$ $M_1, M_2, x_1, y_1, x_2, y_2,$ are known and they are chosen from a $GF(2^m)$. I want ...
204 views

### Why is it said that if we have a duplicate ciphertext block it can leak our information?

I have been recently going through a question: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/15767/what-do-key-size-and-block-size-mean-in-cryptography and it created in me a series of doubts. Referring ...
145 views

### using elliptic curve point multiplication as a key stretching method

My friend came up with the following idea: assuming we agreed on curve parameters, use the following algorithm for key stretching/derivation from user-entered password. Pad the ascii representation ...
8k views

### AES 256 Encryption - Is it really easy to decrypt if you have the key?

So this might sound like a crazy question but bear with me for a minute. I can't find any info on the internet and so am here, although this might have been a good place to start. I've recently ...
71 views

### Modes for encrypting small binary blobs?

Suppose I am building an encrypted document storage system. Suppose each user has a "user key": a symmetric key. Suppose each document is encrypted with a "document key". So, in order to give a ...
267 views

### Is asynchronous perfect forward secrecy possible?

DH key agreement protocols require the participation of both parties, so are only suitable for synchronous connections. Is it possible to implement PFS in a fashion usable for asynchronous protocols, ...
88 views

### Send a message to an entire group of recipients

I'm attempting to send a message to a group of recipients, through an untrusted intermediary. Each of the recipients will have been invited to the group by someone who already has a trusted public ...
557 views

### Questions about BCrypt and PBKDF2

I would ask you some questions about users' password storage in a login system. What algorithm do you suggest me to use? bcrypt or PBKDF2? I was looking for a way to implement them client-side and ...
60 views

### Applications of 3-collisions

I recently read Improved Generic Algorithms for 3-Collisions by Joux and Lucks (Asiacrypt 2009), available as http://eprint.iacr.org/2009/305.pdf. I was wondering about applications of this technique ...
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178 views

### The probability of finding a limited set of collisions for HMACSHA256

I need some input on the use of HMAC-SHA256 in an open source project, any help appreciated. The problem I'm solving is session fixation. We have a username, for that username we'd like to generate a ...
500 views

### Review of AES encryption concept for an open source project

i'm working on an opensource project, A generator for static (html/js), password protected photo galleries. The generator AES 256 encrypts many images with the same key in PyCrypto, and decrypt them ...
56 views

### CBC with random prefix but no IV - secure? [duplicate]

I'm looking at a datagram-based protocol that encrypts a payload. The payload is encrypted with AES or blowfish in CBC mode, and the result is then authenticated with a HMAC. To save space, the ...