All Questions

1k views

Trouble with diffie-hellman groups

Is anyone able to point me towards a known-to-be-good diffie-hellman group? I currently use group 24 (RFC5114, 2048-bit MODP Group with 256-bit Prime Order Subgroup). It came to me that this group is ...
325 views

Sites to find crypto intermediate values

Does anyone know of any sites where intermediate values of multiple crypto algorithms (not just the famous ones), including hashes, can be found? I don't just mean intermediate values of encrypting. ...
757 views

Can I use a one time pad key twice with random plaintext?

I understand the basics of OTP: $|\text{key space}| = |\text{plaintext space}|$ implies perfect security, key reuse destroys this. Cryptanalysis on the $N$-Time Pad for $N > 1$ involves finding ...
250 views

Implementing Paillier Signature Scheme in Delphi

I've been trying to implement the Paillier Signature Scheme in Delphi, but I can't get it to work and I don't know where the problem is. First of all, I got my info about the scheme from this paper. ...
540 views

ECC algorithm pollard's $\rho$ complexity

One of the methods to break a ECDLP is Pollard's rho algorithm. When ECDLP is defined over a finite field $F_p$, and given a relation $S=w.T$, where S and T are a member of $F_p$. Then ECDLP is to ...
386 views

Can a user of a password-protected Wi-Fi sniff on other user's communication?

Imagine a Wi-Fi network protected by WEP/WPA/WPA2. Users can join the network in case they know the pre-shared key of the access point. Is it possible for a user A (who has successfully logged into ...
289 views

Does AES specify error messages when using the wrong password to decrypt?

I am writing a small program which uses AES. In testing it with wrong passwords, I get error prompts from Microsoft C# component saying "the padding is bad"; whereas I expect wrongly decoded texts. Do ...
226 views

What challenge should I use in a challenge-response proof-of-work?

In order to guard against denial-of-service attacks, I want to require clients to do some work (more work than the server does fulfilling the request) before talking to them. Client connects Server ...
72 views

Suppose you need to authenticate yourself to a program with the password - but the program's source code is public, the program doesn't have access to any private information and all your ...
302 views

Openssl implementation of improved sha1 hashing [closed]

I want to use the improved sha1 hashing algorithm from the Intel blog described here Intel sha1 hashing. Currently I am using Openssl sha1 hashing in my application. I wanted to know if anybody has ...
253 views

Unit testing a library RNG and its seeding for practical security

Suppose I have a cryptography library that provides me with a black-box random number generator that is supposed to be suitable for long-lived key generation. (Under the hood it may be assumed to use ...
793 views

Is RSA padding needed for single recipient, one-time, unique random message?

I want a way to encrypt files using this process: http://crypto.stackexchange.com/a/15 . That is: generate a random password, use that to AES-encrypt a file, and use an RSA public key to encrypt the ...
2k views

Could one prevent double spending in decentralized digital currencies (like Bitcoin) without all transactions being public?

A recent approach to creating a decentralized online currency, called Bitcoin, has been generating some interest. The goal is to have a way to transfer currency without a central authority and without ...
226 views

ZKIP for Paillier public key correctness

I'm using the Paillier cryptosystem in a protocol similar to mental poker. In the beginning of the protocol, each player generates a Paillier public key $(n,g)$. Later in the protocol, a player may ...
265 views

Factoring a polynomial over a GF [closed]

I have the following question: What polynomial, when factored over the field $GF (2^8)$ based on the irreducible polynomial that is used in Rijndael, will factor into all the polynomials in the ...
659 views

Division in paillier cryptosystem

Is division possible in the Paillier Cryptosystem? i.e. given a the cipher-text $C$ of an integer $M$ the plain-text divisor $D$, and only the public key, can one compute the cipher-text of $M/D$ ?
265 views

Which encodings have |encoding key| >> |decoding key|?

I'm looking for an encoding scheme that requires a very large encoding key E (>10MB) and suffices with a relatively small decoding key ...
2k views

How to calculate an IV when I have a shared private key?

I'm working with a server/client system that has securely negotiated a private key. I need to encrypt/decrypt messages passing in both directions which are typically between 100 bytes to 100 KB. I'm ...
92 views

Educational videos for security topics [closed]

Is there anything like the famous "sorting out sorting" video in cryptography/security. I am looking for some nice videos that explaines SSL, SET, IPSec, PGP, S/MIME ....
317 views

Checking a key before actually using it

I have a block of data crypted using twofish with a key of 128 bit. The data must be accessed from a GUI, the user gives the key, the block is decoded and the real data is accessed. Problem is that ...
195 views

Is a subset of a random set still random?

Suppose you have an infinite list of random bytes, and you select the first N bytes that correspond to printable ASCII characters. Is this list of N bytes still as secure (e.g. for the purpose of a ...
266 views

Cost of attacking Mobile OTP with a fake server

You want to obtain a 74-bit secret $K$. There is an oracle that will provide you with the following value for several values of $T$: ...
108 views

McEliece for streaming data

Under the assumption that there exists a real-world implementation of the McEliece scheme, could it be applied to streaming data as is? By that I mean in 'block cipher mode'? I've read that McEliece ...
173 views

john the ripper, usages [closed]

As evident from the site of john the ripper, JTR example, john can be used for finding password form a unix machine passwd file. can JtR be used to crack password ...
108 views

Secure Remote Protocol - Are these 2 equations equivalent?

I'm implementing the Secure Remote Protocol that is specified to have this equation for the parameter S, the premaster secret. ...
1k views

What is the use of REAL random number generators in cryptography?

I understand the use of pseudo-random number generators. I am not getting mixed up between these and "real" random number generators. However, I don't understand for what a real random number ...
1k views

128 bit hash with least chance of collision

I'm building a storage system for JSON documents where they are looked up on a 128 bit key. These JSON documents have a timestamp within them, but apart from that are user-entered data. These JSON ...
124 views

If plaintext is random, how does it affect my choice of encryption algorithm?

I want to encrypt a key file, which is assumed to be truly random (generated with hardware RNG, for instance). Given that there are no patterns in the plaintext, what implications are there for my ...
251 views

S-box Cryptanalytic Resistance

In DES, different S-boxes were tested for cryptanalytic resistance and the most secure one was chosen for the algorithm itself. How do different S-boxes offer different levels of security against ...
672 views

How should I check the received ephemeral Diffie-Hellman public keys?

In my application I'm doing a DH key exchange, where both sides generate their own ephemeral key. No static keys are used. I am trying to make my application resistant against an active attack and ...
223 views

Is the Representation Problem hard on elliptic curves?

The RP in ECC would be to find $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ (integers) given $P$ and $Q_1,\ldots,Q_n$ (points in the EC) such that $P = a_1 \cdot Q_1 + \ldots + a_n \cdot Q_n$. Is it hard when DH-like ...
710 views

Why do all hash functions use big-endian data?

I've looked at several hash function specifications, and they all emphasize the need for big-endian byte ordering. Is there a reason for this that has to do with security, or is it simply convention?
220 views

Is SHA1 secure with such many inputs Z that Z = constant secret X + variable public Y?

Let me ask whether SHA1 is designed to be secure for the following case. You compute each SHA1 of many strings,for example 1 million, where each string is a concatenation of X+Y , where X is secret ...
449 views

How is BCrypt secure when it uses a static dataset for blowfish hashing?

I'm planning on using this Javascript BCrypt implementation, but as you can see in the code, it uses a 4KB precalculated dataset for the P and ...
69 views

Are there any signature schemes that protect against collusion by multiple parties?

Say I want to verify the identity of Alice, but Alice could be colluding with Bob to fool me. Is there any way to verify Alice's identity and also be sure that Bob is not impersonating Alice, e.g. ...
460 views

Is this fixed length MAC unforgeable?

Consider the following fixed length MAC for messages of length $\ell(n)=2n-2$ using a pseudorandom function $F$: On input of a mesage $m_0||m_1$ ($|m_0| = |m_1| = n-1$) and a key $k \in \{0,1\}^n$, ...
242 views

Why does RSA give better security on longer messages?

I am trying to understand the notion of RSA security. Choosing a public exponent where $e = 3$ facilitates the calculations, considering that it is secure if the plaintext or message is long. If the ...
96 views

Is the following scheme secure for different cipher

Let's say I have two keys K1 and K2. two messages M1 and M2 of the same length. Cipher (E,D) 3 ciphertexts: C11, C12,C22 where Cij = E(Ki, Mj) In situation ...
590 views

How does a “Tiger Tree Hash” handle data whose size isn't a power of two?

Constructing a hash tree is simple enough if the data fits into a number of blocks that is a power of two. ...
327 views

How to generate successive stream-cipher keys?

I've identified a weakness in a distributed simulation system I'm looking at, and I'm looking for some advice on how to fix it. Clients initially negotiate an authentication token with a login server ...
958 views

Permutations of pseudorandom data

Assuming a bit string is deemed cryptographically secure, e.g. PRNG using AES in counter mode, can we equally assume any permutation of said bit string is also cryptographically secure? In a more ...
385 views

Alternatives to FHE for secure function evaluation

As a followup to a previous question I asked which was more related to Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), what other cryptographic methods are available for computing a private function on public ...
377 views

Complexity of arithmetic in a finite field?

I am wondering what the complexities are of adding/subtracting and muliplying/dividing numbers in a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. I need it to understand an article I am reading. Thank you
783 views

MD5 encryption in Windows batch script [closed]

I am making a script in Windows batch to have a registration and login system that stores the passwords in a SQL database using SQLite. I need a command line MD5 encryption program to encrypt the ...
5k views

Difference between “Signature Algorithm” and “Signature Hash Algorithm” in X.509

What's the difference between the "Signature Algorithm" and the "Signature Hash Algorithm" found in an X.509 certificate? Why does it need a "Signature Hash Algorithm"? Edit: I'm creating the ...
294 views

Do parts of a hash carry the properties of the entire hash?

When I need to generate unique id's based on some information hashing is typical choice. However, sometimes that id needs to be of a particular size. I've seen a lot of schemes (HMAC-MD5-96 in SSH, ...
349 views

X.509 CSR: Why does CA remove signature?

I just read this article on Wikipedia: Certificate Signing Request I'm not a PKI or Crypto expert. As I understand, a CSR (certification request) is always signed by the PKCS#10-Request creator. ...
483 views

What are the popular crypt analysis tools? [closed]

What are the popular crypt analysis tools out there ? for something like Cipher Text only attacks or any attacks in general which does frequency analysis et all
Shannon entropy calculation: is $H(A|R·A) = H(A)$?
Suppose I generate a random $m×m$ matrix $R$, where each of its elements belongs to $\mathbb Z_n$. I ensure that $R$ is invertible in $\mathbb Z_n^{m×m}$. Now I take a non-random $m×m$ ...