All Questions

659 views

Can AES decryption be used as encryption?

Definition E: AES encryption D: AES decryption x: plain text y: encrypted text k: key In original AES cipher, encryption: y = E(x, k) decryption: x = D(y, k) Then I define the "reverse AES ...
221 views

What is the fastest elliptic curve operation f(P) in affine coordinates such that f^n(P)=P only if n is large?

I'm working with the affine representations of points of the Secp256k1 elliptic curve (from Bitcoin). I've read many papers that show that computing some functions, like $f(P)=3P$ can be computed ...
234 views

iOS Data Protection: What is the Input of the LFSR?

Every time a file on the data partition is created, Data Protection creates a new 256-bit key (the “per-file” key) and gives it to the hardware AES engine, which uses the key to encrypt the ...
224 views

Does SRP reduce to DH key echange when shared password is not secret?

I can find JavaScript implementations of SRP (Secure Remote Password protocol), but nothing that inspires confidence for Diffie-Hellmen key exchange. I also have a separate need for SRP later. I ...
534 views

How to supply the GCM authentication tag to the OpenSSL command line tools?

I'm using AES-256-GCM for authenticated encryption. In order to decrypt, the ruby OpenSSL library requires an auth_tag parameter (in addition to the key and iv). ...
2k views

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 ...
238 views

why AKS is so slow in practice? [closed]

This note (http://maths-people.anu.edu.au/~brent/pd/primality4.pdf) states that AKS is not practical. However, it is known that AKS runs in polynomial-time, and I cannot understand where the slowness ...
2k views

AES plaintext is smaller than 128 bits - how to expand?

We are currently developing a little AES implementation in a crypto-course at university. As far as I know, AES uses a 128 bit block length, so all data that will be encrypted gets split up into ...
198 views

Is this method of deterministically using CBC secure?

I'm trying to design a deterministic encryption scheme to enable searching in untrusted databases with the smallest possible IV overhead on ciphertexts. I know it's very bad practice but unfortunately ...
140 views

Could using sequential plaintext uncover AES key?

I am encrypting a string in a format like this: ...
2k views

How key materials are generated in SSL V3 from master secret

The generation of key materials is given by ...
5k views

How strong is the ECDSA algorithm?

Some cryptographic algorithms are as strong as the size of their key is, while other have some weaknesses that limit their strength (such as SHA-1). How strong is the ECDSA algorithm, and does that ...
953 views

why DES encryption uses different modes like ECB,OFB?

As without using modes we can also encrypt and decrypt data then what is the need of using modes in DES?
130 views

Can an encrypted nonce be used for authentication?

Would a scheme like the following work to allow authentication of a sender: A nonce is appended to data, and the result is encrypted. The encrypted pack is sent to the other party. The sender then ...
233 views

Allowing the user to choose the hashing formula at the registration

I was thinking of a potential new way to increase someone's account security. The idea was allowing the user to choose one of the hash formulas available in the software (example: "MD5", "SHA512" and ...
135 views

Can OTP still be broken if there are several messages being sent with only a slight variation in a password?

If an attacker were able to get a hold of 2 encrypted messages that were both encrypted in a one time pad with a password that were each similar but had one change in the first character, could it ...
78 views

Why is Merkle-Damgård construction insecure? [duplicate]

I've been reading about SHA-1. I read that SHA-1 is insecure as it uses the Merkle-Damgård construction and the Merkle-Damgård construction is — according to Wikipedia — susceptible to a variety of ...
697 views

Is FIPS 140-2's “Continuous random number generator test” practical?

Section 4.9.2 of FIPS PUB 140-2 specifies, amongst other things, a "Continuous random number generator test." Here are the relavant bits: If each call to a[n] RNG produces blocks of n bits ...
116 views

I'm writing a client application that wants to store some secret information with a storage service. The client has to authenticate the user with the service and the service should not be able to ...
2k views

How to perform file encryption using 128-Bit AES?

I am confused, how can I encrypt a file using 128 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard? Do I need only to encrypt the file name and it's content or is there something that I need to do to encrypt it? Is ...
250 views

How secure would this code be against cryptanalysis?

Simple version: Create software that takes a database of the dictionary, alphabet, and phrases. Randomly generate a database of random strings of letters/numbers/symbols of varying length. Randomly ...
543 views

Efficient Incremental Updates to Large Merkle Tree

I have a data set with 300 Million entries and every 5 minutes 4000 random entries in this table change. I need to calculate the merkle root on this data set to validate integrity multiple times ...
1k views

Practical consequences of using functional encryption for software obfuscation

I came across this article, which describes a method, developed by UCLA CS professor Amit Sahai et al, for using functional encryption in order to achieve software obfuscation. The paper that the ...
164 views

Generating non-supersingular elliptic curves for symmetric pairings

I am looking into the application of pairings in CPABE in particular. I've notice that the scheme uses a supersingular curve as the basis of the pairing. Looking through Ben Lynn's thesis for the ...
159 views

salting with password hash to improve security?

Would something like the following improve security (against rainbow attacks, not brute force)? Assume that $P$ is a user-chosen password, and the objective is to obtain a hash $H$ for password ...
193 views

Swapping Key and IV in AES? Safe?

I have an application where I want to be able to send an encrypted file, and then mete out "keys" that allow the receipient to decrypt the file from a certain point to the end of the file. Actually, ...
150 views

Finite fields in elliptic curve

I have an elliptic curve defined over finite field where $S_1=aP$ . Is it valid to say that $S_1P$ can also be computed. $P$ is the generator of the group. What my real question is that. Should '$a$' ...
349 views

Discrete log problem with modulus prime

I am a bit confused on the hardness of the discrete logarithm problem. Does it become intractale only when it is mod n, where n is a large composite number (Like RSA key). What about if it is mod a ...
182 views

What is the difference between Shor's algorithm for factoring and Shor's algorithm for logarithm

There is a paper from Peter W. Shor from 1994: http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~xinl/library/papers/comp/shor_focs1994.pdf "Algorithms for Quantum Computation: Discrete Logarithms and Factoring", and I have a ...
183 views

553 views

Practical uses of Manipulation Detection Code (MDC) and IGE

I've just skimmed over most of the paper "On Message Integrity in Symmetric Encryption". I've included (the last) part of the abstract below: We show that generic compositions of ...
433 views

Derive a key from public data using a secret master key

Users in my system will be given a device that contains a 128-bit AES user key. The user key will be derived from 64 bits of public data related to the user, which is unique but very predictable (i.e. ...
299 views

Clipper chip (SKIPJACK) key exchange protocol

According to the Wikipedia page for NSA (emphasis mine): However, NSA's Fortezza hardware-based encryption cards, created for the Clipper project, are still used within government, and NSA ...
296 views

Question on monoalphabetic substitution

Question: A stream of cipher operates on a data stream of 6-bit characters using a simple mono-alphabetic substitution technique. Estimate and explain the number of different substitution ...