# All Questions

2answers
124 views

### Three different numbers with x³=x mod p

p is a prime greater than 2 and $a \in \mathbb{Z}_p$. Why are there exactly three solutions for a³ = a mod p? Obviously 0 and 1 are both in $\mathbb{Z}$ and valid solutions, but that still means, ...
1answer
420 views

### How (in)secure is a signature based on DSA with DSS1 (SHA1) in reality?

As I found out the OpenSSL implementation provided by PHP (openssl_sign) only allows DSS1 as the hashing algorithm for DSA signatures (see also my related question). I’d prefer DSA over RSA in my ...
1answer
144 views

### Pick faster private exponent

I recently tried to send 1536-bit modulus CSR to COMODO. They refused to sign the certificate. I later found out that it's because NIST mandated 2048-bit modulus on the SSL certificate. I think it's ...
1answer
149 views

### Twisted curves in protocol

I've come to understand that twisted curves, as for instance defined in the Brainpool specifications, are $F(p)$-isomorphic to their regular $F(p)$ equivalents. So brainpoolP256r1 is isomorphic to ...
1answer
133 views

### Encrypt HDD with keyfile and password and allow backing up the keyfile with secret sharing

I want to: Encrypt my whole HDD with a keyfile and a password (meaning that both are required to decrypt it), Be able to back up pieces of the keyfile in several distant locations using Secret ...
1answer
125 views

### Question about dual system encryption

Recently, I have been reading some dual system encryption papers. In these systems, is the adversary able to generate “semi-functional ciphertexts”?
1answer
210 views

### What is the “artificial abort” technique?

In the security proof of Brent Waters's paper Efficient Identity-Based Encryption Without Random Oracles, he uses a novel “artificial abort” step on page 6. At this point the simulator is still ...
2answers
164 views

### Reductionist proofs of decisional problems to computational

Are they any reductionist proofs where an attacker $\mathcal{I}$ for a well established computationally "hard" problem $\mathsf{Π}$ is employing an attacker $\mathcal{A}$ who we assume is able to ...
1answer
56 views

### server aid secure equality test

The scenario is like this: $P_1$ has $m_1$, $P_2$ has $m_2$, they want to compare whether $m_1=m_2$ via the server $S$. After the protocol, only $S$ knows the result, and there is no interaction ...
3answers
131 views

### Encryption time in ECC

In RSA, encryption time is usually much less than decryption time due to having a small public exponent. Can this be achieved in Elliptic Curve Crypto (ECC)?
1answer
199 views

### Use of Different keys with PCBC

Currently I am having a doubt, while making a "DES PCBC" encryption on an image I observe a bit of the silhouette of the image (Probably because of the XOR between plaintext blocks and ciphertext ones ...
1answer
130 views

### Are formal methods used for cryptographic protocol design?

I decided to learn more about the application of formal methods to cryptographic protocols and found this interesting talk by Cathy Meadows at YouTube. After doing research about how people are using ...
2answers
189 views

### Padding to increase entropy and size of (otherwise) small JSON objects

Maybe this better fits, the security stackexchange... I'm building a web API. We want to enable some relatively simple encryption, instead of going full-blown OAuth2 (which frankly, IMO, sucks). So I ...
0answers
61 views

### AES/CBC fixed Initial vector use-case [duplicate]

I am using AES/CBC to encrypt my http cookie. I never encrypt the same cookie value twice so my understanding is I don't need to use a random initial vector - using a fixed initial vector is fine for ...
0answers
47 views

### P = NP security implications [duplicate]

If someone finds an efficient way (ridiculous or not) to turn NP into P (such as creating multiple universes, saving the one with the correct answer), would we have any good algorithms for encryption, ...
1answer
756 views

### Montgomery Ladder vs Double-and-Add

I would like to know what (if any) are the advantages of using Montgomery Power ladder over the Double-and-Add-Always algorithm. I think that firstly, Monty would be slightly faster than DoubleAndAdd. ...
2answers
396 views

### Shamir Secret sharing - Can share generator keep x values secret?

I'm wondering, in Shamir secret sharing, can generator of the shares, keep the x values which are used in evaluating the polynomial to obtain y values (i.e., the shares) secret, and whenever the ...
1answer
235 views

### Insecurity in Needham and Schroeder protocol?

I've been studying specifically the authentication algorithm Needham and Shroeder, and understand the idea in general of the message exchange. But, researching on the subject, I found a question that ...
1answer
371 views

### Is it a requirement to understand mathematics when implementing (or breaking) cryptography?

Related: What is the lowest level of mathematics required in order to understand how encryption algorithms work? and Recommended skills for a job in cryptology In the context of putting crypto into ...
1answer
74 views

### Theory for pre-paid debit card: card-to-card transfer [closed]

In Sweden in the late 90's they deployed a electronic prepaid cash system system, and if I remember correctly you could transfer money between cards without online access. Wikipedia states that the ...
2answers
99 views

### One Time Pad for large changing files

i wondered what the security implications are if I do the following. If I had a large file encrypted with a OTP and want to change only a few bytes in the plaintext. what security vulnerabilities do I ...
1answer
99 views

### Use additional keys to thwart key compromise?

Is it good or bad practice to design crypto protocols for key compromise by using additional keys? Argument for bad practice would be: When you have a key you should trust it and not throw more keys ...
3answers
881 views

### Encryption of log files

I'd like to encrypt the contents of a log file that my application writes. The log system has the following characteristics: The file format is binary. Log files are left open while the application ...
1answer
114 views

### How can I process data within a cloud securely?

I'm new to programming and I'm getting ready to design a proof of concept for an app that I'm thinking of building. Problem is I'm a complete noob to cryptography and need a little nudge to point me ...
1answer
253 views

### Measure ECC key size

I have implemented a ECC key generation scheme successfully. Now I need to find ECC key sizes of each generating key pairs. I assumed that ECC key size is the size of the ECC private Key. So I would ...
3answers
5k views

### Which one of the Block Cipher modes is the best?

I have two questions regarding the Block Cipher Modes: Which one of the modes is considered the best? I know CBC has a problem of IV since the next block of the plain text is XORed with the result ...
1answer
438 views

### Precomputation attacks on RSA

Are precomputation attacks - such as outlined in RFC 3610 chapter 5 - possible on RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 signature generation? If yes, are such attacks taken into account when calculating the cryptographic ...
1answer
677 views

### Is the first version of the Message-Digest algorithm by Ronald Rivest publically available?

Diving into the history and evolution of the Message-Digest algorithm by Ronald Rivest, I have been able to track back papers from MD6 down to MD2. Yet, somehow I can not seem to be able to find any ...
2answers
480 views

### Update to “Cryptographic Right Answers”

I'm a big fan of Colin Percival's "Cryptographic Right Answers" post. This was written in 2009, which is a long time ago in Internet years. Is the advice still valid or, if not, can someone point me ...
2answers
2k views

### Accelerating SHA-1

I have a program where computing SHA-1 is the bottleneck. This is using OpenSSL 1.0.0e on a 2.6Ghz 16-core Opteron where I get about 325MiB/s throughput. (SHA1 here is via Andy Polyakov's x86-64 ...
2answers
124 views

### Correct way to read a given permutation cipher?

In some literature I am reading – where they are explaining the permutation cipher – they have two examples, which encrypt a small block of text. But they seem to contradict each other: First ...
0answers
100 views

### How can I make a message into a blocks for NTRU?

I have more bits than the degree of the NTRU polynomial. For example: $x^{11}-1$ message: Hello (I am using ascii, 8 bits for 1 symbol) got: ...
2answers
187 views

### How can one parallelize tasks in CTR-AES for maximum performance?

From what I have read it seems like one of the purported benefits of using CTR mode AES, is that it can be parallelized to a greater degree, or maybe more easily than the other block cipher modes, ...
1answer
313 views

### How Does Progressive Hashing Work?

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/KGtUE/ https://code.google.com/p/crypto-js/#Progressive_Hashing sha256.update("abc"); sha256.update("def"); sha256.update("ghi"); ...
2answers
142 views

### Parallel hash construction

I'm wondering why hash constructions aren't parallel like CTR mode for encryption? For example: We have ideal block cipher E, where we encrypt message block with counter and xor output block with ...
2answers
239 views

### Choice of MAC and handling it correctly

I have recently learned that Encrypt-then-MAC is recommended when using symmetric encryption. I have two closely related questions related to that, which is why I am posting them as one: Looking ...
3answers
371 views

### How to prove identity without revealing identity

Let us say Alice publishes a book under the name of Claire. The book becomes wildly popular and now Bob comes along, claiming to be Claire, to reap all the success. How does Alice prove that she wrote ...
1answer
1k views

### Why does Openssh use only SHA1 for signing and verifying of digital signatures?

I am learning SSH protocol. With my current understanding of SSH protocol, I think that message digest algorithms for using in digital signature should be derived from Key Exchange. But Openssh ...
1answer
519 views

### Security of the iterated Hill Cipher

I can understand that the basic Hill Cipher is susceptible to known plaintext attacks, but suppose the Hill Cipher is modified into the Iterated Hill Cipher. For a plaintext $x_0=m_0$ and an ...
4answers
2k views

### Why is plain-hash-then-encrypt not a secure MAC?

It seems that even in MAC-then-encrypt systems like SSL, something like HMAC is used rather than a plain hash. Why? Suppose we use some stream cipher; then why can't we use $Encrypt(m | H(m))$ as ...
1answer
831 views

### RSA: Fermat's Little Theorem and the multiplicative inverse relationship between mod n and mod phi(n)

I'm learning about the proof of the RSA encryption algorithm, and I'm clearly fudging or missing something, because for me it doesn't add up. When generating keys for RSA encryption, we make sure ...
1answer
48 views

1answer
516 views

### Smart Card Basics

I want to implement some of the basic encryption algorithms on smart card, could any body guide me how to program a smart card, which tools (hardware and software) I should have, and if these tools ...
1answer
66 views

### How small are we talking about when defining the small public/private key exponent [duplicate]

I've been wondering about the 'small' part of the attacks on RSA, like the small public key exponent and the small private key exponent and what's not really clear is how small are we talking about? ...
4answers
342 views

### Construct an encryption algorithm using hash function [duplicate]

We know that Cryptographic hash function is generally a one-way function where we can't retrieve the original message. On the other hand, encryption is a two-way-function where we get the original ...
4answers
370 views

### Tactics available to help prove security of a new system?

I believe that the accepted tactic to "prove" a system as secure is to allow the crypto-community to review it and if no vulnerabilities are found over a long period of time (5 or 6 years), then a new ...

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