# All Questions

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### Large primes p and q for RSA

I am writing a high-school paper on textbook RSA (the mathematical aspect only). Many definitions of the RSA method start off with saying that one should: Generate two large random (and distinct) ...
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### Parity of an encrypted key

Does encrypting a double-length 3DES application key (that has an odd parity) under a double-length 3DES zone master key (also with an odd parity) affect the parity of the application key?
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### Algorithm to transform plaintext to a key of desired keysize, when using input plaintext as key for FPE?

Using a format preserving encryption scheme that uses AES internally as its block cipher, for a plaintext that I encrypt I want to use that input plaintext as the key. However using AES-128, my ...
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### What is the meaning of probabilistic encryption algorithm?

I am learning cryptography by myself and I am not able to understand the meaning of probabilistic encryption algorithms. How is it different from deterministic encryption algorithms ? How can the ...
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### Security of a signature scheme based on both factoring and discrete logarithms

I have seen this paper: A New Signature Scheme Based on Multiple Hard Number Theoretic Problems by Ismail and Tahat: In this paper, we propose a new signature scheme based on two hard number ...
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### Basic Encryption and Decryption related question

I recently started studying cryptography and got interested in the subject. But I got this doubt when I was studying the encryption scheme. Even though we encrypt our message and change it into ...
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### Which data encryption mechanism to use for data transfer?

I have high performance nodes communicating with each other sending logs and data over network. The communication is heavy and over public network. I would like to know how to know which is the best ...
126 views

### What are the required security properties for salts?

I was recently thinking about password hashing (maybe caused by the PHC progression). I started to think a little more about it and got stuck at this question: What security properties do ...
110 views

### curious DHE implementation for key exchange

I have made some reverse engineering on proprietary software and came up with some DHE algorithm that works like this: First and foremost, the client and the server shares some public parameters (g, ...
81 views

### How much pre-hashing a password increase security against brute force attack?

I am wondering how much hashing a password used as key for a symmetric key algorithm helps preventing brute force attack on crypted text. Let's assume I want to crypt text A using key B using ...
97 views

### Physical entropy source: How many bits entropy per byte is sufficent?

8 bit / byte would be perfect obviously. head -c 1M /dev/urandom | ent gives ~ 7.9998 bits per byte. Now, if I have a physical entropy source, how much entropy ...
170 views

### Fast PKI for embedded device

We are creating a device with a small microcontroller (20 MHz CPU 16 KiB RAM). We need some way to securely send signed files to device (only signature, no encryption necessary). An external company ...
904 views

### Is ECB mode safe to use with RSA encryption? [duplicate]

Firstly, bear with me, I'm relatively new to cryptography. In a recent static analysis scan of our application, one of the findings complained that we are using ECB: A mode of operation of a block ...
121 views

### Can I use the output from a DRBG directly as K for AES, or do I need to use a key generator algorithm?

NIST has 3 validated "Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators" (DRBG's) that are based on NIST SP 800-90A: Hash_DRBG (based on hash functions) ...
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### What do these notations mean in the definition of Perfect Secrecy, if we read those in English?

If m: message, M: message space, k: key, K: keyspace, c: cipher, C: cipher space and $E_k$: encryption function, such that $E_k(m) = c,\ m,m^* \in M,\ k\in K,\ c\in C.$ Then, what do the following ...
187 views

### Does perfect secrecy imply uniform ciphertext distribution?

I suspect the answer is no, but I am not able to either prove it, or provide an example. In Katz and Lindell's book, it is only said that with a perfectly secret encryption scheme, the plain and ...
142 views

### Of what use is my code for finding prime numbers of a certain size?

I've developed a bit of Mathematica code that can find primes within a range of numbers. For example, if I wanted all the primes between one million and two million, it could do that. Of what use is ...
152 views

### Is creating a own protocol safe or should TLS always be used?

The more I start to learn about cryptography the more I hear it is unsafe to 'create' your own cryptographic protocol. With this I mean combining cryptographic primitives like HMAC, AES and RSA ...
124 views

### Defence against timing attacks

I know this is a difficult subject but would a good defense against timing attacks be not sending a message if the decryption or authentication fails? So if the attacker provides a wrong HMAC for ...
133 views

### How difficult is it to get a key using simple XOR

Recently someone gave me an algorithm as follows: XOR = Key XOR Random1 XOR Random2. They think that in order for someone to extract "Key" from XOR they would need Random1 and Random2.. but looking ...
307 views

### What is the period of a cipher?

For the following explanation of RC4: It is a variable key-size stream cipher with byte-oriented operations. The algorithm is based on the use of a random permutation. Analysis shows that the ...
234 views

### Why does NaCL have different keys for signing and encryption?

I want to start using NaCL to sign messages that will go into a message queue, and I noticed that it generates different keys for each operation. Is there a reason for this? Can I not use the same PK ...
162 views

### Simplified Example of ECC to use in the classroom

I have come up with the following rudimentary example of how ECC relates to asymmetric keys. Is this a valid explanation of ECC and its relationship to asymmetry? To only be deciphered by the person ...
191 views

### Difference between Pseudorandom Function vs randomly chosen function

I am currently going through a course in cryptography. In this, I stumbled upon Pseudorandom Functions. I got a little idea of Pseudorandom Generators which map an input string (key) to an extended ...
294 views

### Significance of 3mod4 in squares and square roots mod n?

Why do most literature while discussing squares or square root modulo a prime P, consider P to be congruent to 3 mod 4?
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### Does a cofactor of an elliptic curve have to be an integer?

What are the implications of a curve having a non-integer co-factor for its generator point? Is that even possible?
559 views

### Encrypting firmware with AES and no IV [closed]

I have an embedded device with a AES CBC engine on it that is used to ensure the integrity of the firmware. I know that CBC mode requires unique IVs to be any good, but I'm unsure if it makes a large ...
266 views

### Hash 22 byte secret into 512 bit hash: Full entropy?

Does it make sense to hash a 22 byte secret (which may not have full entropy since it is chosen by the user) into a 512 bit hash (using Keccak-512)? More precisely, will the 512 bit hash have full ...