63
votes
Accepted
Why do 5G, 4G, etc., use non-conventional algorithms?
These decisions are driven by silicon. Most specifications for hardware are built around a minimally viable CMOS implementation (ex: MPEG-1, lightweight cryptography via NIST 8114). This is ...
- 4,212
55
votes
Accepted
Signal vs Telegram in terms of protocols?
Alright, I'll bite.
First, let me propose bounding the discussion to just the core of the protocol.
In particular, let's not get hung up on:
Social engineering attacks
How broadly the end-to-end ...
- 766
55
votes
Accepted
One Encryption, Many Decryption Keys
This is known in the cryptographic literature as "traitor tracing". See, e.g., the following seminal paper:
An efficient public key traitor tracing scheme. Dan Boneh and Matt Franklin. CRYPTO 1999....
- 35.3k
46
votes
Should we MAC-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-MAC?
Although there are already many answers here, I wanted to strongly advocate AGAINST MAC-then-encrypt. I fully agree with Thomas' first half of the answer, but completely disagree with the second half. ...
- 26.9k
36
votes
Accepted
Why is plain-hash-then-encrypt not a secure MAC?
$\operatorname{Encrypt}(m\|H(m))$ is not an operating mode providing authentication; forgeries are possible in some very real scenarios. Depending on the encryption used, that can be assuming only ...
- 122k
34
votes
Is it easy to crack a hashed phone number?
No, it is not a good idea to hash phone numbers. There are only a limited number of phone numbers, so it is pretty easy for an adversary to try and hash all of them. Then you can simply compare the ...
- 84.5k
26
votes
Accepted
How does a rolling code work?
What happens if the sender is at another point in the sequence? ...
the key is pressed while out of range to the car.
In a rolling code (code hopping) system,
the keyfob transmitter maintains a ...
- 5,238
24
votes
Should we MAC-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-MAC?
Moxie Marlinspike calls it in his article http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/the-cryptographic-doom-principle/ the doom principle:
if you have to perform any cryptographic operation before verifying
...
- 349
18
votes
Accepted
Is it possible for Alice and Bob to both sign a message "simultaneously"?
This is one of the earliest questions that was asked in modern cryptography. There is a proof that you cannot achieve completely fair contract signing. However, there are some reasonable alternatives. ...
- 26.9k
17
votes
Accepted
Salary Negotiation Problem
Solutions to Yao's Millionaire's Problem should suffice for this computation. In that setup, there are two parties each with an input. The output reveals whose input is larger, and nothing else.
So ...
- 37.7k
17
votes
Accepted
DRM simple clone
I heard of DRM but could not get a reliable implementation of DRM
There is a good reason for this: DRM is a hard problem, and a solution to it could be leveraged to obtain incredible amounts of money....
- 19.2k
14
votes
Accepted
Why do we implement a protocol?
I assume the question is related to academic work: why do we implement a protocol if we already know how efficient it is by a complexity analysis? The answer depends very much on the type of protocol. ...
- 26.9k
13
votes
Accepted
How to use proof of lack of knowledge?
In general, you cannot prove lack of knowledge, because even if you did know something you shouldn't, you can always pretend that you don't know it and carry out the proof as if you didn't know it.
...
- 44.2k
12
votes
NTRU crypto from unseen.is; myth busting help
I'll comment only the statement referring to an AES-256 replacement with 4096-bit key:
According to our engineers, this will take 23840 times longer to crack than aes256
Bob writing that is not ...
- 122k
12
votes
Accepted
Why does TLS do Authenticate-then-Encrypt instead of Encrypt-then-Authenticate?
SSL was designed long ago when encrypt-then-MAC wasn't that popular yet. Even TLS 1.2, published in 2008, is pretty old by now, and while encrypt-then-MAC was preferred by then, the practical risks ...
- 24k
12
votes
Accepted
Is there a formal language to define a cryptographic protocol?
Disclaimer: I use Coq on daily basis...
About the tools
As you are looking for a formal verification, I would advise you to take a look at Coq. Even though mainly used by Academics, it provides a ...
- 9,789
12
votes
Is it easy to crack a hashed phone number?
It is always a bad idea to hash data that has a limited set of length or characters.
A phone number in Germany for example has normally no more than 12 digits.
The first digit is always a ...
- 368
12
votes
Is it easy to crack a hashed phone number?
In the general sense, The problem is known as the small input space on the hash functions, and in short simple hashing won't be secure.
If you hash data ( here a phone number) and an attacker tries to ...
- 42.9k
11
votes
Why is plain-hash-then-encrypt not a secure MAC?
Two things going on that together may make plain-hash-then-encrypt insecure.
First, the distinction between secure MACs and hashes, which is that a hash function may allow you to derive $H(m')$ from $...
- 31.2k
11
votes
How does a rolling code work?
It is worth pointing out that Samy Kamkar realized and implemented (in 2015) what is now forehead-slappingly obvious in retrospect - it's perfectly practical to have a radio TX+RX unit that snoops a ...
- 211
11
votes
Equal sign with a "c"
To quote the paper
Two probability ensembles... are said to be computationally indistinguishable, denoted $X\stackrel{c}{\equiv}Y$, if...
This is found in section 2.
- 37.7k
11
votes
Accepted
Obfuscating functions that are mostly zero
I provide a summary below of what is currently known (to my knowledge) regarding obfuscation of various class of "mostly-zero" functions.
From Indistinguishability Obfuscation
What we can obfuscate: ...
- 16.6k
10
votes
Why do we implement a protocol?
Do we implement it for proof of concept?
Absolutely. It's very easy to miss vital points if no implementation exists. W3C for instance doesn't even allow protocols to be standardized without ...
- 84.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Examples of protocols that are insecure when run concurrently
Consider the function $f : \{L,R\} \times \{ U,D \} \to \{0,1,2\}$ defined by the following table:
$$
\begin{array}{c|cc}
f & L & R \\
\hline
U & 0 & 0 \\
D ...
- 10.6k
9
votes
Should we MAC-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-MAC?
The really important thing is, not encrypt-and-mac. The other two, you can debate, but both are at least theoretically sound -- one might just practically be better than the other. Encrypt-and-MAC ...
- 231
9
votes
Accepted
SHA-256-based stream cipher
Some brief thoughts:
Shared secret Generation:
$$s=E_a(B)=E_b(A)$$
The shared secret is generated by encrypting the other users public key with your private key. This is effectively an ECDH step, ...
- 4,127
9
votes
Zero-knowledge proof of a product
Use the exponential variant of ElGamal, where the plaintext is encoded in the exponent. Elliptic curve ElGamal is fine. In fact, any public key cryptosystem which allows raising ciphertexts to a power ...
- 1,370
9
votes
Accepted
Universal Circuits in Indistinguishability Obfuscation Candidate Construction
As @D.W. guessed, the branching program for a circuit essentially reveals the original circuit. It's not clear what you mean by "apply the whole obfuscation process to the circuit-revealing branching ...
- 5,589
9
votes
Signal vs Telegram in terms of protocols?
Besides Joshua Warner's excellent answer, I do also want to point out that someone has to "roll their own crypto" at some point for there to be any designs and implementations at all.
On that front, ...
- 10.6k
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