Cryptography Assignment

1. For integers a and n, what is the inverse of a modulo n?

2. Explain the following security requirements for a hash function:

a) preimage resistance

b) second preimage resistance

c) collision resistance
3. What is the size of a plaintext block for the AES cipher?
4. A generic method to find collisions of a hash function consists in hashing many different data,
store the hashes in a table, and continue until the current hash is already present in the
table.
Another generic method is called Floyd’s algorithm. What is the main advantage of
Floyd’s method upon the one described above.
5. What is the meaning of Euler’s function?
6. Let Φ denote Euler’s function, compute:
a) Φ(17) 16

b) Φ(32) 16

c) Φ(125) 100
d) Φ(187) 186
e) Φ(495) 240
7. What is called a 1024-bit RSA key? Why not using shorter keys? Why not using
longer ones?
8. Is a modular inverse always an integer?
9. Explain why it is advantageous to RSA decrypt in CRT mode rather than in standard
mode.
10. What is the usual method to compute a modular inverse? Explain.
11. Is AES a Feistel network?
12. What are the two commonly used chaining modes? Describe how they work.
13. Is the SQUARE attack a known message or a chosen message one?

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 Cryptography Assignment

14. Is a Message Authentication Code used to:

a) sign a document?

b) hash a large quantity of data?

c) encrypt a confidential information?

d) have confidence about the identity of the sender of a message?

e) optimize a cryptanalysis?

f) be sure that a document has not been modified during its transmission?

g) generate an RSA key pair?

15. Describe the RSA Standard Key Generation. Using it to generate a 20-bit RSA key for the
public exponent e = 11 and encrypt/decrypt message m=123456.

16. Express the Chine Remainder Theorem (CRT) then find x such that

x ≡ 2 (mod 3)
x ≡ 3 (mod 5)
x ≡ 2 (mod 7)
17. Describe the RSA CRT Key Generation. Using it to generate a 20-bit RSA key for the
public exponent e = 11 and encrypt/decrypt message m=123456.

18. Compute (without calculator)

a) 17 mod 5 2

b) −57 mod 10 7

c) 263 mod 6

19. Compute (without calculator)

a) 1454 mod 23
b) 8371 mod 74

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 Cryptography Assignment

20. True or false? (without calculator)

a) 348 ≡ 28 (mod 10)
b) 797 ≡ 0 (mod 7)
c) 2388 ≡ 2370 (mod 9)
d) 5 ≡ 55 (mod 2)

21. Compute (without calculator)

a) 4-1 mod 11
b) 13-1 mod 16
c) 6-1 mod 21
d) 5/2 mod 11

22. Express the Bezout’s Theorem. Using the Extended Euclid Algorithm to find s and
t such as as + bt = d =gcd(4864, 3458).

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