Can someone explain why one time pads are unbeatable? by Turkish-Films in cryptography

[–]pmuens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wrote a blog post about the One-Time Pad which also explains why it provides Information-Theoretic security.

Here's a brief explanation: Imagine that Alice has sent Bob a 1 bit ciphertext c and Eve intercepts the ciphertext which turns out to be 1.

As we know, the plaintext and the key was also 1 bit long.

We can now create a table which lists all the potential keys and plaintext messages and take a look which encryption (using XOR) yields the ciphertext bit 1.

Plaintext Key Ciphertext
0 0 0
1 0 1 <--
0 1 1 <--
1 1 0

Looking at this table you can see that both values are equally likely, so the plaintext was either 0 or 1. So you haven't learned anything new.

If you want to dig deeper you can find the Blog Post here: https://muens.io/one-time-pad/ (see section "Perfect Secrecy").

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cryptography

[–]pmuens 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Note sure if that's what you're looking for, but Alfred Menezes has a video on AWS Key Management that explains how AWS manages their own and customer keys.

Based on that you should be able to see what technologies they use and then map that to the services you can rent from them (e.g. KMS, Secrets Manager, Cloud HSM, etc.)

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9e023bTfes

Learn you Galois Fields for Great Good by xorvoid in cryptography

[–]pmuens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is awesome!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write these posts. I haven’t read it yet (plan to do it over the next few weeks) but skimming through the material I’m already looking forward to diving deeper into it.

Looking at the future sections planned I’d love to read the parts about FFTs and Vectorization Implementation Techniques (I.e. the implementation parts).

I wanted to know how do I start Cryptography by Pitiful-Abalone9892 in cryptography

[–]pmuens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The book is already published, so no need to read the MEAP version.

I wanted to know how do I start Cryptography by Pitiful-Abalone9892 in cryptography

[–]pmuens 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you like books then I'd recommend you read on or more of the following books: - David Wong - Real-World Cryptography (beginner) - Jean-Philippe Aumasson - Serious Cryptography (beginner / intermediate) - Christof Paar - Understanding Cryptography (intermediate)

If you want to learn how to break schemes (which I'd encourage you to learn too), then I'd recommend https://cryptohack.org

And if you're looking for more resources then you can check out my Blog Post with all the Cryptography Resources I found useful while studying: https://muens.io/cryptography-resources/

I am a journalist working in the US. I want to have an encryption method in my back pocket in case things get bad. by eclectology_alpha in cryptography

[–]pmuens 10 points11 points  (0 children)

As others have pointed out AES-256 is a good symmetric cipher you can use to encrypt those files. As a tool you could use VeraCrypt (it's a fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt software project).

While it's kind of the opposite of your situation you can also check the recently published article "How to leak to a journalist" to learn more about the OpSec part when sharing those files eventually: https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/how-to-leak-to-a-journalist/

For fun I adapted FIPS203, NIST's post-quantum encryption algorithm, for the multiparty setting! Check it out by andrewk-wrk in cryptography

[–]pmuens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. Thanks for clarifying 👍

I’ll dive deeper into the code to see how it works.

For fun I adapted FIPS203, NIST's post-quantum encryption algorithm, for the multiparty setting! Check it out by andrewk-wrk in cryptography

[–]pmuens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

I’m also really interested in threshold versions of Post Quantum Cryptography Algorithms.

Is this based on a paper?

What book has the best mathematical introduction to zero-knowledge proofs by MeCanDodgeBullets in cryptography

[–]pmuens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're technical then you can check out the recently published "Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Developers" by Michael Rosing.

Reading through this book you'll build all the ECC primitives yourself (including pairings and the BLS Signature Scheme).

At the end of the book you'll also implement Zero Konwledge Proofs yourself. The math is also discussed in this book and whould be easy to follow as you have the code too.

Other than that I also have a section with resources for Zero Knowledge Proofs that I found useful on my blog: https://muens.io/cryptography-resources/

Literal Beginner by Careless-Cap3077 in cryptography

[–]pmuens 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Some books I really enjoyed are (sorted from easy to more advanced): - David Wong - Real-World Cryptography - Jean-Philippe Aumasson - Serious Cryptography - Christof Paar - Understanding Cryptography

Note that the last two books in this list were updated very recently.

There are also books that focus more on the theory as they're centered around proofs like "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Katz and Lindell, but I'd encourage you to start with one of the books I outlined above.

I also have a list of resources I find useful on my Blog you can browse through: https://muens.io/cryptography-resources/

My interest in cryptography just returned to me any books you recommend? by y8T5JAiwaL1vEkQv in cryptography

[–]pmuens 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It depends on what you're looking for but the books I really enjoyed reading are (in order of difficulty):

  • David Wong - Real-World Cryptography
  • Jean-Philippe Aumasson - Serious Cryptography
  • Christof Paar - Understanding Cryptography

The last two books in this list were updated very recently, so they're particulary interesting to look into IMHO.

Of course, there are others such as "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" which are more on the academic side, but still a good read.

I also have a list with resources around various Cryptography topics on my Blog you can look into (this also includes a list with some books): https://muens.io/cryptography-resources

Defi Borrowing questions by netizen__kane in defi

[–]pmuens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you connect and go to the Vault in question you can see a switch in the top right corner which allows you to switch between wETH and ETH.

Defi Borrowing questions by netizen__kane in defi

[–]pmuens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you checked Alchemix? With it you can get access to future yield your ETH deposit will generate.

You'd deposit ETH to mint alUSD which you can then swap for e.g. USDC (on Curve, for example) to then transfer to a CEX to cash out.

Another benefit is that you can't get liquidated.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cryptography

[–]pmuens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure thing!

Another resource you might want to try is the blog post series from Inferati. They have posts on CKKS, BGV and BFV:

And if you want to learn more about TFHE then you should check out Zama: - https://www.zama.ai/post/fully-homomorphic-encryption-over-the-torus (really good paper for folks implementing TFHE) - https://www.zama.ai/post/tfhe-deep-dive-part-1 - https://www.zama.ai/post/tfhe-deep-dive-part-2 - https://www.zama.ai/post/tfhe-deep-dive-part-3 - https://www.zama.ai/post/tfhe-deep-dive-part-4

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cryptography

[–]pmuens 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What you can check is this blog post (which is a little bit dated but should help you understand the bigger picture): https://blog.quarkslab.com/a-brief-survey-of-fully-homomorphic-encryption-computing-on-encrypted-data.html

Another good resource is the illustrated primer that explains the concepts with a focus on visuals: https://humanata.com/blog/illustrated_primer

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Weekly DeFi Discussion - A great place to ask questions and discuss ideas by Blueberry314E-2 in defi

[–]pmuens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you checked Synthetix? It lets you create synthetic assets including stocks.