Cryptography 1

From Auguste

Starting from	04 / 09 / 2009
Scheduling	Fridays, 10:45 - 12:30
Location	Paviljoen K10
Teacher	Tanja Lange
Website	http://www.hyperelliptic.org/tanja/teaching/cryptoI10/

Exam Date	29 / 1 / 2010
Exam location	HG 10.30F

Old examinations are available at the course website. Exam is open book.

Contents:

Classical systems like Caesar and Vigenère, some simple cryptanalysis.
The general structure of block ciphers, Feistel ciphers like DES, AES, the most suitable modes-of-use, e.g. CBC or OFB.
Shift register sequences (linear and non-linear), the linear complexity of a periodic sequence, the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm.
The principle of public cryptography.
Diffie-Hellman key exchange, El Gamal, several methods to take discrete logarithms (baby-step giant-step method, the Pohlig-Hellman method, Pollard-rho and the index calculus method).
Elliptic curve cryptosystems.
The RSA system for encryption and signing, generating prime numbers by means of probabilistic primality tests, several factorisation algorithms (Pollard-(p-1), Pollard-rho, the random square method, the quadratic sieve method), and some insecure modes of RSA.
Hash functions, Message Authentication Codes.

It is known that for most Nijmegen and Twente students the mathematical level of this course is quite high. You could consider following an additional math course at your local university or have an extra meeting once a week with fellow students.
The book for this course (Henk van Tilborg, Fundamentals of Cryptology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2000) is normally for sale via the teacher. This is way cheaper (+/- 25 euros) than buying it in a store.

Crypto courses from other universities providing alternative, and maybe, easier to understand descriptions of the core concepts:

Of note, these courses are given by more of the well known cryptographers around.

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