Introduction to Cryptography

 

Instructor: Benny Pinkas, benny (at) pinkas.net, benny (at) cs.haifa.ac.il.

 

Fall semester 2005.

Dept. of Computer Science, University of Haifa.

 

Description:

This course is an introduction to the basic theory and practice of cryptographic techniques. We will cover topics such as encryption (secret-key and public-key), digital signatures, secure authentication, secret sharing, and cryptographic protocols.

 

Prerequisites:

Probability theory, Linear Algebra, Number Theory, "Mathematical Maturity".

 

Administrativia:

1.      Office Hours: Tuesday, 11am-12pm.

2.      Grading:

1.      Final exam: 75%. 

2.      Home work: 25%.

Reading:

  1. Textbook: Cryptography Theory and Practice, Second edition by D. Stinson. 
  2. Optional (Free!): Handbook of Applied Cryptography, by A. Menezes, P. Van Oorschot, S. Vanstone. 
  3. Optional (Free!): Introduction to Cryptography Applied to Secure Communication and Commerce, by Amir Herzberg.
  4. Optional: Applied Cryptography, by B. Schneier.

 

Course Plan:

 

Lecture

Date

Subject

Files

1

30.10.05

Introduction, Kerckhoff's principle, classic ciphers, perfect ciphers.

slides, printer friendly slides.

2

6.11.05

Pseudo-randomness. Block ciphers. Encryption modes. DES.

slides, printer friendly slides.

3

13.11.05

DES, man-in-the-middle attack, differential cryptanalysis, message authentication.

slides, printer friendly slides.

4

20.11.05

Message authentication, MACs, hash functions, GCD algorithm.

slides, printer friendly slides.

5

27.11.05

Basic number theory.

slides, printer friendly slides.

6

4.12.05

Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

slides, printer friendly slides.

7

11.12.05

Public key cryptosystems: El-Gamal encryption, RSA encryption.

slides, printer friendly slides.

8

18.12.05

Rabin encryption, digital signatures.

slides, printer friendly slides. (See here for a summary of the mathematical background.)

9

25.12.05

Digital signatures, Public key infrastructure (PKI).

slides, printer friendly slides.

-

 1.1.06 No class (Hanuka holiday).  

10

8.1.06

Public key infrastructure (PKI), certificate revocation, primality testing.

slides, printer friendly slides.

11

15.1.06

Factoring algorithms, discrete log algorithms, SSL / TLS.

slides, printer friendly slides.

12

22.1.06

Secret sharing, Electronic cash

slides, printer friendly slides.
       

 

Some additional material on the Chinese Remainder Theorem can be found in Victor Shoup's book (bottom of page 18), or even in the Wikipedia.

 

Homeworks:

  1. Homework 1 
  2. Homework 2
  3. Homework 3 

 

Final Exam 2004/5

 

A sample of other crypto courses on the web (with slides or lecture notes available online):

(in no particular order)

·         Eli Biham's course at the Technion.

·         Amos Fiat's course in Tel Aviv University.

·         Dan Boneh's course in Stanford (no slides, though).

·         Amir Herzberg's course in Bar Ilan University.

·         David Wagner's course in Berkeley.

·         Salil Vadhan's course in Harvard.

·         Mihir Bellare's course in UCSD.

Last updated: January 31, 2006.