Cryptography Midterm

The midterm will take place on TBA.

Topics

• The book: Chapter 1, 2.0-2.9, 3.0-3.6, 3.8, Chapter 6, Chapter 9 (except 9.2), pp 218-220, 8.4. You may skip the proofs that we didn't do in class.
• The notes: All notes from weeks 1-5.
• Homeworks 1-4.
• Everything we did in class in weeks 1-5.

Notes

• The midterm will be closed book and notes, but you may bring one sheet of letter-sized paper with your own hand-written notes. You may write on both sides.
• The midterm can not be made up except for real emergencies in which case proper documentation (like a doctor's note) will be required. If at all possible, you should contact me prior to the midterm. Oversleeping, cars that don't start etc. do not constitute a valid excuse.
• Calculators, PDAs, cell phones, etc. are not allowed.
• The midterm will consist of a number of questions of equal weight. The lowest question score will be dropped.
• A bit more about the types of problems:
  • Think about which of the attacks apply to which ciphers.
  • The problems could be about ciphers from class or modifications of ciphers from class (or possibly a new, not very complex, cipher).
  • Think about how many keys are there for a given cipher. For public-key cryptography, think about how many private keys exists for a given public key.
  • Review the algorithms from class and understand what polynomial-time means in the cryptographic setting.
  • Review the concepts of confusion, diffusion, and the tests for determining the block length of a block cipher.
  • Understand how public key cryptography works and the types of problems it might run into - especially if used incorrectly (see the homework problems).
  • There is no need to copy frequencies of letters onto your cheatsheet.