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Awesome Crypto Papers
A curated list of cryptography papers, articles, tutorials and howtos.
This page lists names, links and short descriptions. The original list on GitHub is the source and belongs to its authors.
The list >Introducing people to data security and cryptography
Keys under Doormats
Or why cryptography shouldn't be backdoored, by a all-star committee of crypto researches from around the world.
An Overview of Cryptography
By Gary C. Kessler.
Using Encryption for Authentication in Large Networks
By Needham, Schroeder: this is were crypto-based auth starts.
Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems
Fundamental cryptography paper by Claude Shannon.
Another Look at “Provable Security”
Inquiries into formalism and naive intuition behind security proofs, by Neal Koblitz et al.
The security impact of a new cryptographic library
Introductory paper on NaCl, discussing important aspects of implementing cryptography and using it as a larger building block in security systems, by Daniel J. Bernstein, Tanja Lange, Peter Schwabe.
The list >Specific topics
FIPS 198-1: HMACs
The Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code FIPS document.
FIPS 202: SHA3
SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions.
Birthday problem
The best simple explanation of math behind birthday attack.
On the Security of HMAC and NMAC Based on HAVAL, MD4, MD5, SHA-0 and SHA-1
Security analysis of different legacy HMAC schemes by Jongsung Kim et al.
On the Security of Randomized CBC-MAC Beyond the Birthday Paradox Limit
Security of randomized CBC-MACs and a new construction that resists birthday paradox attacks and provably reaches full security, by E. Jaulmes et al.
FIPS 197
AES FIPS document.
List of proposed operation modes of AES
Maintained by NIST.
Stick figure guide to AES
If stuff above was a bit hard or you're looking for a good laugh.
Cache timing attacks on AES
Example of designing great practical attack on cipher implementation, by Daniel J. Bernstein.
Cache Attacks and Countermeasures: the Case of AES
Side channel attacks on AES, another view, by Dag Arne Osvik, Adi Shamir and Eran Tromer.
Salsa20 family of stream ciphers
Broad explanation of Salsa20 security cipher by Daniel J. Bernstein.
New Features of Latin Dances: Analysis of Salsa, ChaCha, and Rumba
Analysis of Salsa20 family of ciphers, by Jean-Philippe Aumasson et al.
ChaCha20-Poly1305 Cipher Suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS)
IETF Draft of ciphersuite family, by Adam Langley et al.
AES submission document on Rijndael
Original Rijndael proposal by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen.
Ongoing Research Areas in Symmetric Cryptography
Overview of ongoing research in secret key crypto and hashes by ECRYPT Network of Excellence in Cryptology.
The Galois/Counter Mode of Operation (GCM)
Original paper introducing GCM, by by David A. McGrew and John Viega.
The Security and Performance of the Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) of Operation
Design, analysis and security of GCM, and, more specifically, AES GCM mode, by David A. McGrew and John Viega.
GCM Security Bounds Reconsidered
An analysis and algorithm for nonce generation for AES GCM with higher counter-collision probability, by Yuichi Niwa, Keisuke Ohashi, Kazuhiko Minematsu, Tetsu Iwata.
Proxy-Mediated Searchable Encryption in SQL Databases Using Blind Indexes
An overview of existing searchable encryption schemes, and analysis of scheme built on AES-GCM, blind index and bloom filter by Eugene Pilyankevich, Dmytro Kornieiev, Artem Storozhuk.
DES is not a group
Old but gold mathematical proof that the set of DES permutations (encryption and decryption for each DES key) is not closed under functional composition. That means that multiple DES encryption is not equivalent to single DES encryption and means that the size of the subgroup generated by the set…
Differential Cryptanalysis of Salsa20/8
A great example of stream cipher cryptanalysis, by Yukiyasu Tsunoo et al.
Slide Attacks on a Class of Hash Functions
Applying slide attacks (typical cryptanalysis technique for block ciphers) to hash functions, M. Gorski et al.
Self-Study Course in Block Cipher Cryptanalysis
Attempt to organize the existing literature of block-cipher cryptanalysis in a way that students can use to learn cryptanalytic techniques and ways to break new algorithms, by Bruce Schneier.
Statistical Cryptanalysis of Block Ciphers
By Pascal Junod.
Cryptanalysis of block ciphers and protocols
By Elad Pinhas Barkan.
Too much crypto
Analysis of number of rounds for symmetric cryptography primitives, and suggestions to do fewer rounds, by Jean-Philippe Aumasson.
How to Break MD5 and Other Hash Functions
A 2005 paper about modular differential collision attack on MD5, MD4 and other hash functions, by Xiaoyun Wang and Hongbo Yu.
New attacks on Keccak-224 and Keccak-256
A 2012 paper about using the combination of differential and algebraic techniques for collision attacks on SHA-3, by Itai Dinur, Orr Dunkelman, Adi Shamir.
A Single-Key Attack on the Full GOST Block Cipher
An attack ("Reflection-Meet-inthe-Middle Attack") on GOST block cipher that allows to recover key with 2^225 computations and 2^32 known plaintexts, by Takanori Isobe.
Intro to Linear & Differential Cryptanalysis
A beginner-friendly paper explaining and demonstrating techniques for linear and differential cryptanalysis.
MEGA: Malleable Encryption Goes Awry
Proof-of-concept versions of attacks on MEGA data storage. Showcasing their practicality and exploitability. Official webpage.
New Directions in Cryptography
Seminal paper by Diffie and Hellman, introducing public key cryptography and key exchange/agreement protocol.
RFC 2631: Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement
An explanation of the Diffie-Hellman methon in more engineering terms.
A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems
Original paper introducing RSA algorithm.
RSA Algorithm
Rather education explanation of every bit behind RSA.
Secure Communications Over Insecure Channels
Paper by R. Merkle, predated "New directions in cryptography" though it was published after it. The Diffie-Hellman key exchange is an implementation of such a Merkle system.
On the Security of Public Key Protocols
Dolev-Yao model is a formal model, used to prove properties of interactive cryptographic protocols.
How to Share a Secret
A safe method for sharing secrets.
Twenty Years of Attacks on the RSA Cryptosystem
Great inquiry into attacking RSA and it's internals, by Dan Boneh.
Remote timing attacks are practical
An example in attacking practical crypto implementationby D. Boneh, D. Brumley.
SoK: Password-Authenticated Key Exchange – Theory, Practice, Standardization and Real-World Lessons
History and classification of the PAKE algorithms.
RSA, DH and DSA in the Wild
Collection of implementation mistakes which lead to exploits of assymetric cryptography.
Explain me like I'm 5: How digital signatures actually work
EdDSA explained with ease and elegance.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography: the serpentine course of a paradigm shift
Historic inquiry into development of ECC and it's adoption.
Let's construct an elliptic curve: Introducing Crackpot2065
Fine example of building up ECC from scratch.
Explicit-Formulas Database
For many elliptic curve representation forms.
Curve25519: new Diffie-Hellman speed records
Paper on Curve25519.
Software implementation of the NIST elliptic curves over prime fields
Pracitcal example of implementing elliptic curve crypto, by M. Brown et al.
High-speed high-security signatures
Seminal paper on EdDSA signatures on ed25519 curve by Daniel J. Bernstein et al.
Recommendations for Discrete Logarithm-Based Cryptography: Elliptic Curve Domain Parameters (NIST SP 800-186)
Official NIST guide how securely implement elliptic curves. It also includes math shortcuts, optimizations and possible security risk of wrong algorithm implementation. (February 2023)
Biased Nonce Sense: Lattice Attacks against Weak ECDSA Signatures in Cryptocurrencies
Computing private keys by analyzing and exploiting biases in ECDSA nonces.
Minerva: The curse of ECDSA nonces
Exploiting timing/bit-length leaks for recovering private keys from ECDSA signatures
LadderLeak: Breaking ECDSA With Less Than One Bit Of Nonce Leakage
Breaking 160-bit curve ECDSA using less than one bit leakage.
Proofs of knowledge
A pair of papers which investigate the notions of proof of knowledge and proof of computational ability, M. Bellare and O. Goldreich.
How to construct zero-knowledge proof systems for NP
Classic paper by Goldreich, Micali and Wigderson.
Proofs that yield nothing but their validity and a Methodology of Cryptographic protocol design
By Goldreich, Micali and Wigderson, a relative to the above.
How to Prove a Theorem So No One Else Can Claim It
By Manuel Blum.
Knowledge complexity of interactive proof systems
By GoldWasser, Micali and Rackoff. Defining computational complexity of "knowledge" within zero knowledge proofs.
A Survey of Zero-Knowledge Proofs with Applications to Cryptography
Great intro on original ZKP protocols.
Zero Knowledge Protocols and Small Systems
A good intro into Zero knowledge protocols.
Multi-Theorem Preprocessing NIZKs from Lattices
Construction of non-interactive zero-knowledge (NIZK) proofs using lattice-based preprocessing models, by Sam Kim and David J. Wu.
Recommendation for Key Management – Part 1: General
Methodologically very relevant document on goals and procedures of key management.
Selecting Cryptographic Key Sizes
Classic paper from 1999 with guidelines for the determination of key sizes for symmetric cryptosystems, RSA, ECC, by Arjen K. Lenstra and Eric R. Verheul.
PRIMES is in P
Unconditional deterministic polynomial-time algorithm that determines whether an input number is prime or composite.
Kyber and Dilithium
These lectures describe Kyber (ML-KEM) and Dilithium (ML-DSA), the quantum-safe lattice-based key encapsulation and signature schemes that were standardized in August 2024 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Post-quantum cryptography - dealing with the fallout of physics success
Brief observation of mathematical tasks that can be used to build cryptosystems secure against attacks by post-quantum computers.
Post-quantum cryptography
Introduction to post-quantum cryptography.
Post-quantum RSA
Daniel Bernshtein's insight how to save RSA in post-quantum period.
MAYO: Practical Post-Quantum Signatures from Oil-and-Vinegar Maps
The Oil and Vinegar signature scheme, proposed in 1997 by Patarin, is one of the oldest and best-understood multivariate quadratic signature schemes. It has excellent performance and signature sizes. This paper is about enhancing this algorithm in usage in the post-quantum era. Official website.
The list >Books
A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography
By Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup. A well-balanced introductory course into cryptography, a bit of cryptanalysis and cryptography-related security.
In 3 lists
Analysis and design of cryptographic hash functions, MAC algorithms and block ciphers
Broad overview of design and cryptanalysis of various ciphers and hash functions, by Bart Van Rompay.
CrypTool book
Predominantly mathematically oriented information on learning, using and experimenting cryptographic procedures.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography
By Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone. Good classical introduction into cryptography and ciphers.
In 2 lists
The joy of Cryptography
By Mike Rosulek. A lot of basic stuff covered really well. No ECC.
A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra
By Victor Shoup, excellent starters book on math universally used in cryptography.
The list >Lectures and educational courses
Understanding cryptography: A textbook for Students and Practitioners
Textbook, great lectures and problems to solve.
In 2 lists
Crypto101
Crypto 101 is an introductory course on cryptography, freely available for programmers of all ages and skill levels.
In 3 lists
A Course in Cryptography
Lecture notes by Rafael Pass, Abhi Shelat.
Lecture Notes on Cryptography
Famous set of lectures on cryptography by Shafi Goldwasser (MIT), M. Bellare (University of California).
Introduction to Cryptography by Christof Paar
Video course by Christof Paar (University of Bochum in Germany). In english.
Cryptography I
Stanford University course on Coursera, taught by prof. Dan Boneh. Cryptography II is still in development.
In 4 lists
The list >Online crypto challenges
CryptoHack
A platform with lots of interactive cryptography challenges, similar to Cryptopals.
In 4 lists
In 3 lists
MTC3
xipher contest with more than 200 challenges of different levels, a moderated forum, and a hall-of-fame.
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