The Book
Crypto Dictionary is rigorous in its definitions, yet easy to read and laced with humor. Flip to any random page to discover something new or mind-boggling, from history trivia to the lastest research concepts.
Crypto Dictionary is available as a DRM-free e-book and soon as printed copy via No Starch Press. It will also be available on the all major book resellers, including Amazon, B&N, Penguin.
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This is the full list of terms defined in the book:
2013
65537
A5/0
A5/1
A5/2
A5/3
A5/4
Adaptive attack
AEAD (authenticated encryption with associated data)
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
AES-CCM
AES-GCM-SIV
AES-GCM
AES-NI
AES-SIV
AIM (Advanced INFOSEC Machine)
AKA
AKS (Agrawal-Kayal-Saxena)
Algebraic cryptanalysis
Alice
All-or-nothing transform (AONT)
Anonymous signature
Applied Cryptography
Applied cryptography
ARC4
Argon2
ARX (Add-Rotate-Xor)
ASIACRYPT
Asymmetric cryptography
Attack
Attribute-based encryption (ABE)
Authenticated cipher
Axolotl
Backdoor
Backtracking resistance
Backward secrecy
Base64
BassOmatic
BB84
bcrypt
Biclique cryptanalysis
BIKE (Bit Flipping Key Encapsulation)
BIP (Bitcoin improvement proposal)
Bit Gold
Bitcoin
Black
BLAKE2
BLAKE3
BLAKE
Bleichenbacher attack
Blind signature
Block cipher
Blockchain
Blockcipher
Blowfish
BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) signature
Bob
Boolean function
Boomerang attack
BQP (bounded-probability quantum polynomial time)
Braid group cryptography
Brainpool curves
Break-in recovery
Broadcast encryption
Brute force attack
Bulletproof
Byzantine fault tolerance
CAESAR (Competition for Authenticated Encryption: Security, Applicability, and Robustness)
Caesar’s cipher
CAVP (Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program)
CBC (cipher block chaining)
CECPQ (combined elliptic-curve and post-quantum)
Cellular automata
Ceremony
Certificate Authority (CA)
Certificate transparency
Certificate
ChaCha20
CHES (Conference on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems)
CIA
Ciphertext stealing
Clipper
CMVP (Cryptographic Module Validation Program)
Code-based cryptography
Commitment
Concurrent zero-knowledge
Consensus protocol
Control word
COPACOBANA (Cost-Optimized PArallel COde Breaker)
Cothority (collective authority)
Cryptanalysis
Cryptids
Crypto AG
Crypto period
Crypto variable
Crypto wars
Crypto-Gram
Cryptobiosis
Cryptocurrency
Cryptography
Cryptologia
Cryptology
Cryptonomicon
Cryptorchidism
Cryptovirology
Crypto
CRYPTO
CRYPTREC
CSIDH (Commutative Supersingular Isogeny Diffie–Hellman)
CTF (capture the flag)
Cube attack
Curve25519
Curve448
Cypher
Daemon
Davies-Meyer
Decentralized private computation
Deniable encryption
DES (Data Encryption Standard)
Dictionary attack
Dictionary
Differential cryptanalysis
Diffie-Hellman
Disclosure
Discrete logarithm problem
Distinguisher
Distributed randomness
Dolev-Yao model
Double ratchet
Dragonfly
DRBG (deterministic random bit generator)
DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm)
DSS (Digital Signature Standard)
DVB-CSA
Déchiffrer
Décrypter
E-voting
E0
ECB (electronic codebook)
ECC
ECDLP
ECDSA (Elliptic-curve DSA)
ECIES (Elliptic-curve IES)
Ed25519
EdDSA
EKMS (Electronic Key Management System)
Electronic codebook
ElGamal
Elligator
Elliptic curve cryptography
Elliptic curve
Encipherment
End-to-end encryption
Enigma
Entropy
ePrint
Erathosthenes’ sieve
eSTREAM
Ethereum
EUROCRYPT
Eve
Factoring problem
Feedback shift register
Feistel network
Fialka (Фиалка)
Fiat-Shamir
FIPS 140-2
FIPS 140-3
Forgery
Formal verification
Format-preserving encryption
Forward secrecy
FOX
FSE
Fully homomorphic encryption
Functional encryption
Future secrecy
Fuzzy extractor
Generalized birthday problem
GNFS (General Number Field Sieve)
GOST
Grain
Group signature
Grover’s algorithm
Gröbner basis
Hardcore predicate
Hash function
Hash-based cryptography
Heartbleed
Hedged signatures
HFE (Hidden Field Equations)
HMAC (Hash-based MAC)
Homomorphic encryption
HPC (Hasty Pudding Cipher)
HSM (hardware security module)
HTTP/3
Hyperelliptic curve cryptography
IACR (International Association for Cryptologic Research)
IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm)
IDEA NXT
Identity-based encryption
IES (Integrated Encryption Scheme)
Impatient saboteur
Impossible differential attack
Impossible
IND-CCA
IND-CPA
Indelibility
Indifferentiability
Indistinguishability obfuscation (iO)
Indistinguishability
Information-theoretic security
INT-CTXT
Invisible signature
IOTA
IPES (Improved Proposed Encryption Standard)
IPSec
ISO standard
Isogeny-based cryptography
JoC (Journal of Cryptology)
KASUMI
Keccak
KeeLoq
KEM (key encapsulation mechanism)
Kerberos
Kerckhoffs’ principles
Key derivation function (KDF)
Key escrow
Key management
Key wrapping
Kleptography
Known-key attack
Kupyna ({\timesnewroman Купина)
Laconic zero-knowledge proof
Lai-Massey
Lamport signature
Lattice-based cryptography
Le Chiffre
Leakage-resilient cryptography
Learning with errors (LWE)
Length extension attack
Length-preserving encryption
LFSR (linear feedback shift register)
Lightweight cryptography
Linear cryptanalysis
Linkability
LM hash
Luby-Rackoff
Lucifer
MAC (message authentication code)
MAGENTA
Malleability
Man-in-the-middle
Manger attack
MASH (Modular Arithmetic Secure Hash)
McEliece encryption scheme
MD4
MD5
MDC (Message Digest Cipher)
MDC-2
Meet-in-the-middle
Merkle puzzle
Merkle tree
Merkle-Damgård construction
Mersenne twister
Message franking
Miller-Rabin
MINERVA
Mining
Misuse resistance
Mixnet
MQV (Menezes-Qu-Vanstone)
Multi-party computation (MPC)
Multicollision
Multivariate cryptography
NBS (National Bureau of Standards)
NESSIE
New Directions in Cryptography
NFSR (non-linear feedback shift register)
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
NIZK (non-interactive zero-knowledge)
Noekeon
Noise
Non-committing encryption
Non-outsourceability
Non-slanderability
Nonce
NSA (National Security Agency)
NT Hash
NTRU (N-th degree Truncated polynomial Ring Units)
Null cipher
OAEP (Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding)
Oblivious key management system (OKMS)
Oblivious PRF (OPRF)
Oblivious RAM (ORAM)
Oblivious transfer
Obscurity
OCB (offset codebook mode)
One-time pad
One-way function
Onion-AE
OPAQUE
OpenSSL
Oracle
OTR (Off-The-Record)
Padding oracle attack
Paillier cryptosystem
Pairing-based cryptography
Pairing
PAKE (password-authenticated key exchange)
Paradigm
Password hash function
PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2)
PCT (Private Communications Technology)
PEP (Plaintext equivalence proof)
Perfect forward secrecy
Permutation-based cryptography
PES (Proposed Encryption Standard)
PET (Plaintext equivalence test)
PFS
PGP
Photuris
Picnic
PKCS (Public Key Cryptography Standards)
PKC
Poly1305
Polynomial complexity
Post-compromise security
Post-quantum cryptography
Post-quantum RSA
Prediction resistance
Preimage
PRESENT
PRIMES
Privacy-preserving
Private information retrieval (PIR)
Proof of burn
Proof of catalytic space
Proof of human work
Proof of replication
Proof of reserve
Proof of security
Proof of sequential work
Proof of spacetime
Proof of space
Proof of stake
Proof of storage
Proof of useful work
Proof of work
Provable security
Provably secure
Proxy re-encryption
Pseudo-random
Pseudorandom function (PRF)
Pseudorandom number generator (PRNG)
Pseudorandom permutation (PRP)
Public-key cryptography
PUF (physically unclonable function)
Puncturable encryption
Puncturable pseudorandom function (PPRF)
Quantum computer
Quantum cryptography
Quantum encryption
Quantum key distribution
Quantum signature
QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections)
Rabin cryptosystem
Rainbow table
Random bits
Random oracle
Randomness
Range proof
RC4
RC5
RC6
Real World Crypto (RWC)
Real world
Rectangle attack
Related-key attack
Research papers
Revocation
Rijndael
Ring signature
RIPEMD-160
Rivest-Shamir-Adleman
ROBOT (Return Of Bleichenbacher’s Oracle Threat)
ROS
RSA
Rubber-hose cryptanalysis
Rumba20
S-box
SAEP (Simplified OAEP)
Salsa20
Sandwich attack
Scalar
sci.crypt
Scrambler
scrypt
Searchable encryption
secp256k1
Secret sharing
Security proof
Security
Semantic security
Serious Cryptography
Serpent
SHA-0
SHA-1
SHA-2
SHA-3 competition
SHA-3
SHACAL
Shamir’s secret database
Shor’s algorithm
SHS (Secure Hash Standard)
Side channel
Side-channel attack
Sigaba
Signal protocol
Signature
Signcryption
SIKE (Supersingular Isogeny Key Encapsulation)
SIMECK
SIMON
SipHash
SIV-AES
Skipjack
Slide attack
Smart contract
SM
Snake-oil
SNARK (succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge)
SNIP (secret-shared non-interactive proof)
SNOW 3G
Solitaire
SPECK
SPEKE (Simple Password Exponential Key Exchange)
SPHINCS
Sponge function
SRP (Secure Remote Password protocol)
SSH (Secure Shell)
SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
STARK (scalable transparent arguments of knowledge)
Steganography
Stream cipher
Substitution-permutation network (SPN)
Suck
Sugar beet auctions
Suite A
SUPERCOP
Superpolynomial complexity
SVP (shortest vector problem)
Symmetric-key cryptography
TCC
Test vectors
Threefish
Threshold encryption
Threshold secret-sharing
Threshold signature
Time AI™
Time-lock encryption
Time-lock puzzle
Timing attack
TLS (Transport Layer Security)
Tor
Traitor tracing
Transfinite cryptography
Trapdoor
Triple DES
Trivium
True random number generator (TRNG)
Trusted third party
Tweakable block cipher
Twofish
Undeniable signature
Universal composability
Universal hash function
Updatable encryption
Verifiable delay function (VDF)
Verifiable random function (VRF)
Verifiable unpredictable function (VUF)
Vigenère cipher
VSH (Very Smooth Hash)
Wallet
Watermarking
White-box cryptography
Winternitz signature
WireGuard
X25519
X3DH
XMSS
XOF (extendable output function)
XOR encryption
XOR
Zerocash
ZKP (zero-knowledge proof)
ZRTP
Errata (thanks for Peter Gutmann):
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Forgery: Missing parenthesis at the end.
-
Kerberos: It’s not really used in RADIUS, it can in theory be used in EAP.
-
MDC: The abbreviation originally stands for “Modification Detection Code”; “Message Digest Cipher” was used during the crypto wars to turn an exportable hash back into a nonexportable encryption mechanism
-
NIST: “algorithms design” -> “algorithm design”.
-
PGP: it’s not really the de facto email encryption standard, the de facto one that virtually everyone doesn’t use is S/MIME, it’s built into most email programs. The one that a much smaller number of people don’t use is PGP.