Reading and Homework Assignments

Guidelines:

  • Homework assignments are annunced on the Blackbord with their deadlines, and must be submitted as PDF through the Blackboard. Assignments submitted by emails are NOT graded.
  • Before solving the homework problems, you are expected to do the weekly reading assignments and understand the related material.
  • An asterisk (*) indicates supplementary reading material.
  • The homework PDF file must have a header on the first page, and a header for each question. See HW-format. Please follow this format when you submit your homework in order to be graded. See also an example of a HW_Sample, which can be used as a template for your homework.
  • Late submission No late submission accepted after the deadline.
  • Resubmission: If you submit a wrong file, or modify the solution after submission, you can resubmit within the deadline (at most twice). Only the latest submission on the Blackboard will be graded.

Reading Assignment [Weeks 1-3]: Introduction to Cryptography, Modular Arithmetic, Cryptanalysis attacks, Symmetric-key ciphers.
Forouzan: Chapters 1, 2, and 3.1.
Stallings: Chapter 2.
Rosen: Sections* 4.1-4.3
Forouzan: Chapter 3
Stallings: Chapter 3*.

Homework Assignment HW1:
Forouzan: Chapter 1. Exer: 2, 7.
Forouzan: Chapter 2. Exer: 12(a,b), 16(b), 18(b,c), 32(a, b), 36(c), 40(b).
Forouzan: Chapter 3. Exer: 11, 14, 18.
Stallings: Chapter 3. Problem: 3.
Total: 12 exercises.

Reading Assignment [Weeks 4-6]: Block ciphers, DES, AES, Primes, Public-key Cryptography, RSA, Diffie-Hellman.
Forouzan: Section 5.1.
Forouzan: Chapters 6, 7*, 10*.
Stallings: Chapters 6, Section 7.1*.
Stallings: Sections 2.5*, 2.8*, 9.1-9.2, 10.1.
ppt slides: P04, P05, P06.
Additional material: AES_Demo.

Homework Assignment HW2:
Forouzan: Chapter 5. Exer: 8, 24, 27.
Forouzan: Chapter 6. Exer: 9, 10.
Forouzan: Chapter 10. Exer: 14, 17.
Stallings: Chapter 9. Problem: 2(a,b), 8.
Extra Problems: (Required)
EP#1. Answer the following questions about AES:
(a) What are the main advantages and disadvantage of 3DES? How does AES keep the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages?
(b) What are the main requirements of AES stated by NIST?
(c) Briefly describe the 4 stages in the AES round?
(d) The 4 stages in the AES round together provide high security. Explain the weakness of each stage alone.
(e) What are the main strength points of the design of the S-box in AES?
EP#2. Compare DES, 3DES and the three AES versions in terms of: block size, number of rounds, the main key length, and the round-key length. (Use a 5x4 table)
EP#3. Consider a 24-bit ideal block cipher.
(a) What is the key size (the length of the key) in this cipher? (How many bits in the key?)
(b) What is the size of the key-space? (How many keys are there?)
EP#4. Alice and Bob exchange keys in Diffie-Hellman scheme, with p = 19, g = 2. If Alice chooses a random value x = 16, and receives 13 from Bob.
(a) What value Alice should send to Bob?
(b) Compute the exchanged key.
(c) Explain the man-in-the-middle attack on Diffie-Hellman key exchange scheme.
Total: 13 exercises.

Reading Assignment [Weeks 7-10]: Shor's Algorithm, Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Key Exchage, BB84, B92.
Yanofsky: Sections 6.5, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3.
ppt slides: P07.Shor's Algorithm.

Homework Assignment HW3:
Yanofsky: Chapter 6. Exer: 6.5.3, 6.5.4, 6.5.5, 6.5.7.
Yanofsky: Chapter 9. Exer: 9.2.1, 9.2.2.
Extra Problems: (Required)
click here
Total: 8 exercises.

Reading Assignment [Weeks 11-14]: QKE-EPR, Coin-Flipping, Quantum OTP, Post-Quantum Cryptography, Lattices, LWE.
Yanofsky: Sections 9.4.
Bellare: Section 1.2.3.
Lattices: Sections 1 and 2.
Classnotes on Coin flipping, Quantum OTP, and Lattices.

Homework Assignment HW4:
click here
Total: 8 exercises.