Assignment 2 Network Security
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Louise ChristineAssignment 2 Network Security
Uploaded by
Louise ChristineAssignment 2
1. What are the properties that a cryptographic hash function must satisfy? Does a Message Authentication
Code (MAC) work as a Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC)? If that is, does a MAC satisfy
the same properties that an HMAC satisfies?
2. With respect to biometrics: What is the difference between the authentication problem and the
identification problem? Which is inherently easier, authentication or identification? Why?
3. Firewalls
a. Explain what is meant by the term firewall in network security and discuss how it is used
in network architectures.
b. What are the different types of firewalls?
c. At which layer of the Internet protocol stack does each of these firewalls operate and what
information is available to each of these firewalls?
4. Timestamps can be used in place of nonces in security protocols.
a. State an advantage and a disadvantage of using timestamps.
b. Explain the term “clock skew‟ and its importance towards designing security protocols.
5. What is a virus? What is a worm? Explain the differences between the two terms and give examples of
known viruses and worms.
6. What is a race condition? Give an example of a real-world race condition.
7. This problem deals with digital signatures.
a. Explain how and why a digital signature can provide integrity.
b. Explain how and why a digital signature can provide non-repudiation.
c. Does a digital signature ensure the entire message is encrypted? You should provide reasons to
support your answer.
8. Consider the elliptic curve:
E: y2 = x3 + 11x + 19 (mod 167).
a. Verify that the point P = (2, 7) is on E.
b. Suppose this E and P = (2, 7) are used in an ECC Diffie-Hellman key exchange, where Alice
chooses the secret value A = 1 and Bob chooses the secret value B = 3. What value does Alice
send to Bob? What does Bob send to Alice? What is the shared secret?
9. Suppose that you have a block cipher and want to use it as a hash function. Let X be a specified constant
and let M be a message consisting of a single block, where the block size is the size of the key in the
block cipher. Define the hash of M as Y = E(X, M). Note that M is being used in place of the key in
the block cipher.
a. Assuming that the underlying block cipher is secure, show that this hash function satisfies the
collision resistance and one-way properties of a cryptographic hash function.
b. Extend the definition of this hash so that messages of any length can be hashed. Does your hash
function satisfy all of the properties of a cryptographic hash?
c. Why must a block cipher used as a cryptographic hash be resistant to a "chosen key" attack?
Hint: If not, given plaintext P, we can find two keys K0 and K1 such that E(P,K0) = E(P,K1).
Show that such a block cipher is insecure when used as a hash function.
10. Explain what is meant by the term firewall in network security and discuss how it is used in
network architectures.
11. James and Alexander are having another debate about computer and network security. James says
that it is the job of security professionals to find all vulnerabilities and every threat and make sure
the system is always 100% secure. Do you agree with James? You should explain your answer
with reasons.
12. Explain why challenge response identification systems are used.
13. Explain what a nonce is and the reason for using a nonce.
14. In general, there are three types of identity authentication tasks. List these tasks.
15. Describe the three main concerns with the use of passwords for authentication. Explain what is
meant by a social engineering attack on a password.
16. Mention at least one attack related each layer in TCP/IP model.
17. Alice and Bob is using RSA Encryption Scheme. Bob wants to send the message M = 13 to Alice.
By using Alice's public and private keys, Calculate the cipher text C which will send by Bob and
show how Alice can recovers the message from received the cipher text C. (3p)
a. Alice's public key is (n; e) = (33; 3).
b. Alice's private key is (n; d) = (33; 7).
18. What is Cryptanalysis?
19. Is this protocol secure? You should provide reasons to support your answer. If this is not secure,
how do you fix it?
20. What are the key security issues in a blockchain network and briefly explain them?
