CCP Cryptography & Information Security 3

Question 1

What is a rainbow table attack?

Accepted Answer

A precomputed table of hash values used to reverse hash functions and recover passwords

Answer

A rainbow table is a precomputed lookup table that maps hash values back to their plaintext inputs, allowing rapid password recovery without brute-force computation.

Question 2

How does adding a cryptographic salt to a password before hashing defend against rainbow table attacks?

Accepted Answer

It ensures each password produces a unique hash even if two users have the same password

Answer

A random salt is appended to the password before hashing, making precomputed rainbow tables useless because the same password with different salts produces entirely different hashes.

Question 3

What is Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) in the context of TLS?

Accepted Answer

A property ensuring that compromise of long-term keys does not expose past session keys

Answer

PFS ensures that each session uses an ephemeral key derived independently, so that even if the server's long-term private key is later compromised, previously recorded sessions remain protected.

Question 4

Which security protocol provides end-to-end encryption for email including digital signatures and encryption of message bodies?

Accepted Answer

S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)

Answer

S/MIME provides cryptographic security for email by supporting digital signing and encryption of message content, ensuring confidentiality and authenticity end-to-end.

Question 5

What is the primary difference between stream ciphers and block ciphers?

Accepted Answer

Stream ciphers encrypt data one bit or byte at a time, while block ciphers encrypt fixed-size chunks of data

Answer

Stream ciphers process plaintext one bit or byte at a time using a keystream, while block ciphers operate on fixed-length groups of bits, making them suited for different use cases.

(CCP) Certified Computing Professional Practice Test

(CCP) Certified Computing Professional Practice Test

CCP Cryptography & Information Security 3