Cryptography Fundamentals Flashcards
7 cards from real Certified Ethical Hacker practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Cryptography Fundamentals flashcards as text
Which attack exploits the mathematics of the birthday paradox to find hash collisions?
Answer: Birthday attack
A birthday attack uses probability theory to find collisions faster than brute force.
What type of attack extracts keys by measuring power consumption or timing of a device?
Answer: Side-channel attack
Side-channel attacks analyze physical leakage like timing, power, or electromagnetic emissions.
Which key-stretching algorithm is designed specifically to slow down password cracking?
Answer: bcrypt
bcrypt is intentionally slow and computationally expensive to resist brute-force attacks.
In a man-in-the-middle attack on key exchange, what does the attacker do?
Answer: Intercepts and relays communication while impersonating both parties
The attacker secretly relays and possibly alters messages between two parties who think they communicate directly.
What is perfect forward secrecy (PFS)?
Answer: Compromise of a long-term key does not expose past session keys
PFS ensures that ephemeral session keys remain secure even if long-term keys are later compromised.
Which technology is expected to threaten RSA and ECC by efficiently factoring large numbers?
Answer: Quantum computing
Quantum computers running Shor's algorithm could break current public-key cryptography.
What is the purpose of a nonce in cryptographic protocols?
Answer: A number used once to prevent replay attacks
A nonce is a unique value used once to ensure freshness and prevent replay.