Keys

Question 1

What are Keys?

Answer 1

A string of characters used within an encryption algorithm for altering data so that it appears random.

Question 2

What are the pros and cons of longer keys?

Answer 2

Pro: Harder to break
Con: Resource intensive

Question 3

What are the pros and cons of shorter keys?

Answer 3

Pro: Easier to break
Con: Less resource requirements

Question 4

What are three types of keys?

Answer 4

1) PSK (Pre-shared key)
2) RSA
3) Diffie-Hellman

Question 5

What is key stretching?

Answer 5

Techniques that are used to make a possibly weak key, typically a password or passphrase, more secure against a brute-force attack by increasing the resources (time and possibly space) it takes to test each possible key.

Question 6

What are some examples of key stretching?

Answer 6

1) Increase the password hash size
2) Inserting random characters

Question 7

What are two types of key stretching?

Answer 7

1) BCRYPT
2) PBKDF2

Question 8

What is the Diffie-Hellman key exchange?

Answer 8

A key exchange that was invented in the 70’s that was resilient to MiTM attacks.

Included DH Groups where the higher the group number the stronger it was.

Question 9

What are some variants of Diffie Hellman?

Answer 9

1) DHE (Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral)
2) ECDHE (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral)

Question 10

List the key management activities in order.

Answer 10

1) Generation
2) Exchange
3) Usage
4) Storage
5) Renewal
6) Archival
7) Recovery
- Key Recovery Agent (KRA)
8) Destruction