RSSAmplifier

Blog

New stuff

loup-vaillant.frRSS feed ↗16 posts

Latest posts

The Futility of Lava Lamps: What Random Really Means

Lava lamps are cool, but there are better ways to get random numbers.

A SOLID Load of Bull

The so called SOLID "principles" are not nearly as useful as their reputation suggest. Not that surprising, considering their origins.

Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick 3 or Get None

Common wisdom says the only way to cheap software is to skimp on quality or performance. On the contrary, quality and performance arefor cheap software.

Monocypher 4: The Clean Break

How a paid assignment had me reconsider Monocypher's API, leading to sweeping changes and simplifications.

Fixing the TPM: Hardware Security Modules Done Right

The way the TPM is done leads to bloat. The TKey shows a better way.

The Source of Readability

Readability is more objective than you'd think

Cryptography is not Magic

Crypto is often treated like a black art only anointed experts can hope to wield safely. It's not. There are laws, and we can learn them.

Surrounded by Elligators: Implementing Crypto With Nothing to Compare to

How I implemented Elligator mappings from the original paper, with almost no other reference.

Cofactor Explained: Clearing Elliptic Curves' dirty little secret

Efficient elliptic curves tend not to have a prime order. This discusses the problems this causes, and the solutions.

128 Bits of Security and 128 Bits of Security: Know the Difference

Depending on whether we talk about ciphers and hashes, "bits of security" don't really mean the same thing. This explains the differences, and how it might affect the security of your cryptographic systems.

Fast Multiplication with Slow Additions

Public key cryptography often need fast scalar multiplication over a group with pretty slow additions. This explains the tricks.

How I Implemented my Own Crypto

Despite advice to the contrary, I have implemented my own crypto for serious use. Here's how.

Monocypher

Monocypher 1.0 is out! Now ready for production.

The Programmer's Ring

I had a ring made for me, to represent my trade.

The design of Poly1305

Poly1305 is a state of the art one time authenticator. Let's take a look.

The design of Chacha20

Chacha20 is a secure, fast, and amazingly simple encryption algorithm. Let's take a look.