Crypto 101: Introduction to cryptography

Learn about block ciphers, stream ciphers, public key encryption and more

Laurens Van Houtven’s Crypto 101 eBook is an excellent introduction to cryptography. The book covers the entire gamut of cryptography.

Building blocks

1. Exclusive OR based encryption
2. Block ciphers (e.g. AES)
3. Stream ciphers (CBC mode, CTR mode and more)
4. Key exchange (Diffie-Hellman with discrete algorithms and elliptic curves)
5. Public key encryption (RSA and elliptic curve cryptography)
6. Hash functions (SHA-2, SHA-3, hash trees)
7. Message authentication codes (HMAC, OCB mode and GCM mode)
8. Signature algorithms (RSA, DSA, ECDSA)
9. Random number generators

Complete crypto-systems

1. SSL and TLS (Handshakes, certificate authorities, perfect forwarding)
2. OpenPGP and GPG
3. Off-The-Record Messaging (OTR)

Introductory material

1. Modulo arithmetic (addition, multiplication, exponentiation)
2. Elliptic curves
3. Side-channel attacks

Video Tutorial

Laurens Van Houtven’s insightful and funny video is a good start. Recommend watching the video before you start with the book.

Note that the book gets downloaded to your download folder. It does not automatically open in the browser.