Modern Cryptography: Theory and Practice (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books) (Hardcover)

by Wenbo Mao (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Appropriate for all graduate-level and advanced undergraduate courses in cryptography and related mathematical fields. Modern Cryptography is an indispensable resource for every advanced student of cryptography who intends to implement strong security in real-world applications. Leading HP security expert Wenbo Mao explains why conventional crypto schemes, protocols, and systems are profoundly vulnerable, introducing both fundamental theory and real-world attacks. Next, he shows how to implement crypto systems that are truly "fit for application," and formally demonstrate their fitness. He begins by reviewing the foundations of cryptography: probability, information theory, computational complexity, number theory, algebraic techniques, and more. He presents the "ideal" principles of authentication, comparing them with real-world implementation. Mao assesses the strength of IPSec, IKE, SSH, SSL, TLS, Kerberos, and other standards, and offers practical guidance on designing stronger crypto schemes and using formal methods to prove their security and efficiency. Finally, he presents an in-depth introduction to zero-knowledge protocols: their characteristics, development, arguments, and proofs. Mao relies on practical examples throughout, and provides all the mathematical background students will need.

From the Back Cover

"This book would be a good addition to any cryptographer's bookshelf. The book is self-contained; it presents all the background material to understand an algorithm and all the development to prove its security. I'm not aware of another book that's as complete as this one."

--Christian Paquin, Cryptographic/Security Developer, Silanis Technology Inc. "The book is both complete, and extraordinarily technically accurate. It would certainly be a useful addition to any cryptographer's or crypto-engineer's library."

--Marcus Leech, Advisor, Security Architecture and Planning, Nortel Networks Build more secure crypto systems--and prove their trustworthiness Modern Cryptography is the indispensable resource for every technical professional who needs to implement strong security in real-world applications.

Leading HP security expert Wenbo Mao explains why "textbook" crypto schemes, protocols, and systems are profoundly vulnerable by revealing real-world-scenario attacks. Next, he shows how to realize cryptographic systems and protocols that are truly "fit for application"--and formally demonstrates their fitness. Mao presents practical examples throughout and provides all the mathematical background you'll need.

Coverage includes:

• Crypto foundations: probability, information theory, computational complexity, number theory, algebraic techniques, and more
• Authentication: basic techniques and principles vs. misconceptions and consequential attacks
• Evaluating real-world protocol standards including IPSec, IKE, SSH, TLS (SSL), and Kerberos
• Designing stronger counterparts to vulnerable "textbook" crypto schemes

Mao introduces formal and reductionist methodologies to prove the "fit-for-application" security of practical encryption, signature, signcryption, and authentication schemes. He gives detailed explanations for zero-knowledge protocols: definition, zero-knowledge properties, equatability vs. simulatability, argument vs. proof, round-efficiency, and non-interactive versions.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 648 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130669431
• ISBN-13: 978-0130669438
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #621,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, September 13, 2003

By	John Viega (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

Modern Cryptography is by far the best first text on cryptography I've ever seen, blowing books like Applied Cryptography out of the water. It's a clear treatment that focuses on building practical systems, focusing on how to avoid common pitfalls.

The focus of this book is the correct design of cryptographic protocols that resist attack. This is in contrast to books like Applied Cryptography, which focuses on the tools and the building blocks used to construct systems, glossing over how to use those things together to build strong systems. While the innards of block ciphers and so on can be interesting, Schneier himself is prone to saying something along the lines of, "The world is filled with insecure systems built by people who read Applied Cryptography". That is, in order to build secure systems with cryptography, one should understand how to use cryptographic tools properly. We do not need to know how the tools themselves work... we can take it for granted as long as we understand their behavior.

It must be said that the average person shouldn't be designing their own cryptographic protocols, either. One of the things this book does well is demonstrate the large number of non-intuitive ways in which cryptographic protocols can go wrong. For example, the chapters on authentication schemes demonstrate a large number of schemes authored by reputable cryptographers that turned out to have significant weaknesses.

For the above reason, this probably isn't a text that needs to be on everybody's desk. I would say it is essential for anyone who wants to understand why protocol design is so hard, and it is also valuable to the few people who will go on to build new protocols, particularly graduate students in cryptography.

Here's what I like about the book:
- Cryptography is a rapidly evolving field, and this book is quite up to date, covering AES and other recent protocols. This is quite in contrast to books like Applied Cryptography, which is painfully out of date.

- The text is pretty lucid, staying away from arcane mathematical symbols when possible, and explaining them well when not. While it's a bit more math-y and not quite as fun to read as Applied Cryptography, it is nearly as good in this respect, and the content is far better.

- It's the first book I've seen to do a good job covering the state of the art in provable security techniques. It introduces fairly recent provable security models, and does so in a way that it doesn't take a mathematician to understand.

- Its coverage of topics is great, particularly in that it spends much time examining real-world protocols such as SSL/TLS, SSH and Kerberos.

If you are in the target audience for this book, you won't regret buying it. Even at the $54.99 list price (which is what I paid, sadly), you shouldn't feel even remotely cheated, particularly considering the fact that there are shorter books with only a fraction of the content that cost a lot more.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a College TextBook, November 23, 2004

By	Hugh K. Boyd (Fayetteville, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's a pretty good one too, but it's still a college text. The orientation of this book is far more theoretical than practical, complete with abstract mathematical notation that sometimes does more to confuse than to elucidate (although the author, to his credit, includes a glossary of mathematical notation early in the text). Still, the book is complete and up-to-date, covering everything from probability theory and number theory through the latest stuff on PKI, symmetric crypto (including AES), and authentication.

Cryptography is not an easy subject, and this book will take a while to wade through for all but the most mathematically astute readers. Nonetheless, for those wanting a "deep dive" into the theoretical underpinnings of the subject, this is a good book. Security practitioners will likely find Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" an easier, more enjoyable, and equally beneficial read, although it is due for an update.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nice book on recent years' results in crypto, September 10, 2003

By	Feng Bao (Singapore) - See all my reviews

An excellent book on crypto, concentrating more on the principle behind the modern crypto than just description of the algorithms. Many recent results are included. I would encourage all my PhD students to have it.