Cryptography

Identifying the type of cipher text

and the encryption algorithm
This is very important if you encountered a cipher
text and don't know what is the encryption
algorithm.

https://www.boxentriq.com/code-
breaking/cipher-identifier

OpenSSL
Deciphering an encrypted file with
OpenSSL

root@kali:openssl enc -d –[algorithm-name]

-in salary_dec2003.csv.enc -out
salary_dec2003.csv -k [password]

Algorithm names for openssl:

<root@kali:openssl enc help>

Decrypting RSA key

openssl rsa -in [encrypted-key] -out

[key_decrypted]

You may need the passphrase to decrypt the RSA

key.

Decrypting VNC viewer password

Download the vnc decrypter below

https://github.com/jeroennijhof/vncpwd

Compile it

gcc -Wall -g -o vncpwd vncpwd.c d3des.c

Run it

./vncpwd [vnc passfile]

Vigenere Ciphers
Decrypting Vigenere Ciphers
To decrypt a vigenere message, we need the
cipher text and the key used to decrypt it. Then we
can use the below online service

http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/vigenere-
keyed.php

Another resource

https://www.boxentriq.com/code-
breaking/vigenere-cipher

Oracle Padding Attack

#Oracle padding attacks are common when a web
application uses parameter query string to store
encrypted values such as username,id or company
id.
#A padding attack can be detected when you find
that query parameter and send an unexpected
input. The browser will return [invalid padding].
That's when you know a padding attack is possible
to decrypt the content stored in the query
parameter.
#Example is using a query parameter to store
authorization information such as the username. An
example query parameter is below

cookie: auth=[encrypted-value]

#PadBuster is a tool used to decrypt such values

https://github.com/AonCyberLabs/PadBuster

#Usage

padbuster URL EncryptedSample BlockSize

[options]

#By default, block size in oracle is 8 byte].

Example usage is below

padbuster http://domain.com [encrypted-

value] 8 -cookies auth=[encrypted-value] -
-encoding

#This will give you the decrypted value. In this

case it's the username you are assigned to. You
can then modify on the command to give you the
encrypted value for another user,say its[admin]
 padbuster http://domain.com [encrypted-
value] 8 -cookies auth=[encrypted-value] -
plaintext user=admin

#The output of this is an encrypted value which

you can use to replace the current value of [auth].
You can do this during a Burp suite intercept
request and then you will be able to log in as that
user.

The substitute cipher

Its called the substitute cipher as it contains
repeated patthers. Ofteh these ciphers are found in
newspapers puzzles. An example is below

Szszsz! Mlylwb droo tfvhh nb mvd kzhhdliw!

Lmob z uvd ofxpb hlfoh szev Vhxzkvw uiln
Zoxzgiza zorev orpv R wrw!!!

In this example, the repeated pattern or characters

are Szszsz]. We can decrypt substitute ciphers
using the tool in the link below

https://quipqiup.com/
Elliptic Curve Cryptography
Algorithm
ECC algoritim is a kind of public key cryptography
that allows for smaller keys and low power
requirements. So it works by generating a public
and private keys. The public key is used in
encrypting your message and to decrypt it you
need your private key.
Example of generating a keypair

$ seccure-key

This will enter a prompt like below

Assuming curve p160.

Enter private key: [your-private-key]
The public key is:
8W;>i^H0qi|J&$coR5MFpR*Vn

#Encryption : the below command lets you create

a message, encrypt it and send it to an output file
[encrypted.msg]

seccure-encrypt -o encrypted.msg 'your-

public-key'
This will generate the below prompt at which you
will type your private message you wish to encrypt.

Assuming MAC length of 80 bits.

Go ahead and type your message ...
[type your message here]

#Decryption : you can decrypt the same message

using the below command

seccure-decrypt -i encrypted.msg

The above command will prompt you to enter the

[private key].
#Decryption with python: You can integrate the
above tool with python for derypting a cipher text

import seccure
cipher = "\x01\xd3\xe1\xf2\x17T
\xd0\x8a\xd6\xe2\xbd\x9e\x9e~P(\xf7\xe9\xa
5\xc1KT\x9aI\xdd\\!\x95t\xe1\xd6p\xaa\"u2\
xc2\x85F\x1e\xbc\x00\xb9\x17\x97\xb8\x0b\x
c5y\xec<K-
gp9\xa0\xcb\xac\x9et\x89z\x13\x15\x94Dn\xe
b\x95\x19[\x80\xf1\xa8,\x82G`\xee\xe8C\xc1
\x15\xa1~T\x07\xcc{\xbd\xda\xf0\x9e\x1bh\'
QU\xe7\x163\xd4F\xcc\xc5\x99w"

print seccure.decrypt(cipher, "the-

private-key")

More info about the tool can be found here

[http://point-at-infinity.org/seccure/]

RSA Encryption
Decrypting a basic private key
id_rsa.crypt
Note that you can use RSACTFtool] as
alternative method to the below one
In RSA, there is the public key which is two number
[n] and [e] and there is the private key which is
also two numbers [n] and [d]. [n] is the product of
two large prime numbers [p] and [q]. In decrypting
private keys, we need to calculate the [d].
In python, you can do that with the [pow] function
as below

d = pow(key.e, -1, (p-1)*(q-1))

But first we have to calculate [n] , [e] , [p] , [q].
In python if you have the public key [key.pub] you
can find [n] and [e] using python interpreter

>>> from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA

>>> with open('key.pub', 'r') as f:
key = RSA.importKey(f.read())
>>> key.n
>>> key.e

Then you can use the value of [n] and input it in

this site [http://factordb.com/index.php]
it will calculate [p] and [q].
Then we can start the decryption process with
python3

>>> with open('id_rsa.crypt', 'rb') as f:

dc = f.read()
>>> int.from_bytes(ct, byteorder='rsa')
>>> pow(int.from_bytes(ct, 'rsa'), d,
key.n)
>>> pow(int.from_bytes(ct, 'rsa'), d,
key.n).to_bytes(32, 'rsa')

This will give you the password for the private RSA
key.
Encrypting a password/message
from an input text file using python
and sage library
The below script takes the text in [plaintext.txt file]
and using mathmetical calculations with [sage]
library it calculates the encrypted text and stores it
in [cipertext.txt]

nbits = 1024

password =
open("plaintext.txt").read().strip()
enc_pass = open("ciphertext.txt","w")
debug = open("log.txt","w")
m =
Integer(int(password.encode('hex'),16))

p = random_prime(2^floor(nbits/2)-1,
lbound=2^floor(nbits/2-1), proof=False)
q = random_prime(2^floor(nbits/2)-1,
lbound=2^floor(nbits/2-1), proof=False)
n = p*q
phi = (p-1)*(q-1)
e = ZZ.random_element(phi)
while gcd(e, phi) != 1:
e = ZZ.random_element(phi)

c = pow(m, e, n)
enc_pass.write('Encrypted Text:
'+str(c)+'\n')
debug.write(str(p)+'\n')
debug.write(str(q)+'\n')
debug.write(str(e)+'\n')

Below is an example of how to decrypt the exact

same cipher text created above.

Recover an RSA encrypted

message/password/key with the
Extended Euclidean Algorithm
This method relies on the availability of certain
variables
[p,q,e]. These variables are calculated during the
encryption process.
If you happen to have access to the encryption
script then see if you can find the file storing these
values.
Below is an authored script to achieve that
purpose. You can also find it with the link
here[https://gist.github.com/intrd/3f6e8f02e16faa5
4729b9288a8f59582

#!/usr/bin/python

## RSA - Given p,q and e.. recover and use

private key w/ Extended Euclidean
Algorithm - crypto150-
what_is_this_encryption @ alexctf 2017

# @author intrd - http://dann.com.br/

(original script here:
http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/
19444/rsa-given-q-p-and-e)

# @license Creative Commons Attribution-

ShareAlike 4.0 International License -
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/

import binascii, base64

p =
0xa6055ec186de51800ddd6fcbf0192384ff42d707
a55f57af4fcfb0d1dc7bd97055e8275cd4b78ec63c
5d592f567c66393a061324aa2e6a8d8fc2a910cbee
1ed9

q =
0xfa0f9463ea0a93b929c099320d31c277e0b0dbc6
5b189ed76124f5a1218f5d91fd0102a4c8de11f28b
e5e4d0ae91ab319f4537e97ed74bc663e972a4a911
9307

e =
0x6d1fdab4ce3217b3fc32c9ed480a31d067fd57d9
3a9ab52b472dc393ab7852fbcb11abbebfd6aaae80
32db1316dc22d3f7c3d631e24df13ef23d3b381a1c
3e04abcc745d402ee3a031ac2718fae63b240837b4
f657f29ca4702da9af22a3a019d68904a969ddb01b
cf941df70af042f4fae5cbeb9c2151b324f387e525
094c41

ct =
0x7fe1a4f743675d1987d25d38111fae0f78bbea68
52cba5beda47db76d119a3efe24cb04b9449f53bec
d43b0b46e269826a983f832abb53b7a7e24a43ad15
378344ed5c20f51e268186d24c76050c1e73647523
bd5f91d9b6ad3e86bbf9126588b1dee21e6997372e
36c3e74284734748891829665086e0dc523ed23c38
6bb520

def egcd(a, b):

x,y, u,v = 0,1, 1,0

while a != 0:

q, r = b//a, b%a

m, n = x-u*q, y-v*q

b,a, x,y, u,v = a,r, u,v, m,n

gcd = b

return gcd, x, y

n = p*q #product of primes

phi = (p-1)*(q-1) #modular multiplicative

inverse

gcd, a, b = egcd(e, phi) #calling extended

euclidean algorithm

d = a #a is decryption key

out = hex(d)

print("d_hex: " + str(out));

print("n_dec: " + str(d));

pt = pow(ct, d, n)

print("pt_dec: " + str(pt))

out = hex(pt)

out = str(out[2:-1])

print "flag"

print out.decode("hex")
Don't forget to replace [p,q,e] with the values you
have. For [ct] it's the cipher text which needs
decryption.

Deciphering weak public key

encryption:
Normally weak public keys have short encryption
keys with .crypt file extesntion. Lets say we have
two files
Key.pub
Pass.crypt
We would attempt decrypting the public key and
extract the password of the private key with the
below command

root@kali:./RsaCtfTool.py --publickey
/root/Desktop/key.pub --uncipherfile
/root/Desktop/pass.crypt

Decrypting firefox profile passwords

We can use the tool in the below URL and clone it

https://github.com/unode/firefox_decrypt
Then run it after specifying the path of the profile

python3 firefox.decrypt.py <Path-to-

profile>

All firefox profiles are stored under the

[firefox/profiles] directory.

ROT13 Algorithm
Manual encryption and decryption
Encrypt a string [test]

echo "test" | tr 'A-Za-z' 'N-ZA-Mn-za-m'

Decrypt a string Guvf vf n Grfg]

echo "Guvf vf n Grfg" | tr 'A-Za-z' 'N-ZA-

Mn-za-m'

Using Tools

https://rot13.com/

Steganography
Image steganography
Decoding payloads in JPEG,WAV or
AU files

https://futureboy.us/stegano/decinput.html

Using steghide to extract hidden

content

steghide extract -sf [file]

Using binwalk to view and extract

hidden content

binwalk image.png
binwalk -e image.png

Viewing hidden details

https://29a.ch/photo-forensics/#strings
https://futureboy.us/stegano/decinput.html

Note
Sometimes the image is protected by a passphrase
which you need to supply in order to extract the
hidden information.
You can use the below script to brute force the
password and reveal the hidden files

for word in $(cat $2); do

steghide extract -sf $1 -p $word &>
/dev/null
if [ $? == 0 ]; then
echo
echo "[!] Password Found - $word [!]"
break
else
echo "Password Couldn't be found. Use a
different wordlist - $word"
fi
done

Run the script

script.sh image.png wordlist.txt

Audio Steganography
Images can be encoded inside audio files with a
technique called [spectrogram]. Using Audio
visualizer] or [Sonic Visualizer] we can decode
images encoded inside Audio files.
Before doing that lets first understand the process
of Spectrology] which is converting or encoding
images to audio files. The python script below can
be used to encode images into audio files. Script
author is
[https://github.com/solusipse/spectrology]

#!/usr/bin/env python

'''

Spectrology

This script is able to encode an image

into audio file whose spectrogram
represents input image.

License: MIT

Website:
https://github.com/solusipse/spectrology

'''
from PIL import Image, ImageOps

import wave, math, array, argparse, sys,

timeit

def parser():

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

parser.add_argument("INPUT", help="Name of
the image to be convected.")

parser.add_argument("-r", "--rotate",
help="Rotate image 90 degrees for
waterfall spectrographs.",
action='store_true')

parser.add_argument("-i", "--invert",
help="Invert image colors.",
action='store_true')

parser.add_argument("-o", "--output",
help="Name of the output wav file. Default
value: out.wav).")

parser.add_argument("-b", "--bottom",
help="Bottom frequency range. Default
value: 200.", type=int)

parser.add_argument("-t", "--top",
help="Top frequency range. Default value:
20000.", type=int)

parser.add_argument("-p", "--pixels",
help="Pixels per second. Default value:
30.", type=int)

parser.add_argument("-s", "--sampling",
help="Sampling rate. Default value:
44100.", type=int)

args = parser.parse_args()

minfreq = 200

maxfreq = 20000
wavrate = 44100

pxs = 30

output = "out.wav"

rotate = False

invert = False

if args.output:

output = args.output

if args.bottom:

minfreq = args.bottom

if args.top:

maxfreq = args.top

if args.pixels:
pxs = args.pixels

if args.sampling:

wavrate = args.sampling

if args.rotate:

rotate = True

if args.invert:

invert = True

print('Input file: %s.' % args.INPUT)

print('Frequency range: %d - %d.' %

(minfreq, maxfreq))

print('Pixels per second: %d.' % pxs)

print('Sampling rate: %d.' % wavrate)

print('Rotate Image: %s.' % ('yes' if

rotate else 'no'))

return (args.INPUT, output, minfreq,

maxfreq, pxs, wavrate, rotate, invert)

def convert(inpt, output, minfreq,

maxfreq, pxs, wavrate, rotate, invert):

img = Image.open(inpt).convert('L')

# rotate image if requested

if rotate:

img = img.rotate(90)

# invert image if requested

if invert:

img = ImageOps.invert(img)

output = wave.open(output, 'w')

output.setparams((1, 2, wavrate, 0,
'NONE', 'not compressed'))

freqrange = maxfreq - minfreq

interval = freqrange / img.size[1]

fpx = wavrate // pxs

data = array.array('h')

tm = timeit.default_timer()

for x in range(img.size[0]):

row = []

for y in range(img.size[1]):

yinv = img.size[1] - y - 1

amp = img.getpixel((x,y))

if (amp > 0):

row.append( genwave(yinv * interval +
minfreq, amp, fpx, wavrate) )

for i in range(fpx):

for j in row:

try:

data[i + x * fpx] += j[i]

except(IndexError):

data.insert(i + x * fpx, j[i])

except(OverflowError):

if j[i] > 0:

data[i + x * fpx] = 32767

else:
data[i + x * fpx] = -32768

sys.stdout.write("Conversion progress:
%d%% \r" % (float(x) / img.size[0]*100) )

sys.stdout.flush()

output.writeframes(data.tostring())

output.close()

tms = timeit.default_timer()

print("Conversion progress: 100%")

print("Success. Completed in %d seconds."

% int(tms-tm))

def genwave(frequency, amplitude, samples,

samplerate):

cycles = samples * frequency / samplerate

a = []
for i in range(samples):

x = math.sin(float(cycles) * 2 * math.pi *
i / float(samples)) * float(amplitude)

a.append(int(math.floor(x)))

return a

if __name__ == '__main__':

inpt = parser()

convert(*inpt)

The script runs by providing an input image, top

frequency range and bottom frequency range

python spectrology.py test.bmp -b 13000 -t

19000 -o test.wav

The output will be an audio file. Likewise if we want

to view the image inside this audio file we will need
the help of Audio visualizer]. The below figure
shows the image after opening the file with Audio
Visualizer]

Encoding and Decoding

The Ook! Language
................!?!!.?................?.?!
.?............................!.?.........
..!?!!.?..........?.?!.?................!.
..........!.?.......!?!!.?!!!!!!?.?!.?!!!!
!!!...!...........!.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.?.....
............!?!!.?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?.?!.?!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!.?.................!?!!.?....
............?.?!.?................!.!!!!!!
!.?.......!?!!.?......?.?!
Decode Ook! with

https://www.dcode.fr/ook-language

The Brainfuck
+++++ +++++ [->++ +++++ +++<] >++++ +.---
--.++ +++++ .<+++ [->++ +<]>+ ++.<+ ++[->
---<] >---- --.-- ----- .<+++ +[->+ +++<]
>+++. <+++[ ->--- <]>-- .<+++ [->++ +<]>+
.---. <+++[ ->--- <]>-- ----. <++++ [->++
++<]> ++..<

Decode with

https://copy.sh/brainfuck/
https://www.dcode.fr/ook-language

Base64 Decoding and Encoding

Automated script to encode and
decode to and from base64
The assumption in the below command is that the
base64 string is in a file named [example]. We can
choose how many times to encode the string. The
below example encode the string in the text file 10
times

data=$(cat example); for i in $(seq 1 10);

do data=$(echo $data | tr -d ' ' |
base64); done; echo $data

And likewise we can decode the output. You can

store the output in a file named [file.b64

data=$(cat file.b64); for i in $(seq 1

10); do data=$(echo $data | tr -d ' ' |
base64 -d); done; echo $data

Hex Decoding and Encoding

Encoding text to hex

echo -n "Insert-text-here" | xxd

Encoding hex to binary

echo insert-hex-here | xxd -r -p

Resources
Encoding and Decoding
https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/
https://www.dcode.fr/en

Hashing
MD5
Generating md5 checksum for a file

md5sum file

SHA1
Generating SHA1 checksum for a file

$ sha1sum file
$ shasum file
$ shasum file

SHA256 and 512

Generating SHA256 and 512
checksum for a file

shasum -a256 file

Likewise for 512 checksum

shasum -a512 file