30 September 1998
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 14:02:49 -0500 To: cypherpunks@toad.com From: Bruce Schneier <schneier@counterpane.com> Subject: Announcement: A Self-Study Course in Block Cipher Cryptanalysis Ever since writing Applied Cryptography, I have been asked to recommend a book on cryptanalysis. My unfortunate answer is that while there are several good books on cryptography, there are no books, good or bad, on cryptanalysis. The only way to learn cryptanalysis is through practice. A student simply has to break algorithm after algorithm, inventing new techniques and modifying existing ones. Reading others' cryptanalysis results helps, but there is no substitute for experience. To help in getting this experience, I designed a self-study course in block-cipher cryptanalysis. With it, a student can follow an ordered path through the academic literature and emerge out the other side fully capable of breaking new algorithms and publishing new cryptanalytic results. What I have done is to list published algorithms and published cryptanalyses in a coherent order: by type of cryptanalysis and difficulty. A student's task is to read papers describing algorithms, and then attempt to reproduce published cryptanalytic results. (It is definitely more difficult to learn cryptanalysis from academic papers than from a distilled textbook, but the sooner a student gets used to reading academic papers the better off he will be.) The results, in other published papers, serve as an "answer key." The paper is available in both postscript and pdf formats at: http://www.counterpane.com/self-study.html Comments are always appreciated. Bruce ********************************************************************** Bruce Schneier, President, Counterpane Systems Phone: 612-823-1098 101 E Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55419 Fax: 612-823-1590 Free crypto newsletter. See: http://www.counterpane.com