AES-256 Encryption Best Practices

[Tom Glod]

Thanks Brian. Thanks everyone. This is great a big time saver for me.

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 4:00 PM, Brian Milby via use-livecode <
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:

> Initial code is posted here:
> https://github.com/bwmilby/lc-community/tree/master/AES_Demo
>
> I'll update it later today with an updated version of the PHP that uses a
> different IV for the return data.
>
> The good thing about how I've posted it is that PRs can be submitted and
> integrated with edits to just the code (and I'll merge them into the stack
> itself).  If you do submit a PR, do not include the stack itself.  Hold off
> until v2 is posted though (I'm integrating an updated stack).
>
> After I post v2, I'm going to update the README with links to these threads
> for reference.
>
> On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 2:27 PM, Tom Glod via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>
> > thank you for this .....I'm willing to post it too....was just thinking
> if
> > the goal is to nail down a best practice ..... then there may be a few
> > suggestions from a few people and maybe a few revisits, so keeping up
> with
> > the mailing list or your personal site is not ideal for something that is
> > being worked on in community.  unfortunately i cannot add anything to the
> > code except test it myself when the time comes.  great job everyone this
> > can be very helpful to a lot of livecode developers.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 3:07 PM, Brian Milby via use-livecode <
> > use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I think the IV vulnerability that I’m talking about is more theoretical
> > > than an actual concern. From what I’ve read the attacker needs to be
> able
> > > to control/influence what is being encrypted for knowledge of the next
> IV
> > > to help (so they can use a known plain text to test their key
> > hypothesis).
> > >
> > > And yes, the IV does make each encrypted message different even for the
> > > same plain text.
> > >
> > > I didn’t fully work out the IV vulnerability but it did make sense how
> it
> > > would work.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Brian
> > > On Jul 3, 2018, 2:39 PM -0400, William Prothero <waprothero at gmail.com
> >,
> > > wrote:
> > > > Brian,
> > > > Thank you for your wisdom on this issue. I’m very interested in your
> > > recommendations and they are inspiring me to do more Internet research.
> > > >
> > > > Just asking...
> > > > You said that the attacker could figure out the next iv. Since I
> append
> > > the iv to the front of the encrypted data, the attacker will always
> know
> > > the iv, correct? As I understand, the iv is used to obfuscate the
> > encrypted
> > > data so it is more difficult for the attacker to decrypt the AES
> > encrypted
> > > data. A random iv is used so the attacker can’t get the key by entering
> > > specific patterns of data and using the results.
> > > >
> > > > Darn, this is complicated! I can see why there are so many opinions.
> I
> > > read that some folks recommend that the iv be secret and others don’t.
> > When
> > > I look at the online discussions on stackoverflow, every comment is
> > > responded to with a different suggestion, and I have no idea whether
> the
> > > commenter knows what he/she is talking about. There is also out of date
> > > information to contend with. I also remember the horrible bug found in
> > ssh
> > > encryption. AES was developed and released November, 2001 and a lot of
> > the
> > > discussions are older.
> > > >
> > > > I think the basic thing we hope for is that the attacker doesn’t have
> > > the key, and we need to do everything possible to keep it from
> > determining
> > > the key. The attacker can still decrypt with a brute force method that
> > > tries all possible keys, but that’s probably rare in most cases, but
> > > possible.
> > > >
> > > > I will modify the php to generate a new iv for the return data and
> look
> > > into the way I set the randomseed using the milliseconds.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks again,
> > > > Bill
> > > >
> > > > William Prothero
> > > > http://earthlearningsolutions.org
> > > >
> > > > > On Jul 3, 2018, at 9:31 AM, Brian Milby <brian at milby7.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I just put the PHP on my server and it was able to handle the
> > > randombytes IV without issue.
> > > > >
> > > > > The demo does not generate a new IV for the returned data which it
> > > really should in production.
> > > > >
> > > > > From a security perspective, you assume that an attacker has access
> > to
> > > the code. From the encrypted message, an attacker could figure out your
> > > next IV.
> > > > > > >
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