Busting Cryptography Misconceptions
Correcting widespread crypto security myths with rigorous mathematical analysis, technical realities, and Kerckhoffs's principle benchmarks.
Cryptography Reality Check QuizInteractive Test
Test your understanding against real-world cryptographic misconceptions.
A developer encodes sensitive user SSNs using Base64 before saving to a database. Is this data securely encrypted?
Exploded Security Myths
Explore debunked misconceptions and technical realities.
Base64 is a Form of Encryption
"Base64 encoding encrypts sensitive data and keeps it safe from unauthorized readers."
Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding format with zero key secrecy. Anyone can decode it instantly without a key.
A 2048-bit RSA Key is 8x Stronger than a 256-bit AES Key
"Because 2048 is larger than 256, an RSA-2048 key provides 8 times more cryptographic security than AES-256."
Key size bits cannot be compared 1:1 across asymmetric and symmetric ciphers. AES-256 is exponentially stronger.
Cryptographic Hashing and Encryption are the Same Thing
"Hashing a password encrypts it so it can be decrypted later when the user logs in."
Hashing is a one-way irreversible mathematical digest; encryption is a two-way reversible transformation with a key.
Proprietary Secret Algorithms Are Safer Than Open Standards
"Keeping our encryption algorithm secret makes our application harder to hack than using public standards like AES."
Kerckhoffs's Principle proves that security must depend on key secrecy, not algorithm secrecy. Custom ciphers fail.
Password Salt Must Be Kept Secret Like a Private Key
"If an attacker discovers the salt value used to hash a password, the password hash is completely compromised."
Salts are non-secret inputs designed to prevent pre-computed rainbow table and multi-user bulk cracking attacks.
Quantum Computers Will Instantly Break All AES Encryption
"Once quantum computers arrive, symmetric encryption like AES-256 will become completely useless."
Quantum computers (Grover's algorithm) halve symmetric key security, reducing AES-256 to 128 bits—which remains completely unbroken.
Hiding Messages in Images (Steganography) Eliminates Encryption Need
"Hiding a secret text file inside a PNG image is safer than encrypting the file."
Steganography hides message existence; cryptography protects message content. Once discovered, unencrypted hidden data is exposed.
Re-using an Initialization Vector (IV) in AES-GCM is Minor
"Re-using the same IV or Nonce across multiple AES-GCM encryptions only reduces randomness slightly."
Nonce reuse in AES-GCM completely destroys confidentiality and enables catastrophic authentication key recovery.