Comment by a022311

Comment by a022311 19 hours ago

2 replies

I'm slightly confused about the PCS part. If I've understood correctly the new key is derived from the old key + some kind or message header. If the attacker has access to a key and messages encrypted with it, can't they read the shared secret used for key exchange and use their existing key to generate the new one? Or is this only possible with ECDH and not KEM?

Sesse__ 17 hours ago

The new one is randomly chosen (with the randomness coming from both parties, and then combined using ECDH and/or KEM). So you cannot predict it from previous key material, pretty much by definition.

  • immibis 16 hours ago

    They also don't know the random elements used in previous headers, since they're thrown away a few rounds after the message was decrypted.