[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?
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       Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?
        
       For self learning, approachable etc ... any suggestions ?
        
       Author : qorrect
       Score  : 108 points
       Date   : 2022-05-27 18:29 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
       | hangonhn wrote:
       | Serious Cryptography
       | https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593278268/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
       | 
       | It's quite accessible for non-math majors and includes source
       | code. It seems to have been written with software engineers in
       | mind. The formatting of the source code in Kindle isn't great but
       | otherwise the book is excellent and balances between "cookbook"
       | and "graduate level textbook". The author is also quite reputable
       | having designed BLAKE2.
        
         | wepple wrote:
         | +1 on this, it hits the right spot between being not too
         | mathy/theoretical but going sufficiently deep for most
         | engineers.
         | 
         | It's probably the right book for anyone who needs to learn more
         | about crypto but isn't planning to become a full time
         | cryptographer
        
           | qorrect wrote:
           | This sounds perfect thank you.
        
       | WheelsAtLarge wrote:
       | A fun book to read is "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from
       | Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" It's a fast read and it
       | gives a brief history of cypher tech over time.
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | I read this in the 4th grade and it changed the course of my
         | life. It explains everything up to RSA with math that a middle
         | schooler can follow, with exciting stories of cryptography and
         | linguistics across history. Lots of cool spy stories!
        
           | rfd4sgmk8u wrote:
           | I read it in high school and would agree, it got me really
           | excited about cryptography and espionage throughout history,
           | no undoubtedly helped me discover infosec and cryptography. I
           | saw Simon Singh present an another launch later, very
           | inspiring author.
        
         | qorrect wrote:
         | I'm excited to read this!
         | 
         | This isn't about cryptography but Code by Charles Petzold is
         | also a fun book ( vaguely ) about information theory.
        
       | c0742e9366 wrote:
       | For a rigorous, yet accessible and rather in-depth introduction
       | to modern, provable cryptography I would recommend
       | 
       | "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Katz & Lindell.
       | 
       | It starts from the basics, the proofs are thoroughly elaborated
       | and it has an appendix covering the necessary math prerequisites.
        
       | barathr wrote:
       | Cryptography Engineering Design Principles and Practical
       | Applications:
       | 
       | https://www.schneier.com/books/cryptography-engineering/
       | 
       | They cover the fundamentals from a practical engineering
       | perspective. After reading it you can then pop up a level and
       | read specs to understand specific deployed protocols (e.g. TLS)
       | or down a level and read the details of individual cryptographic
       | primitives / constructions.
        
       | throwaway0x7E6 wrote:
       | William Easttom - Modern Cryptography Applied Mathematics for
       | Encryption and Information Security
       | 
       | https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=B5DB9B050F1044082F9ED26...
        
       | solomatov wrote:
       | A good option might be: http://toc.cryptobook.us/
       | 
       | It's a book co-authored by Dan Boneh, who's a professor from
       | Stanfrod working on Crypto, and Blockchain. It's a huge book, but
       | there's a lot of interesting stuff in there.
        
       | aildours wrote:
       | Here are some books that I've read with some remarks which you
       | may find useful.
       | 
       | - "Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction" by Piper and Murphy -
       | This is a book in the Very Short Introduction series, so is a bit
       | light on the math. If that's what you are looking for though,
       | this is a good resource.
       | 
       | - "Cryptography Made Simple" by Nigel Smart - The choice of
       | topics is quite eclectic (in the best way possible!). For ex. it
       | is the first general crypto book I've read which talks about
       | lattices (most post-quantum world crypto schemes are lattice
       | based) and things like commitments and zero-knowledge proofs.
       | Develops just the right amount of math to talk about a lot of
       | different things.
       | 
       | - "Cryptography: Theory and Practice" by Stinson and Paterson -
       | adequate, covers the usual topics (plus a chapter on post-quantum
       | crypto).
       | 
       | - "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Katz and Lindell -
       | basically a reference for the theory side of crypto. Quite math
       | heavy (or to be more accurate, notation heavy, like theoretical
       | crypto tends to be).
       | 
       | - "Real-World Cryptography" by David Wong - I have not read
       | another crypto book which tackles as many topics, it has chapters
       | on e2e encryption, cryptocurrency and hardware crypto. Is a bit
       | too hand-wavey and doesn't properly explain the math sometimes,
       | but it is great for self-learners and people who are looking for
       | a book on topics not covered in other books.
       | 
       | - "Serious Cryptography" by Jean-Philippe Aumasson - from the No
       | Starch Press stable. The exposition is quite good, and finds a
       | decent balance between making it approachable and getting the
       | details right.
       | 
       | - "Understanding Cryptography" by Paar and Pelzl - decent
       | coverage of fundamental primitives (block/stream ciphers, public
       | key encryption, hashes, signatures etc) but feels a bit outdated.
       | For ex. there is a whole chapter on DES.
        
       | vector_spaces wrote:
       | To piggy back on this thread, can anyone recommend a book on
       | cryptography for mathematicians? I'm familiar with some of the
       | more popular applied books, but I'm also interested in more
       | rigorous texts that use careful proofs and state theorems etc.
        
         | c0742e9366 wrote:
         | As written below, "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Katz
         | & Lindell. Another option would be "A Graduate Course in
         | Applied Cryptography" by Boneh & Shoup. However, for starting
         | out, I would definitely recommend the former as it's more
         | polished and focuses on the essentials.
        
           | buescher wrote:
           | I took Boneh's graduate class a few years ago through SCPD.
           | Recommended if you can justify it. He has a Coursera course
           | that I assume is of similar high quality with less depth and
           | rigor.
           | 
           | We used the above two books in addition to _Handbook of
           | Applied Cryptography_ by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van
           | Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone. I notice Boneh no longer uses
           | the latter for CS255; perhaps it is too out of date now? At
           | any rate, it is also available free on the web:
           | https://cacr.uwaterloo.ca/hac/
        
         | sweis wrote:
         | Oded Goldreich's "Foundations of Cryptography" books are the
         | rigorous, theoretical oriented books used in many grad-level
         | crypto courses: https://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~oded/foc-
         | book.html
         | 
         | Neil Koblitz has "A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography",
         | which I haven't read, but is often used:
         | https://www.amazon.com/Course-Number-Cryptography-Graduate-M...
         | 
         | Also, Boneh and Shoup is good and mentioned in other comments:
         | https://toc.cryptobook.us/
        
         | hovav wrote:
         | Steven Galbraith's _Mathematics of Public Key Cryptography_ :
         | https://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~sgal018/crypto-book/crypto-...
        
         | cartoonfoxes wrote:
         | J. Katz, and Y. Lindell, 2015: Introduction to Modern
         | Cryptography, 2nd ed. CRC Press, 583 pp.
        
         | ngneer wrote:
         | Cryptography: Theory and Practice, Third Edition by Douglas R.
         | Stinson
        
       | shishy wrote:
       | https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography
       | 
       | https://www.amazon.com/dp/3642041000?tag=readthistwice-20&li...
       | -- along with his YouTube course:
       | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1usFRN4LCMcfIV7UjHNuQg
        
         | obeliskora wrote:
         | Real world cryptography is great
        
       | elijahvoigt wrote:
       | Joy of Cryptography by Mike Rosulek is my favorite:
       | https://joyofcryptography.com/
       | 
       | Written by a past professor of mine. Grounded in a lot of math,
       | but not intimidating.
        
         | quesera wrote:
         | I vouched for your comment, because it seems earnest but was
         | marked dead. I don't see anything in your comment history to
         | indicate that you are shadowbanned.
         | 
         | I have not read the book, except to verify that it was real and
         | looked plausible. If your comment was downvoted for content, I
         | hope people will comment instead.
        
       | papmarcin wrote:
       | https://cryptohack.org/
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | David Wong's _Real World Cryptography_:
       | https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography
       | 
       | Jean-Philippe Aumasson's _Serious Cryptography_:
       | https://nostarch.com/seriouscrypto
       | 
       | Ferguson and Schneier's _Cryptography Engineering_:
       | https://www.amazon.com/Cryptography-Engineering-Principles-P...
       | --- dated, a little wrong about some things, but not insane (like
       | _Applied Cryptography_ is).
       | 
       | Hoffman, Pipher, and Silverman's _Introduction to Mathematical
       | Cryptography_: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mathematical-
       | Cryptograph... --- a good first step into theoretical
       | cryptography.
        
         | muggermuch wrote:
         | >> dated, a little wrong about some things, but not insane
         | (like _Applied Cryptography_ is).
         | 
         | Why is "Applied Cryptography" insane? As an interested
         | bystander, I'm curious to know more.
        
           | pvg wrote:
           | You can get multiple seasons of this clip show by putting
           | 'author:tptacek applied cryptography' in the search box. A
           | recent episode:
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28923954
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | Yoink! https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-
           | practical-cry...
        
       | dontbenebby wrote:
       | For self learning, do this:
       | 
       | https://inventwithpython.com/cracking/
       | 
       | Do the exericses. Learn the logic, don't get lost in learning C,
       | you'll go crazy. Learn C or whatever when you learn exploit
       | development.
       | 
       | Crypto and exploits are two very different things.
        
       | chollida1 wrote:
       | Understanding cryptography is good
       | 
       | https://www.amazon.com/dp/3642041000
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-27 23:01 UTC)