ISE Cryptography

Block 2.4, 2026

Lecture slides, labs, and reference material for the ISE Cryptography module at the University of Limerick.

Lectures

00
Module Information Course logistics, assessment structure, recommended reading
Week 1 · 25 Mar PDF
01
Introduction to Cryptography Shannon and computational ciphers, semantic security
Week 1 · 25 Mar PDF
02
Stream Ciphers PRGs, ChaCha20, RC4, bit commitment
Week 2 · 8 Apr PDF
03
Block Ciphers PRFs, PRPs, ECB/CBC/CTR modes, DES, AES
Week 3 · 15 Apr PDF
04
Message Integrity MACs, CMAC, UHFs, hash functions, HMAC, HKDF
Week 4 · 22 Apr PDF
05
Public Key Cryptography RSA, Diffie-Hellman, elliptic curves, trapdoor functions
Week 5 · 29 Apr PDF
06
Digital Signatures, CCA Security & Authenticated Encryption Signature schemes, CCA games, AEAD constructions
Week 6 · 6 May PDF
07
Passwords, Keys & KDFs PBKDFs, Argon2, password protocols
Week 7 · 13 May PDF
08
The Signal Protocol X3DH, the Double Ratchet, post-compromise security
Week 8 · 20 May PDF

Labs

01
Cryptanalysis: Caesar, Substitution & OTP Six ciphertext attacks using frequency analysis and crib dragging
Week 1 · 25 Mar
02
ChaCha20 Stream Cipher Build a complete RFC 7539 ChaCha20 implementation from scratch
Week 2 · 8 Apr
03
Block Ciphers: TEA, ECB & CBC, ECB Oracle Attack Build TEA, implement ECB/CBC modes, see the ECB penguin, then break AES-ECB
Week 3 · 15 Apr
04
Message Authentication Codes Build HMAC-SHA256 and Poly1305 from scratch, plus constant-time tag verifiers
Week 5 · 29 Apr
05
Public Key Cryptography Diffie-Hellman, textbook RSA, RSA-CRT, then break RSA via 2012's shared-prime disaster
Week 5 · 29 Apr
06
Digital Signatures RSA-FDH, ECDSA on secp256k1, plus the multiplicative forgery and Sony PS3 nonce-reuse attacks
Week 5 · 29 Apr

Key Dates

Midterm Exam In-class, normal lecture slot
Week 4 · Wed 22 Apr · 09:00
Final Exam In-class, normal lecture slot
Week 7 · Wed 13 May · 09:00

Reference

Attack Games Security game diagrams for all major primitives
Probability & Security Negligible functions, birthday bounds, and advantage notation
Block Cipher Modes ECB, CBC, CTR encryption and decryption diagrams
Galois Fields Binary polynomial arithmetic for AES and GCM
Quantum Algorithms How Grover's and Shor's work, and what they mean for cryptography
Modular Arithmetic Foundations for RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and cyclic groups
Elliptic Curves Point addition, ECDLP, Curve25519, and why EC keys are small
Glance Cards Primitives, security notions, advantage notation, and oracle types at a glance

Solutions

Midterm Solutions L01–L03 · All 25 MCQs and 5 written responses with worked answers
Quiz Solutions: L01 Introduction to Cryptography · 10 MCQs with worked answers
Quiz Solutions: L02 Stream Ciphers · 10 MCQs with worked answers
Quiz Solutions: L04 Message Integrity · 10 MCQs with worked answers
Quiz Solutions: L05 Public Key Cryptography · 10 MCQs with worked answers

Resources

A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography Dan Boneh & Victor Shoup · Core text
Crypto 101 Laurens Van Houtven · Supplementary text