CISSP Domain quiz: Cryptography

1. Which of the following is not an objective of cryptography?

A. Confidentiality

B. Integrity

C. Availability

D. Non-repudiation

 

2. Who first invented wheel cipher?

 

A. The Greeks

B. Julius Caesar

C. Thomas Jefferson

D. Charles Babbage

 

3. An act to convert plaintext into ciphertext in order to preserve confidentiality of data is called?

 

A. Encryption

B. Decryption

C. Hash

D. Message authentication

 

4. A cipher that scrambles letters into different positions is referred to as what?

 

A. Substitution

 

B. Stream

 

C. Running key

 

D. Transposition

 

 

5. Which of the following is not a block cipher mode of operation in stream mode?

 

A. Electronic Code Book (ECB)

 

B. Cipher Feed Back (CFB)

 

C. Output Feed Back (OFB)

 

D. Counter (CTR)

 

 

6. What is a mathematical encryption operation that cannot be reversed called?

 

A. DES

 

B. Transposition

 

C. Substitution

 

D. One-way hash

 

7. In block cipher, what creates the element of diffusion?

 

A. Permutation using a lookup table

 

B. Bit substituting using a S-box

C. Use of a Feistel network

 

D. Use of a key scheduler

 

8. What is the effective key length for Data Encryption Standard (DES)?

 

A. 56-bit

 

B. 64-bit

 

C. 32-bit

 

D. 16-bit

 

 

9. Data Encryption Standard (DES) performs how many rounds of permutation and substitution?

 

A. 16

 

B. 32

 

C. 64

 

D. 56

 

 

10. Which of the following statements is not true?

 

A. TDES has a mode that uses 2 keys

 

B. TDES has a mode that uses 3 keys

 

C. TDES offers a greater protection over DES

 

D. TDES has a mode that uses 1 key

 

 

11. Which of the following identifies the encryption algorithm selected by NIST for the new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)?

 

A. RC6

 

B. Serpent

C. Rijndael

 

D. Twofish

 

 

12. Who vouches for the binding between the data items in a digital certificate?

 

A. Issuing authority

 

B. Vouching authority

 

C. Certificate authority (CA)

 

D. Registration authority

 

 

13. What is the primary role of smartcards in a PKI?

 

A. Transparent renewal of user keys

 

B. Fast hardware encryption of the raw data

 

C. Tamperproof, mobile storage and application of private keys of the users

 

D. Easy distribution of the certificates between the users

 

 

14. Which protocol makes use of an electronic wallet on a customer’s PC and sends encrypted credit card information to merchant’s Web server, which digitally signs it and sends it on to its processing bank?

 

A. SSH

 

B. SSL

 

C. S/MIME

 

D. SET

 

 

15. Which of the following keys has the shortest lifespan?

 

A. Private key

 

B. Session key

 

C. Public key

 

D. Secret key

 

 

16. Which of the following statements is most accurate of digital signature?

 

A. It allows the recipient of data to prove the source and integrity of data.

 

B. It can be used as a signature system and a cryptosystem.

 

C. It is a method used to encrypt confidential data.

D. It is the art of transferring handwritten signature to electronic media.

 

 

17. Which of the following mail standards relies on a “Web of Trust”?

 

A. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

 

B. Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM)

 

C. MIME Object Security Services (MOSS)

 

D. Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)

 

 

18. Electronic signatures can prevent messages from being:

 

A. Erased

 

B. Forwarded

 

C. Disclosed

 

D. Repudiated

 

 

19. Which of the following are suitable protocols for securing VPN connections?

 

A. S/MIME and SSH

 

B. PKCS#10 and X.509

 

C. TLS and SSL

 

D. IPsec and L2TP

 

 

20. Which of the following techniques is used in the encryption of data between a web browser and server?

 

A. PGP

 

B. IPSec

 

C. Kerberos

 

D. SSL

 

 

21. The Diffie-Hellman algorithm is primarily used to provide which of the following?

 

A. Key exchange

 

B. Integrity

 

C. Non-repudiation

 

D. Confidentiality

22. Which of the following asymmetric encryption algorithms is based on the difficulty of factoring large numbers?

 

A. International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA)

 

B. RSA

 

C. Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECCs)

 

D. El Gamal

 

 

23. What can be defined as secret communications where the very existence of the message is hidden?

 

A. Vernam cipher

 

B. Steganography

 

C. Cryptology

 

D. Clustering

 

 

24. What is the role of internet key exchange (IKE) within the IPsec protocol?

 

A. enforcing quality of service

 

B. data signature

 

C. data encryption

 

D. peer authentication and key exchange

 

 

25. Which of the following should be used as a replacement for Telnet for secure remote login over an insecure network?

 

A. S-Telnet

 

B. SSH

 

C. SSL

 

D. Rlogin

 

 

26. Which of the following statements is true about data encryption as a method of protecting data?

 

A. It requires careful key management.

 

B. It should sometimes be used for password files.

 

C. It is usually easily administered.

 

D. It makes few demands on system resources.

 

27. Which type of attack is based on the probability of two different messages using the same hash function producing a common message digest?

 

A. Statistical attack

 

B. Differential cryptanalysis

 

C. Differential linear cryptanalysis

 

D. Birthday attack

 

 

28. Which of the following encryption methods is unbreakable?

 

A. DES codebooks

 

B. One-time pads

 

C. Elliptic-curve cryptography

 

D. Symmetric ciphers

 

 

29. Which of the following is not related to a Public key infrastructure (PKI)?

 

A. A X.509 certificate

 

B. A Registration authority

 

C. A Ticket Granting Service

 

D. A Certificate authority

 

 

30. Why does a digital signature contain a message digest?

 

A. To indicate the encryption algorithm

 

B. To confirm the identity of the sender

 

C. To enable transmission in a digital format

 

D. To detect any alteration of the message

 

 

31. The Clipper Chip utilizes which concept in public key cryptography?

A. Key Escrow

 

B. Substitution

 

C. An undefined algorithm

 

D. Super strong encryption

 

 

 

32. The DES encryption scheme has which of the following pair of characteristics?

 

1. a secret key encryption algorithm  7

2. a public key encryption algorithm

3. a symmetric key distribution system

4. an asymmetric key distribution

 

A. 1 and 4

 

B. 1 and 3

 

C. 2 and 3

 

D. 2 and 4

 

 

33. Public Key algorithms are:

 

A. Two times faster than secret key algorithms

 

B. Two times slower than secret key algorithms

 

C. 1,000 to 10,000 times slower than secret key algorithms

 

D. 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than secret key algorithms

 

 

34. Cryptography does not concern itself with:

 

A. Availability

 

B. Authenticity

 

C. Integrity

 

D. Confidentiality

 

 

35. Which of the following is not a mode of the Data Encryption Standard (DES)?

 

A. Electronic Code Book (ECB)

 

B. Output Feedback (OFB)

 

C. Substitution

 

D. Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)

 

 

36. Which of the following is not true about DES?

 

A. It uses 16 rounds of transposition and substitution

 

B. It encrypts 64 bits of text at a time

 

C. It is an asymmetric cipher

 

D. It has 8 bits for parity in its key

 

 

37. What does AES use S-boxes for during the process of encryption?

 

A. Substitution

 

B. Key generation

 

C. Key exchange

 

D. Chaining

 

 

38. Which of the following protects Kerberos against replay attacks?

 

A. Passwords

 

B. Cryptography

 

C. Time stamps

 

D. Tokens

 

 

39. What is the result of a hash algorithm being applied to a message?

 

A. A plaintext

 

B. A message digest

 

C. A ciphertext

 

D. A digital signature

 

 

40. A public key algorithm that does both encryption and digital signature is which of the following?

 

A. RSA

 

B. DES

 

C. IDEA

 

D. DSS

 

 

41. In what way does the RSA algorithm differ from the Data Encryption Standard (DES)?

 

A. It cannot produce a digital signature.

 

B. It eliminates the need for a key-distribution center.

 

C. It is based on a symmetric algorithm.

 

D. It uses a public key for encryption.

 

 

42. The RSA algorithm is an example of what type of cryptography?

 

A. Private Key

 

B. Secret Key

 

C. Symmetric key

 

D. Asymmetric key

 

 

43. What is the primary reason for using one-way hashing algorithms on user passwords?

 

A. It provides the compression necessary to conserve hard disk space on the host system

 

B. It eliminates the excessive processing required of symmetric encryption.

 

C. It prevents people from seeing the passwords in clear text

 

D. It provides a simplified platform for password for most password cracking utilities

 

 

44. A person in possession of a sample of the ciphertext and the corresponding plaintext is capable of what type of attack?

 

A. Known-plaintext

 

B. Ciphertext only

 

C. Chosen-plaintext

 

D. Plaintext

 

 

45. What does S/MIME do?

 

A. It adds security to e-mail messages in MIME format

 

B. It offers the same functionality as PEM

 

C. It provides data security

 

D. It provides a secure channel for communication

 

 

46. Which of the following is not a good description of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)?

 

A. It uses a web of trust between the participants

 

B. It uses a hierarchical trust model

 

C. It was created by Phil Zimmerman

 

D. It uses passphrases

 

 

47. All of the following are hashing algorithms with the exception of?

 

A. SHA

 

B. IDEA

 

C. HAVAL

 

D. MD2

 

 

48. Which answer is not true of the Diffie-Hellman algorithm?

 

A. IT Security stems from the difficulty of calculating the product of two large prime numbers

 

B. It was the first public key exchange algorithm

 

C. It is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks

 

D. It is used for key distribution of a shared key, but not used for message encryption and decryption

 

 

49. Which is not an attribute of a one-way trap door?

 

A. It is a mathematical function that is easier to compute in one direction than the opposite direction

 

B. The forward direction of a one-way function can take seconds to encrypt and the opposite direction can take years to figure out.

 

C. One-way function is used in symmetric key cryptography because they have to know about the trap door to decrypt

 

D. RSA is based on a trap door one-way function

 

 

50. Which is not true about fair cryptosystems?

 

A. It splits the private key into different parts

 

B. It gives law enforcement access when legally authorized

 

C. It escrows the separate key parts with separate escrow agencies

 

D. It uses a tamper proof chip

 

 

51. Which answer does not describe a characteristic of the Clipper Chip?

 

A. It uses the SkipJack algorithm

 

B. It uses a software-based escrow solution

 

C. It was developed by the NSA

 

D. It has an 80 bit key length

 

 

52. Which of the following is unbreakable by intensive search or brute force attacks?

 

A. TDES

 

B. Steganography

 

C. IDEA

 

D. One-time pad

 

 

53. Data hidden in the slack space of a disk is called?

 

A. Concealment cipher usage

 

B. Steganography

 

C. Transposition

 

D. Permutation

 

 

54. Of the following, which is most true?

 

A. RSA gets its strength from the complexity of using discrete logarithms in a finite field

 

B. El Gamal gets its strength from the complexity of using discrete logarithms in a finite field

 

C. ECC gets its strength from the complexity of factoring the product of two large prime numbers

 

D. Diffie-Hellman gets its strength from the complexity of factoring the product of two large prime numbers

 

 

55. Which of the following statements is not true of symmetric key algorithms?

 

A. They are slower than asymmetric algorithms

 

B. They provide key distribution problems

 

C. Keys need to be exchanged “out of band”

 

D. They do not provide authentication and non repudiation

 

 

56. Which single answer is not a symmetric key algorithm?

 

A. RC4

 

B. Blowfish

 

C. DES

 

D. RSA

 

 

57. Which statement is the most accurate?

 

A. HTTPS and SHTTP are the same thing

 

B. HTTPS is HTTP that is being used over SSL

 

C. SHTTP is SSL that is being used over HTTP

 

D. HTTPS is more robust and secure version of SHTTP

 

 

58. Which characteristic is not that of a good stream cipher?

 

A. Long periods of no repeating patterns

 

B. Statistically predictable

 

C. Keystream is not linearly related to the key

 

D. Statistically unbiased keystream

 

 

59. What is the best description of a stream cipher?

 

A. The message is divided into blocks and mathematical functions are performed on each block

 

B. The sender must encrypt the message with his/her private key so the receiver can decrypt it with her/his public key

 

C. The cipher uses a key to create a keystream and XOR’s the result with the message

 

D. The cipher executes 16 rounds of computation on each bit?

 

 

60. Which best describes the process of a secure socket layer (SSL) connection?

 

A. The server creates a session key and encrypts it with a private key

 

B. The server creates a session key and encrypts it with a public key

 

C. The client creates a session key and encrypts it with a private key

 

D. The client creates a session key and encrypts it with a public key

 

 

61. Of the following, which is the best description of a digital signature?

 

A. The sender encrypts a message digest with his/her public key

 

B. The sender encrypts a message digest with his/her private key

 

C. The recipient encrypts a message digest with his/her public key

 

D. The recipient encrypts a message digest with his/her private key

 

 

62. What is a public key used for?

 

A. It authenticates a network interface

 

B. It authenticates a covert channel

 

C. It authenticates a private key

 

D. It authenticates VPN connections

 

 

63. Which of the following is required for cryptanalysis?

 

A. Access to the plain text

 

B. Access to the algorithm source

 

C. Access to the cipher text and algorithm source

 

D. Access to plain text and ciphertext

 

 

64. Which items is the responsibility of key management?

 

A. Key generation and destruction

 

B. Access controls and encryption

 

C. Key length and algorithm propriety

 

D. Access control, user authentication and authorization

 

 

65. The HAVAL algorithms perform what function?

 

A. Hashing

 

B. Key distribution

 

C. Digital signature

 

D. Encryption

 66.What is the Clipper Chip key size?

 

A.80 bit

 

B.64 bit

 

C.128 bit

 

D.160 bit

 

67.What technology encrypts the header, trailerand routing information in thecommunications path?

 

A.Data hiding

 

B.Link encryption

 

C.End-to-end encryption

 

D.S/MIME