Aljoscha Lautenbach

Common cryptography mistakes for software engineers (2020)
Status: Available NowMost implementations of security mechanisms depend on cryptography, and yet, many vulnerabilities exist because cryptography is used incorrectly. This is partly due to lacking user-friendliness of cryptographic library API designs [1][2], and partly due to a lack of education in the developer community of the underlying mechanisms. As for the API design, we can only lobby for more user-focused design during library development and advocate user-friendly libraries. We can, however, try to improve the communal understanding of how to use cryptography securely. By way of examples, this talk will explore questions such as: What is an IV and why does it matter? Why does entropy matter? Which cipher mode is appropriate for my application? In essence, we highlight points to watch out for when implementing security mechanisms using cryptography.
[1] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~
[2] http://mattsmith.de/pdfs/