Question

Which of the following are attacks on a ciphertext?

a) Brute Force Attack
b) Timing Attack
c) Side-Channel Attack
d) All of the mentioned

Answer 1

Brute Force, Timing, and Side-Channel Attacks are all methods that can be used to attack a ciphertext in the field of cryptography.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to cryptography and involves different methods by which an adversary can attempt to compromise encrypted information, known as ciphertext. Attacks on a ciphertext can include various strategies:

• Brute Force Attack - This is an attempt to crack a cipher by trying every possible key until the correct one is found.
• Timing Attack - This involves analyzing the time taken to execute cryptographic algorithms to find a correlation with the secret key used during the encryption.
• Side-Channel Attack - Such attacks are based on information gained from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem, rather than theoretical weaknesses in the algorithms.

All the attacks mentioned, a) Brute Force Attack, b) Timing Attack, and c) Side-Channel Attack, are indeed methods of attacking ciphertext.