Serge Vaudenay
Encyclopedia
Serge Vaudenay is a well-known French
cryptographer.
Serge Vaudenay entered the École Normale Supérieure
in Paris
as a normalien student in 1989. In 1992, he passed the agrégation
in mathematics. He did his PhD at the computer science laboratory of École Normale Supérieure, and defended it in 1995 at the University of Paris 7; his advisor was Jacques Stern
. From 1995 to 1999, he was a senior research fellow at CNRS. In 1999, he moved to a professorship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
where he is at the lead of the Laboratory of Security and Cryptography (LASEC).
LASEC is host to two popular security software developed by its members.
iChair is developed by Thomas Baignères and Matthieu Finiasz, and is a popular online submission and review server used by many cryptology conferences.
Ophcrack
is a Windows password cracker based on rainbow table
s by Philippe Oechslin.
Vaudenay has published several papers related to cryptanalysis
and design of block cipher
s and protocols. He is one of the authors of the IDEA NXT
(FOX) algorithm (together with Pascal Junod). He was the inventor of the padding oracle attack
on CBC mode of encryption. Vaudenay also discovered a severe vulnerability in the SSL/TLS
protocol; the attack he forged could lead to the interception of the password. He also published a paper about biased statistical properties in the Blowfish
cipher and is one of the authors of the best attack on the Bluetooth
cipher E0
. In 1997 he introduced decorrelation theory
, a system for designing block ciphers to be provably secure
against many cryptanalytic attacks.
Vaudenay was appointed program chair of Eurocrypt
2006, PKC
2005, FSE
1998; and in 2006 elected as board member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
cryptographer.
Serge Vaudenay entered the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
as a normalien student in 1989. In 1992, he passed the agrégation
Agrégation
In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...
in mathematics. He did his PhD at the computer science laboratory of École Normale Supérieure, and defended it in 1995 at the University of Paris 7; his advisor was Jacques Stern
Jacques Stern
Jacques Stern is a cryptographer, currently a professor at the École Normale Supérieure, where he is Director of the Computer Science Laboratory. He received the 2006 CNRS Gold Medal...
. From 1995 to 1999, he was a senior research fellow at CNRS. In 1999, he moved to a professorship at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government with the stated mission to:...
where he is at the lead of the Laboratory of Security and Cryptography (LASEC).
LASEC is host to two popular security software developed by its members.
iChair is developed by Thomas Baignères and Matthieu Finiasz, and is a popular online submission and review server used by many cryptology conferences.
Ophcrack
Ophcrack
Ophcrack is a free open source program that cracks Windows passwords by using LM hashes through rainbow tables. The program includes the ability to import the hashes from a variety of formats, including dumping directly from the SAM files of Windows...
is a Windows password cracker based on rainbow table
Rainbow table
A rainbow table is a precomputed table for reversing cryptographic hash functions, usually for cracking password hashes. Tables are usually used in recovering the plaintext password, up to a certain length consisting of a limited set of characters. It is a form of time-memory tradeoff, using less...
s by Philippe Oechslin.
Vaudenay has published several papers related to cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information that is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves knowing how the system works and finding a secret key...
and design of block cipher
Block cipher
In cryptography, a block cipher is a symmetric key cipher operating on fixed-length groups of bits, called blocks, with an unvarying transformation. A block cipher encryption algorithm might take a 128-bit block of plaintext as input, and output a corresponding 128-bit block of ciphertext...
s and protocols. He is one of the authors of the IDEA NXT
IDEA NXT
In cryptography, the IDEA NXT algorithm is a block cipher designed by Pascal Junod and Serge Vaudenay of EPFL . It was conceived between 2001 and 2003, the project was originally named FOX and was published in 2003. In May 2005 it was announced by MediaCrypt under the name IDEA NXT...
(FOX) algorithm (together with Pascal Junod). He was the inventor of the padding oracle attack
Padding oracle attack
In cryptography, the padding oracle attack is an attack on the CBC mode of operation, where the "oracle" leaks data about whether the padding of an encrypted message is correct or not...
on CBC mode of encryption. Vaudenay also discovered a severe vulnerability in the SSL/TLS
Transport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...
protocol; the attack he forged could lead to the interception of the password. He also published a paper about biased statistical properties in the Blowfish
Blowfish
The blowfish, or Tetraodontidae, is a fish in the Tetraodontidae family.Blowfish may also refer to:* The Blowfish, a satirical newspaper at Brandeis University* Blowfish , encryption algorithm...
cipher and is one of the authors of the best attack on the Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
cipher E0
E0 (cipher)
E0 is a stream cipher used in the Bluetooth protocol. It generates a sequence of pseudorandom numbers and combines it with the data using the XOR operator. The key length may vary, but is generally 128 bits.-Description:...
. In 1997 he introduced decorrelation theory
Decorrelation theory
In cryptography, decorrelation theory is a system developed by Serge Vaudenay for designing block ciphers to be provably secure against differential cryptanalysis, linear cryptanalysis, and even undiscovered cryptanalytic attacks meeting certain broad criteria...
, a system for designing block ciphers to be provably secure
Provable security
In cryptography, a system has provable security if its security requirements can be stated formally in an adversarial model, as opposed to heuristically, with clear assumptions that the adversary has access to the system as well as enough computational resources...
against many cryptanalytic attacks.
Vaudenay was appointed program chair of Eurocrypt
Eurocrypt
Eurocrypt is a conference for cryptography research. The full name of the conference is currently the Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, but this has not always been its name...
2006, PKC
PKC (conference)
PKC or Public-Key Cryptography is the short name of the International Workshop on Practice and Theory in Public Key Cryptography, a cryptography conference sponsored by the International Association for Cryptologic Research ....
2005, FSE
Fast Software Encryption
Fast Software Encryption, often abbreviated FSE, is a workshop for cryptography research, focused on symmetric-key cryptography with an emphasis on fast, practical techniques, as opposed to theory...
1998; and in 2006 elected as board member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
International Association for Cryptologic Research
The International Association for Cryptologic Research is a non-profit scientific organization whose purpose is to further research in cryptology and related fields...
.