Real-World CryptographyDavid Wong

Real-World Cryptography

by David Wong · first published 2021

33mentions
16recommended by
17HN commenters
2020–2025first – last mentioned

94% recommend6% neutral

Why HN recommends it

Applied, light-on-math introduction to the cryptographic constructions engineers meet daily, such as AEAD, key derivation and elliptic curves. Suits developers wanting confidence using existing protocols.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Mentions per year

60 2007: 0 mentions2008: 0 mentions2009: 0 mentions2010: 0 mentions2011: 0 mentions2012: 0 mentions2013: 0 mentions2014: 0 mentions2015: 0 mentions2016: 0 mentions2017: 0 mentions2018: 0 mentions2019: 0 mentions2020: 3 mentions2021: 6 mentions2022: 6 mentions2023: 3 mentions2024: 4 mentions2025: 1 mention2026: 0 mentions200720172026

What Hacker News says

  • schoen · Mar 24, 2021 · Recommends

    > Other books in this space that I like: Aumasson's "Serious Cryptography" and David Wong's "Real World Cryptography". The latter not being published until July 27. :-) (I know this book is also not published yet, so I guess it's totally fair to suggest a not-yet-published book as an alternative to a not-yet-published…

    on “Practical Cryptography for Developers” ↗
  • tptacek · May 27, 2022 · Recommends

    David Wong's _Real World Cryptography_: https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography Jean-Philippe Aumasson's _Serious Cryptography_: https://nostarch.com/seriouscrypto Ferguson and Schneier's _Cryptography Engineering_: https://www.amazon.com/Cryptography-Engineering-Principles-P...…

    on “Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?” ↗
  • tptacek · Mar 23, 2021 · Recommends

    …using DH-style key exchange need. Just a shotgun blast of random thoughts. I know it's early days for the book. Other books in this space that I like: Aumasson's "Serious Cryptography" and David Wong's "Real World Cryptography".

    on “Practical Cryptography for Developers” ↗
  • baby · Nov 30, 2021 · Recommends

    …wrote something for you a while back: https://www.cryptologie.net/article/504/why-im-writing-a-book-on-cryptography/ That’s it! A good book to expense for christmas if you ask me! https://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Cryptography-David-Wong/dp/1617296716

    on “Real-World Cryptography” ↗
  • tptacek · Oct 12, 2022 · Recommends

    It's pretty bad on the concepts, too. There are good books on the concepts that won't blow your head off; two of them are JP Aumasson's "Serious Cryptography" and David Wong's "Real World Cryptography".

    on “How to prove you know a secret without giving it away” ↗
  • thr0w__4w4y · Apr 28, 2020 · Recommends

    …2) Jean-Philippe Aumasson's excellent book (2018) "Serious Cryptography". Very practical, very readable. JPA is the author of the Blake cryptographic hash functions. 3) David Wong's upcoming book "Real World Cryptography" (Manning, 2020). I've read parts of it via Manning's early access program, the book isn't released yet, but good stuff. David blogs regularly too. That should give you enough to chew on for a while!

    on “A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography” ↗
  • mister_hn · Dec 2, 2020 · Recommends

    My favourite is about software engineering in general: - Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time by Titus Winters Another good one is "Real-World Cryptography" by David Wong

    on “Ask HN: Best Programming Books of 2020?” ↗
  • devmunchies · Jan 2, 2022 · Recommends

    …still need to hit the database anyway for fetching any data so the headless approach for JWTs isn't really saving me much, so I like to just bake in security for the queries. [1]: I recommend new book "Real World Cryptography" by David Wong [2]: (podcast about JWTs from cryptographer, august 2021) https://securitycryptographywhatever.buzzsprout.com/1822302/... -- EDIT: would probably want a few more predicates in that query…

    on “Using HTTP Basic Auth in 2022” ↗
  • aildours · May 27, 2022 · Recommends

    …"Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Katz and Lindell - basically a reference for the theory side of crypto. Quite math heavy (or to be more accurate, notation heavy, like theoretical crypto tends to be). - "Real-World Cryptography" by David Wong - I have not read another crypto book which tackles as many topics, it has chapters on e2e encryption, cryptocurrency and hardware crypto. Is a bit too hand-wavey and doesn't properly explain…

    on “Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?” ↗
  • baby · Dec 19, 2023 · Recommends

    Warning: this is more of a reference book. If you’re looking for a more gentle introduction to all things cryptography check my book https://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Cryptography-David-Wong/dp...

    on “Handbook of Applied Cryptography” ↗
  • rpicard · Dec 19, 2023 · Recommends

    Real World Cryptography by David Wong is a great book in this category. Published in 2021, so it’s very up-to-date. https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-cryptography

    on “Handbook of Applied Cryptography” ↗
  • tptacek · Jan 5, 2024 · Recommends

    JP Aumasson's "Serious Cryptography" and David Wong's "Real World Cryptography" are good starts.

    on “Hacking a CTF: Do not use ECB mode for encryption” ↗
  • Vegenoid · May 2, 2024 · Recommends

    I wanted to have a better understanding of crypto, simply to feel more confident in writing programs that use existing protocols, and started 'Real-World Cryptography' by David Wong. I'm about 3/4 through, and I've been happy with it. It is light on math, but does go into it a little bit - it seems designed for the kind of person who isn't comfortable using something…

    on “Online Cryptography Course (2017)” ↗
  • tptacek · Mar 5, 2025 · Recommends

    …modern notions of AEAD, key derivation, random number generation, and elliptic curve asymmetric cryptography. The standard recommendation these days is Aumasson's Serious Cryptography. I like David Wong's Real-World Cryptography as well.

    on “Learn How to Break AES” ↗
  • Vegenoid · Aug 7, 2024 · Recommends

    …reveal the plaintexts, if some information about one of the plaintexts is known, that can be used to reveal information about the other plaintext. I learned most of this information from David Wong's Real-World Cryptography. [0]: https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/475.pdf, section 3.3

    on “Show HN: 1-FPS encrypted screen sharing for introverts” ↗

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Focus search
j / k
Next / previous book
Enter
Open focused book
Esc
Close / go back
g h
Go to Home
g t
Go to Top all-time
g m
Go to Most recommended
g r
Go to Rising
g f
Go to For You
?
Show this help