Serious Cryptography
by Jean-Philippe Aumasson · first published 2017
74% recommend26% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical introduction to modern cryptography for software engineers and non-math majors, covering primitives, the theory behind them, and what goes wrong in practice, with source code and a post-quantum chapter.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This practical guide to modern encryption breaks down the fundamental mathematical concepts at the heart of cryptography without shying away from meaty discussions of how they work. You’ll learn about authenticated encryption, secure randomness, hash functions, block ciphers, and public-key techniques such as RSA and elliptic curve cryptography. You'll also learn: Key concepts in cryptography, such as computational security, attacker models, and forward secrecy The strengths and limitations of the TLS protocol behind HTTPS secure websites Quantum computation and post-quantu
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Applied Cryptography is terrible. https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-cry... No Starch's "Serious Cryptography", the JP Aumasson book, is strong.
on “Crypto 101 – Introductory course on cryptography” ↗> 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…
on “Practical Cryptography for Developers” ↗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... --- dated, a little wrong about some things, but…
on “Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?” ↗…key authentication, to storing private keys in insecure places. So it's highly recommended you take time to read a book on the topic. The best modern book currently availalbe is https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Cryptography-Practical-Introd...
on “RSA is a fragile cryptosystem” ↗…which is what in practice what systems 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” ↗…Engineering is essentially a re-release of Practical Cryptography, which was published in 2003. For the audience that Practical Cryptography contemplates, I like both Real World Cryptography by Wong, and Serious Cryptography by JP Aumasson.
on “A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography” ↗JP Aumasson is one of the authors of the BLAKE hashes and wrote "Serious Cryptography": https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Cryptography-Practical-Introd...
on “Show HN: SHA-256 explained step-by-step visually” ↗Serious Cryptography https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593278268/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b... It's quite accessible for non-math majors and includes source code. It seems to have been written with software engineers in mind. The…
on “Ask HN: Best book on modern cryptography?” ↗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” ↗…* CLRS * Kurose, Ross - Computer Networking - A Top Down Approach * Sipser - Introduction to The Theory of Computation * Stallings, Brown - Computer Security - Principles and Practice * Aumasson - Serious Cryptography * Russell, Norvig - Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach And even this fails to cover programming languages. Python is the lingua franca of the field. Most past recommended books are getting…
on “Mathematics for Computer Science (2018) [pdf]” ↗Serious Cryptography by JP Aumasson is the one I picked up first (it is still early access but you will get the finished version when done.) https://www.nostarch.com/seriouscrypto
on “Half-price Ebooks for Day Against DRM” ↗For those looking to get working knowledge of modern cryptography, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Cryptography-Practical-Introd... I've been working my way through it and it's the most lucid intro text I've read on the subject.
on “An Intensive Introduction to Cryptography” ↗For any of you who want to develop a deeper understanding of what is mentioned in the blog post, I can recommend the book Serious Cryptography by Jean-Philippe Aumasson. It's one of the best and most accessible crypto books that have recently been written. https://nostarch.com/seriouscrypto
on “RSA is a fragile cryptosystem” ↗I can recommend the book Serious Cryptography by Jean-Philippe Aumasson. I also concur with the suggestion of cryptopals for training exercises.
on “Ask HN: How to get more familiar with cryptography?” ↗I recommend Serious Cryptography by Jean-Philippe Aumasson. After reading it, you will gain enough understanding to compose cryptographic primitives and build your own secure system based on well-known best practices, as long as you…
on “Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?” ↗