Tryhackme – Encryption: Crypto 101

In this walk through, we will be going through the Encryption – Crypto 101 room from Tryhackme. This room will cover Why cryptography matters for security and CTFs, The two main classes of cryptography and their uses, uses of RSA, 2 methods of Key Exchange and some stuff about Quantum computing. So, let’s get started.

Task 1 – What will this room cover?

Task 2 – Key terms

Question 1 – I agree not to complain too much about how theory heavy this room is.

Done

Question 2 – Are SSH keys protected with a passphrase or a password?

passphrase

Task 3 – Why is Encryption important?

Question 1 – What does SSH stand for?

Secure Shell

Question 2 – How do webservers prove their identity?

Certificates

Question 3 – What is the main set of standards you need to comply with if you store or process payment card details?

PCI-DSS

Task 4 – Crucial Crypto Maths

Question 1 – What’s 30 % 5?

0

Question 2 – What’s 25 % 7

4

Question 3 – What’s 118613842 % 9091

3565

Task 5 – Types of Encryption

Question 1 – Should you trust DES? Yea/Nay

Nay

Question 2 – What was the result of the attempt to make DES more secure so that it could be used for longer?

Triple DES

Question 3 – Is it ok to share your public key? Yea/Nay

Yea

Task 6 – RSA – Rivest Shamir Adleman

Question 1 – p = 4391, q = 6659. What is n?

29239669

Question 2 – I understand enough about RSA to move on, and I know where to look to learn more if I want to.

Done

Task 7 – Establishing Keys Using Asymmetric Cryptography

Question 1 – I understand how keys can be established using Public Key (asymmetric) cryptography.

Done

Task 8 – Digital signatures and Certificates

Question 1 – Who is TryHackMe’s HTTPS certificate issued by?

E1

Task 9 – SSH Authentication

Question 1 – I recommend giving this a go yourself. Deploy a VM, like Linux Fundamentals 2 and try to add an SSH key and log in with the private key.

Done

Question 2 – Download the SSH Private Key attached to this room.

Done

Question 3 – What algorithm does the key use?

RSA

Question 4 – Crack the password with John The Ripper and rockyou, what’s the passphrase for the key?

delicious

Task 10 – Explaining Diffie Hellman Key Exchange

Question 1 – I understand how Diffie Hellman Key Exchange works at a basic level

Done

Task 11 – PGP, GPG and AES

Question 1 – Time to try some GPG. Download the archive attached and extract it somewhere sensible.

Done

Question 2 – You have the private key, and a file encrypted with the public key. Decrypt the file. What’s the secret word?

Pineapple

Task 12 – The Future – Quantum Computers and Encryption

Question 1 – I understand that quantum computers affect the future of encryption. I know where to look if I want to learn more.

Done

Also Read: Tryhackme – dogcat

So that was “Encryption – Crypto 101” for you. Summing it up in a nutshell, we covered the basics of cryptography and its types along with various topics like Digital Signatures, SSH authentication, Diffie Hellman Key Exchange, PGP, GPG and Quantum Computing. This was enough to get your familiar with the basics of the topics and for further research, the web is of your friend. On that note, i will take your leave and will meet you in next one, till then “Keep learning”.