Show HN: Ariadne – a Rust implementation of aperiodic cryptography

Re:Show HN: Ariadne – a Rust implementation of aperiodic cry... by willvarfar on Monday June 23, 2025 @04:35AM (#44353611)

Could some of the paths result in insecure ciphers and those moments of insecurity lead to a broader compromise?

E.g. the program goes through a state that is effectively 2DES which enables a meet-in-the-middle attack which allows an attacker to jump into the path at that point and dramatically reduce the search space for the next or preceding block etc?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Ariadne – a Rust implementation of aperiodic cry... by ciphernomad-org on Monday June 23, 2025 @05:07AM (#44353758)

The security does not depend on the path's structure. It depends on the CVM's state ratchet.

The key and IV for every single round are derived from a keyed hash of the CVM's current state. This state is a cryptographic digest of the entire operational history up to that point.

So, even if a path structurally resembled a weak cipher like 2DES, the rounds would not have related keys. Each step is effectively a fresh cipher instance with a unique, unpredictable key. A meet-in-the-middle attack is not possible because there is no "middle" with a key relationship to exploit.

[ Parent | on HN ]