Volume 8 Number 9 (Sep. 2013)
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JCP 2013 Vol.8(9): 2262-2268 ISSN: 1796-203X
doi: 10.4304/jcp.8.9.2262-2268

The Security of Key Derivation Functions in WINRAR

Jie Chen, Jun Zhou, Kun Pan, Shuqiang Lin, Cuicui Zhao, and Xiaochao Li
Department of Electronic Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

Abstract—In various versions of WINRAR, the file security is mainly protected by user authentication and files encryption. Password based key derivation function (PBKDF) is the core of the WINRAR security mechanism. In this paper, the security of PBKDF algorithm and the encrypted file in WINRAR are analyzed by the Game- Playing approach. We show the upper boundary of the Adversary’s Advantage over the random function. With the theoretical derivation, the actual safety of the WINRAR encrypted files has been discussed. According to the latest developments for GPU-based exhaustive password search attacks, we do some experiments and draw a conclusion that if the length of password is longer than 6, the WINRAR and later versions are secure.

Index Terms—Message Authentication Code, Key Derivation Functions, Provable Security, Adversary’s Advantage, Random Oracle Model

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Cite: Jie Chen, Jun Zhou, Kun Pan, Shuqiang Lin, Cuicui Zhao, and Xiaochao Li, " The Security of Key Derivation Functions in WINRAR," Journal of Computers vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 2262-2268, 2013.

General Information

ISSN: 1796-203X
Abbreviated Title: J.Comput.
Frequency: Bimonthly
Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Liansheng Tan
Executive Editor: Ms. Nina Lee
Abstracting/ Indexing: DBLP, EBSCO,  ProQuest, INSPEC, ULRICH's Periodicals Directory, WorldCat,etc
E-mail: jcp@iap.org
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