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Universal forgery attack

As explained in Hacking Cryptography

A universal forgery attack enables an attacker to forge valid signatures for arbitrary attacker-chosen messages.

A universal forgery attack breaks a digital-signature scheme without recovering its private key: the attacker can generate valid signatures for any attacker-chosen message. section 9.3 section 9.7

Distinguish the attack by the attacker’s freedom to choose the forged message:

  • Selective forgery restricts the attacker to certain message types or conditions. section 9.3 section 9.7
  • Existential forgery requires only one valid message–signature pair; the attacker does not control the message content. section 9.3 section 9.7

How Hacking Cryptography covers it

How deep it goes
Defines the attack and contrasts it with selective and existential forgery, but does not provide an implementation or exploit trace.
What it assumes
Assumes familiarity with digital signatures, private keys, and valid message–signature pairs.
What you can do after
Evaluate whether a signature failure permits arbitrary-message forgery rather than only constrained or existential forgery.
How it connects
Connects digital signatures with private-key security, selective forgery, existential forgery, and signature-scheme breakage.
Cover of Hacking Cryptography
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Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Hacking Cryptography. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.