Applied
Cryptography.

An 18-topic university course on provable security and deployed cryptographic systems, with projects in Go and Rust. The Summer 2026 session has 50 students from Lebanese universities and is free of charge.

Course site → Meet the 2026 cohort
$ ./course/applied-cryptography SUMMER 2026
[1.4]pseudorandomnessPRG, PRF, PRP, GGM
[1.7]diffie_hellmanDLP, CDH, DDH
[1.8]elliptic_curvesECDSA, Ed25519
[2.1]tls_1.3handshake, PKI
[2.3]▶ secure_messaginglive · X3DH, double ratchet
[2.6]post_quantumML-KEM, ML-DSA, LWE
[2.8]zero_knowledgeSchnorr, PLONK, Zcash
[…]+ 11 more topics across Part 1 & Part 2
18 topics · Tu/Th 11:00 Beirut · 6–10 hrs/wk · free for 50
Schedule June 9 – October 10, 2026. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Beirut time. All lectures recorded.
Workload 6–10 hrs/week. 18 topics, 8 problem sets, choose 1–2 of 8 projects.
Eligibility Students currently enrolled at a Lebanese university, undergraduate or graduate. No prior cryptography experience required.
Cost Free for 50 admitted students.
Textbooks The Joy of Cryptography (Rosulek, 2021) and Serious Cryptography, 2nd Ed. (Aumasson, 2024).
Certification Signed certificate of completion. High achievers eligible for personalized recommendation letters.

Syllabus.

18 topics across 2 parts · 8 problem sets · 8 project options
Part 1 — Provable security
1.1

Introduction

Course scope, recurring themes, theory vs. practice, evolution of cryptography.

1.2

The provable security mindset

Perfect secrecy via the One-Time Pad, Kerckhoff's principle, why obscurity fails.

1.3

Computational cryptography

Reduction proofs, adversarial models, indistinguishability, birthday probabilities.

1.4

Pseudorandomness

PRGs, PRFs, PRPs/block ciphers, GGM, Feistel networks, the PRF–PRP switching lemma.

1.5

CPA & CCA attacks

CBC and CTR modes vs. ECB, malleability, CCA security, format-oracle attacks.

1.6

Hash functions

Collision/preimage resistance, birthday paradox, MD5→SHA-3/BLAKE3, password hashing.

1.7

Hard problems & Diffie–Hellman

Discrete log, CDH, DDH assumptions, real-world implementation pitfalls.

1.8

Elliptic curves & signatures

ECDLP, ECDH, ECDSA, EdDSA/Ed25519, NIST vs. Curve25519, invalid curve attacks.

Part 2 — Real-world cryptography
2.1

Transport Layer Security

TLS 1.3 handshake, PKI, FREAK, Logjam, Heartbleed, modern deployment.

2.2

The story of RC4

RC4's lifecycle from 1987 to broken: WEP, SSL/TLS, FMS attack, Bar Mitzvah.

2.3

Secure messaging

PGP, OTR, SIGMA, Signal X3DH + double ratchet, MLS, post-compromise security.

2.4

End-to-end encrypted cloud storage

MEGA, Nextcloud failures, WhatsApp backups, HSMs, OPAQUE, formal E2EE protocols.

2.5

High-assurance cryptography

ProVerif, CryptoVerif, F*, hax, and the verification facade in practice.

2.6

Post-quantum cryptography

Shor's and Grover's algorithms, Learning With Errors, ML-KEM, ML-DSA.

2.7

Cryptocurrency cryptography

Bitcoin proof-of-work, UTXO, Ethereum smart contracts, L2 (state channels, rollups).

2.8

Zero-knowledge proofs

Completeness/soundness, Schnorr, Sigma, Fiat–Shamir, circuits, Zcash, age verification.

2.9

Secure multi-party computation

Yao's garbled circuits, secret sharing, oblivious transfer, SCALE-MAMBA, MP-SPDZ.

2.10

Fully homomorphic encryption

Gentry's breakthrough, BGV, BFV, CKKS, TFHE, privacy-preserving computation.

The program

July 13–16, 2026 Paphos, Cyprus AUB Mediterraneo
1Welcome & FoundationsMon, Jul 13
2Applied Cryptography in PracticeTue, Jul 14
3Protocols & PrimitivesWed, Jul 15
4Advanced Constructions & ClosingThu, Jul 16
View full program at cedarcrypt.org →

Use the course at your university.

The slides, readings, problem sets, and project specifications are published under a Creative Commons license.

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