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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Advanced

scrypt

Memory-hard key derivation function designed to make large-scale hardware password cracking expensive.

Definition

scrypt, created by Colin Percival (RFC 7914), requires large amounts of memory in addition to CPU time, raising the cost of GPU and ASIC attacks. It is tunable through CPU/memory cost, block size, and parallelization parameters. It is also used as a proof-of-work function in some cryptocurrencies.

Example

An application derives a file encryption key with scrypt using N=2^17, r=8, p=1.

Exam tip

Memory hardness (scrypt, Argon2) is the defense against GPU and ASIC cracking.

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