Crypto Dictionary
500 Tasty Tidbits for the Curious Cryptographer
Jean-Philippe Aumasson's alphabetical, opinionated reference on cryptographic terms, primitives, attacks and folklore. Snack-format companion to Serious Cryptography.
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- Authors
- Jean-Philippe Aumasson
- Published
- 2021
- Publisher
- No Starch Press
- Pages
- 160
- Language
- English
Read this if
Anyone who reads cryptography papers, blog posts, or CTF write-ups and keeps hitting half-remembered terms. Keep it on your desk: 500 entries, each a paragraph or two, alphabetical, opinionated. The crypto reference you'll actually use.
Skip this if
Readers wanting a textbook flow or systematic foundation. The book is a dictionary by design; pair with Real-World Cryptography (Wong) or Serious Cryptography (Aumasson) for sequential learning.
Key takeaways
- Aumasson's opinionated entries ("don't use", "use this instead", "avoid for this reason") condense decades of practitioner judgment into one-paragraph verdicts.
- Term coverage spans symmetric, asymmetric, hash, post-quantum, side-channel, and crypto-folklore; few references this small are this comprehensive.
- The book's value compounds over time: every paper or write-up sends you back to it.
Notes
Pair with Serious Cryptography (Aumasson) and Real-World Cryptography (Wong) for sequential study. Aumasson maintains the BLAKE3 reference and contributes to NIST submissions; the dictionary reflects current practitioner consensus better than any other compact reference. The book is short enough to read cover to cover in a weekend; many people do, then keep it on the shelf forever.
What to read before
What to read before Crypto Dictionary →Intermediate · 2024
Serious Cryptography
Jean-Philippe Aumasson's working introduction to modern cryptography, written for engineers who need both intuition and enough mathematical depth to evaluate the choices a library is making for them.
Beginner · 2014
Countdown to Zero Day
Kim Zetter's investigative reconstruction of Stuxnet, the joint US/Israeli operation that physically damaged Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges via a worm, and what its discovery revealed about state-level cyber capability.
Beginner · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
What to read next
What to read after Crypto Dictionary →Intermediate · 2024
Serious Cryptography
Jean-Philippe Aumasson's working introduction to modern cryptography, written for engineers who need both intuition and enough mathematical depth to evaluate the choices a library is making for them.
Intermediate · 2021
Real-World Cryptography
David Wong's hands-on tour of the cryptographic primitives, protocols and pitfalls that show up in actual production systems, with deliberate attention to TLS, Noise, modern AEAD, and post-quantum.
Intermediate · 2010
Cryptography Engineering
A working engineer's introduction to cryptography that takes implementation pitfalls more seriously than most.
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Real-World Cryptography
David Wong's hands-on tour of the cryptographic primitives, protocols and pitfalls that show up in actual production systems, with deliberate attention to TLS, Noise, modern AEAD, and post-quantum.
Intermediate · 2010
Cryptography Engineering
A working engineer's introduction to cryptography that takes implementation pitfalls more seriously than most.