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What the heck is AEAD again?

Here’s a problem you might be familiar with: I keep forgetting what AEAD exactly means and why you would ever use it. Yes, I know the acronym stands for “Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data”, but does that really clarify anything? Not to me, so I’ve finally decided to sit down and write this blog post as a piece of help for my future self… and for anyone else who finds AEAD hard to retain.

Not to me, so I’ve finally decided to sit down and write this blog post as a piece of help for my future self… and for anyone else who finds AEAD hard to retain. No wonder people often messed up, like in the case of Apple’s iMessage vulnerability caused by… failing to include an authentication step altogether! With special thanks to@ctz and@cpu, who reviewed an early draft of this article, suggested improvements, and verified my claims were accurate.

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