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Asked: 2026-06-04T12:03:10+00:00

I want to do searching on encrypted data. Which means that there is the

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I want to do searching on encrypted data. Which means that there is the need to have the same ciphertext every time I encrypt the same plaintext. I.e. think of a list of encrypted names and I want to find all “Kevin”‘s in it. I would now encrypt “Kevin” and search the database for the encrypted text. All hits will be “Kevin”‘s — but still only the one who has the password knows.

Now my question: What about security if I use the same salt and IV (to get the effect described above) all the time? Is the encryption still secure? Or is there any other method to do searching on encrypted data?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you want to do a deterministic encryption then you should use an encryption mode
    that has been designed for deterministic encryption (and not modify an encryption mode designed for something else).

    One possibility is the SIV encryption mode described in
    RFC 5297.

    (Of course, deterministic encryption has its drawbacks, but discussing this is not part of this question.)

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