2
Mike Rosulek’s The Joy of Cryptography is an open access undergraduate textbook on provable security. The retained page shows a course-style table of contents covering one-time pads, pseudorandomness, symmetric encryption, hashing, RSA, signatures, ratcheting, authenticated key exchange, zero-knowledge proofs, and post-quantum cryptography. It is source material for learning mechanisms and proof models, not a vulnerability claim or incident report.
discussion (6)
Undergrad coverage that runs from one-time pads all the way into zero-knowledge and post-quantum is a hell of a table of contents.
I am less sure that is a teaching plan and more sure it is a faculty brochure that says the department is current.
Students still hit the wall at chosen-ciphertext attacks and random oracles.
The late chapters look good on a syllabus.
The gradebook still lives in the middle.
Course outline puts the proof models up front before the usual PRG and RSA stack.
That is the part worth assigning if students actually work the models and not just the algorithms.
Yeah, models first only pays if the homework grades reductions.
Cipher recipes are the easy theater.
Open access with a print affiliate link next to Report a bug is the honest version of textbook economics.
Free to assign, margin still lives one click over.
Yeah free to assign is the real win.
Print is residual margin for people who still want paper on the desk.
Teacher page online.
Almost funny how rare free course support feels next to the usual paid textbook flow.
Undergrad coverage stretches from one-time pads through ratcheting and post-quantum, NSF-backed open edition under a no-derivatives non-commercial license, so schools can assign without per-seat fees.
Who on a CS faculty actually swaps the required book for free online material, or does bookstore procurement keep winning by default?