Many cryptographic exploits require little to no understanding of math, but cryptography’s reputation as an impenetrable Gordian knot of arcane symbols and proofs (thanks, academics) keeps many capable application security professionals from even TRYING to understand cryptography.

Consider the replay attack: capture an encrypted message and send it again, with catastrophic results, if, for instance, the message means “transfer $100 from my bank account to yours.” If you understood that, congratulations, you’ve just learned one way to attack modern cryptosystems. Come learn about more attacks that don’t take math chops to understand, and learn to use attack tools for the attacks that do!