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Advanced Encryption Standard: Operation of AES

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a popular symmetric-key algorithm that is faster and stronger than the previous standard, Triple DES. AES uses 128, 192, or 256-bit keys to encrypt 128-bit blocks of data through 10 to 14 rounds depending on the key size. Each round performs four transformations: byte substitution, shifting rows, mixing columns, and adding the round key. AES is widely adopted due to its speed and the fact that it has resisted cryptanalysis since becoming a standard in 2001.

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Mohd Mubeen Khan
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52 views

Advanced Encryption Standard: Operation of AES

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a popular symmetric-key algorithm that is faster and stronger than the previous standard, Triple DES. AES uses 128, 192, or 256-bit keys to encrypt 128-bit blocks of data through 10 to 14 rounds depending on the key size. Each round performs four transformations: byte substitution, shifting rows, mixing columns, and adding the round key. AES is widely adopted due to its speed and the fact that it has resisted cryptanalysis since becoming a standard in 2001.

Uploaded by

Mohd Mubeen Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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11.

Advanced Encryption Standard Cryptography

The more popular and widely adopted symmetric encryption algorithm likely to be
encountered nowadays is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It is found at least six
time faster than triple DES.

A replacement for DES was needed as its key size was too small. With increasing
computing power, it was considered vulnerable against exhaustive key search attack.
Triple DES was designed to overcome this drawback but it was found slow.

The features of AES are as follows:

 Symmetric key symmetric block cipher


 128-bit data, 128/192/256-bit keys
 Stronger and faster than Triple-DES
 Provide full specification and design details
 Software implementable in C and Java

Operation of AES
AES is an iterative rather than Feistel cipher. It is based on ‘substitution–permutation
network’. It comprises of a series of linked operations, some of which involve replacing
inputs by specific outputs (substitutions) and others involve shuffling bits around
(permutations).

Interestingly, AES performs all its computations on bytes rather than bits. Hence, AES
treats the 128 bits of a plaintext block as 16 bytes. These 16 bytes are arranged in four
columns and four rows for processing as a matrix:

Unlike DES, the number of rounds in AES is variable and depends on the length of the key.
AES uses 10 rounds for 128-bit keys, 12 rounds for 192-bit keys and 14 rounds for 256-
bit keys. Each of these rounds uses a different 128-bit round key, which is calculated from
the original AES key.

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Cryptography

The schematic of AES structure is given in the following illustration:

Encryption Process
Here, we restrict to description of a typical round of AES encryption. Each round comprise
of four sub-processes. The first round process is depicted below:

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Cryptography

Byte Substitution (SubBytes)


The 16 input bytes are substituted by looking up a fixed table (S-box) given in design. The
result is in a matrix of four rows and four columns.

Shiftrows
Each of the four rows of the matrix is shifted to the left. Any entries that ‘fall off’ are re-
inserted on the right side of row. Shift is carried out as follows:

 First row is not shifted.

 Second row is shifted one (byte) position to the left.

 Third row is shifted two positions to the left.

 Fourth row is shifted three positions to the left.

 The result is a new matrix consisting of the same 16 bytes but shifted with respect
to each other.

MixColumns
Each column of four bytes is now transformed using a special mathematical function. This
function takes as input the four bytes of one column and outputs four completely new
bytes, which replace the original column. The result is another new matrix consisting of
16 new bytes. It should be noted that this step is not performed in the last round.

Addroundkey
The 16 bytes of the matrix are now considered as 128 bits and are XORed to the 128 bits
of the round key. If this is the last round then the output is the ciphertext. Otherwise, the
resulting 128 bits are interpreted as 16 bytes and we begin another similar round.

Decryption Process
The process of decryption of an AES ciphertext is similar to the encryption process in the
reverse order. Each round consists of the four processes conducted in the reverse order:

 Add round key


 Mix columns
 Shift rows
 Byte substitution

Since sub-processes in each round are in reverse manner, unlike for a Feistel Cipher, the
encryption and decryption algorithms needs to be separately implemented, although they
are very closely related.

41
Cryptography

AES Analysis
In present day cryptography, AES is widely adopted and supported in both hardware and
software. Till date, no practical cryptanalytic attacks against AES has been discovered.
Additionally, AES has built-in flexibility of key length, which allows a degree of ‘future-
proofing’ against progress in the ability to perform exhaustive key searches.

However, just as for DES, the AES security is assured only if it is correctly implemented
and good key management is employed.

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