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    AES Modes

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    paul di
    The document discusses various modes of operation for block ciphers that allow them to encrypt large data streams securely. It describes the Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode, which encrypts each block separately, revealing patterns in the ciphertext. Better modes like Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) and Counter (CTR) mix plaintext or ciphertext blocks to blur the relationship between plaintext and ciphertext. The initialization vector and infrequent key changes are important to prevent attacks against these modes.

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    AES Modes

    Uploaded by

    paul di
    22 views9 pages
    The document discusses various modes of operation for block ciphers that allow them to encrypt large data streams securely. It describes the Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode, which encrypts each block separately, revealing patterns in the ciphertext. Better modes like Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) and Counter (CTR) mix plaintext or ciphertext blocks to blur the relationship between plaintext and ciphertext. The initialization vector and infrequent key changes are important to prevent attacks against these modes.

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    The document discusses various modes of operation for block ciphers that allow them to encrypt large data streams securely. It describes the Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode, which encrypts each block separately, revealing patterns in the ciphertext. Better modes like Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) and Counter (CTR) mix plaintext or ciphertext blocks to blur the relationship between plaintext and ciphertext. The initialization vector and infrequent key changes are important to prevent attacks against these modes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    22 views9 pages

    AES Modes

    Uploaded by

    paul di
    The document discusses various modes of operation for block ciphers that allow them to encrypt large data streams securely. It describes the Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode, which encrypts each block separately, revealing patterns in the ciphertext. Better modes like Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) and Counter (CTR) mix plaintext or ciphertext blocks to blur the relationship between plaintext and ciphertext. The initialization vector and infrequent key changes are important to prevent attacks against these modes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 9

    AES Block Ciphers Modes of Operation

    The modes of operation of block ciphers are configuration methods that allow those
    ciphers to work with large data streams, without the risk of compromising the provided
    security.

    It is not recommended, however it is possible while working with block ciphers, to use
    the same secret key bits for encrypting the same plaintext parts. Using one
    deterministic algorithm for a number of identical input data, results in some number
    of identical ciphertext blocks.

    This is a very dangerous situation for the cipher's users. An intruder would be able
    to get much information by knowing the distribution of identical message parts, even
    if he would not be able to break the cipher and discover the original messages.

    Luckily, there exist ways to blur the cipher output. The idea is to mix the plaintext
    blocks (which are known) with the ciphertext blocks (which have been just created),
    and to use the result as the cipher input for the next blocks. As a result, the user avoids
    creating identical output ciphertext blocks from identical plaintext data. These
    modifications are called the block cipher modes of operations.

    ECB (Electronic Codebook) Mode


    It is the simplest mode of encryption. Each plaintext block is encrypted separately.
    Similarly, each ciphertext block is decrypted separately. Thus, it is possible to encrypt
    and decrypt by using many threads simultaneously. However, in this mode the created
    ciphertext is not blurred.

    Encryption in the ECB mode


    Decryption in the ECB mode
    A typical example of weakness of encryption using ECB mode is encoding a bitmap
    image (for example a .bmp file). Even a strong encryption algorithm used in ECB mode
    cannot blur efficiently the plaintext.

    The bitmap image encrypted using DES and the same secret key. The ECB mode was
    used for the left image and the more complicated CBC mode was used for the right
    image.

    A message that is encrypted using the ECB mode should be extended until a size that is
    equal to an integer multiple of the single block length. A popular method of aligning
    the length of the last block is about appending an additional bit equal to 1 and then
    filling the rest of the block with bits equal to 0. It allows to determine precisely the end
    of the original message. There exist more methods of aligning the message size.

    Apart from revealing the hints regarding the content of plaintext, the ciphers that are
    used in ECB mode are also more vulnerable to replay attacks.

    CBC (Cipher-Block Chaining) Mode


    The CBC encryption mode was invented in IBM in 1976. This mode is about adding XOR
    each plaintext block to the ciphertext block that was previously produced. The result
    is then encrypted using the cipher algorithm in the usual way. As a result, every
    subsequent ciphertext block depends on the previous one. The first plaintext block is
    added XOR to a random initialization vector (commonly referred to as IV). The vector
    has the same size as a plaintext block.

    Encryption in CBC mode can only be performed by using one thread. Despite this
    disadvantage, this is a very popular way of using block ciphers. CBC mode is used
    in many applications.

    During decrypting of a ciphertext block, one should add XOR the output data received
    from the decryption algorithm to the previous ciphertext block. Because the receiver
    knows all the ciphertext blocks just after obtaining the encrypted message, he can
    decrypt the message using many threads simultaneously.

    Encryption in the CBC mode


    Decryption in the CBC mode
    If one bit of a plaintext message is damaged (for example because of some earlier
    transmission error), all subsequent ciphertext blocks will be damaged and it will be
    never possible to decrypt the ciphertext received from this plaintext. As opposed
    to that, if one ciphertext bit is damaged, only two received plaintext blocks will
    be damaged. It might be possible to recover the data.

    A message that is to be encrypted using the CBC mode, should be extended till the size
    that is equal to an integer multiple of a single block length (similarly, as in the case of
    using the ECB mode).

    Security of the CBC mode


    The initialization vector IV should be created randomly by the sender. During
    transmission it should be concatenated with ciphertext blocks, to allow decryption of
    the message by the receiver. If an intruder could predict what vector would be used,
    then the encryption would not be resistant to chosen-plaintext attacks:

    In the example presented above, if the intruder is able to predict that the
    vector IV1 will be used by the attacked system to produce the response c1, they can
    guess which one of the two encrypted messages m0 or m1 is carried by the response c1.
    This situation breaks the rule that the intruder shouldn't be able to distinguish between
    two ciphertexts even if they have chosen both plaintexts. Therefore, the attacked
    system is vulnerable to chosen-plaintext attacks.

    If the vector IV is generated based on non-random data, for example the user
    password, it should be encrypted before use. One should use a separate secret key for
    this activity.

    The initialization vector IV should be changed after using the secret key a number
    of times. It can be shown that even properly created IV used too many times, makes
    the system vulnerable to chosen-plaintext attacks. For AES cipher it is estimated to be
    248 blocks, while for 3DES it is about 216 plaintext blocks.

    PCBC (Propagating or Plaintext Cipher-Block


    Chaining) Mode
    The PCBC mode is similar to the previously described CBC mode. It also mixes bits from
    the previous and current plaintext blocks, before encrypting them. In contrast to
    the CBC mode, if one ciphertext bit is damaged, the next plaintext block and all
    subsequent blocks will be damaged and unable to be decrypted correctly.

    In the PCBC mode both encryption and decryption can be performed using only
    one thread at a time.

    Encryption in the PCBC mode


    Decryption in the PCBC mode

    CFB (Cipher Feedback) Mode


    The CFB mode is similar to the CBC mode described above. The main difference is that
    one should encrypt ciphertext data from the previous round (so not the plaintext block)
    and then add the output to the plaintext bits. It does not affect the cipher security but
    it results in the fact that the same encryption algorithm (as was used for encrypting
    plaintext data) should be used during the decryption process.

    Encryption in the CFB mode

    Decryption in the CFB mode


    If one bit of a plaintext message is damaged, the corresponding ciphertext block and
    all subsequent ciphertext blocks will be damaged. Encryption in CFB mode can
    be performed only by using one thread.
    On the other hand, as in CBC mode, one can decrypt ciphertext blocks using many
    threads simultaneously. Similarly, if one ciphertext bit is damaged, only two received
    plaintext blocks will be damaged.

    As opposed to the previous block cipher modes, the encrypted message doesn't need
    to be extended till the size that is equal to an integer multiple of a single block length.

    OFB (Output Feedback) Mode


    Algorithms that work in the OFB mode create keystream bits that are used
    for encryption subsequent data blocks. In this regard, the way of working of the block
    cipher becomes similar to the way of working of a typical stream cipher.

    Encryption in the OFB mode

    Decryption in the OFB mode


    Because of the continuous creation of keystream bits, both encryption and decryption
    can be performed using only one thread at a time. Similarly, as in the CFB mode, both
    data encryption and decryption uses the same cipher encryption algorithm.

    If one bit of a plaintext or ciphertext message is damaged (for example because of


    a transmission error), only one corresponding ciphertext or respectively plaintext bit is
    damaged as well. It is possible to use various correction algorithms to restore the
    previous value of damaged parts of the received message.
    The biggest drawback of OFB is that the repetition of encrypting the initialization
    vector may produce the same state that has occurred before. It is an unlikely situation
    but in such a case the plaintext will start to be encrypted by the same data as
    previously.

    CTR (Counter) Mode


    Using the CTR mode makes block cipher way of working similar to a stream cipher. As
    in the OFB mode, keystream bits are created regardless of content of encrypting data
    blocks. In this mode, subsequent values of an increasing counter are added to
    a nonce value (the nonce means a number that is unique: number used once) and
    the results are encrypted as usual. The nonce plays the same role as initialization
    vectors in the previous modes.

    Encryption in the CTR mode

    Decryption in the CTR mode


    It is one of the most popular block ciphers modes of operation. Both encryption
    and decryption can be performed using many threads at the same time.

    If one bit of a plaintext or ciphertext message is damaged, only one corresponding


    output bit is damaged as well. Thus, it is possible to use various correction algorithms
    to restore the previous value of damaged parts of received messages.

    The CTR mode is also known as the SIC mode (Segment Integer Counter).
    Security of the CTR mode
    As in the case of the CBC mode, one should change the secret key after using it for
    encrypting a number of sent messages. It can be proved that the CTR mode generally
    provides quite good security and that the secret key needs to be changed less often
    than in the CBC mode.

    For example, for the AES cipher the secret key should be changed after about
    264 plaintext blocks.

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