Background

• Information Security requirements have

changed in recent times
• traditionally provided by physical and
administrative mechanisms
• computer use requires automated tools to
protect files and other stored information
• use of networks and communications links
requires measures to protect data during
transmission
 Definitions
• Computer Security - generic name for
the collection of tools designed to protect
data and to thwart hackers
• Network Security - measures to protect
data during their transmission
• Internet Security - measures to protect
data during their transmission over a
collection of interconnected networks
 Aim of Course
• our focus is on Internet Security
• consists of measures to deter, prevent,
detect, and correct security violations that
involve the transmission of information
Services, Mechanisms, Attacks
• need systematic way to define
requirements
• consider three aspects of information
security:
– security attack
– security mechanism
– security service
• consider in reverse order
 Security Service
– is something that enhances the security of the
data processing systems and the information
transfers of an organization
– intended to counter security attacks
– make use of one or more security
mechanisms to provide the service
– replicate functions normally associated with
physical documents
• eg. have signatures, dates; need protection from
disclosure, tampering, or destruction; be notarized
or witnessed; be recorded or licensed
 Security Mechanism
• a mechanism that is designed to detect,
prevent, or recover from a security attack
• no single mechanism that will support all
functions required
• however one particular element underlies
many of the security mechanisms in use:
cryptographic techniques
• hence our focus on this area
 Security Attack
• any action that compromises the security
of information owned by an organization
• information security is about how to
prevent attacks, or failing that, to detect
attacks on information-based systems
• have a wide range of attacks
• can focus of generic types of attacks
• note: often threat & attack mean same
 OSI Security Architecture
• ITU-T X.800 Security Architecture for OSI
• defines a systematic way of defining and
providing security requirements
• for us it provides a useful, if abstract,
overview of concepts we will study
 Security Services
• X.800 defines it as: a service provided by
a protocol layer of communicating open
systems, which ensures adequate security
of the systems or of data transfers
• RFC 2828 defines it as: a processing or
communication service provided by a
system to give a specific kind of protection
to system resources
• X.800 defines it in 5 major categories
 Security Services (X.800)
• Authentication - assurance that the
communicating entity is the one claimed
• Access Control - prevention of the
unauthorized use of a resource
• Data Confidentiality –protection of data from
unauthorized disclosure
• Data Integrity - assurance that data received is
as sent by an authorized entity
• Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by
one of the parties in a communication
 Security Mechanisms (X.800)
• specific security mechanisms:
– encipherment, digital signatures, access
controls, data integrity, authentication
exchange, traffic padding, routing control,
notarization
• pervasive security mechanisms:
– trusted functionality, security labels, event
detection, security audit trails, security
recovery
 Classify Security Attacks as
• passive attacks - eavesdropping on, or
monitoring of, transmissions to:
– obtain message contents, or
– monitor traffic flows
• active attacks – modification of data stream to:
– masquerade of one entity as some other
– replay previous messages
– modify messages in transit
– denial of service
Model for Network Security
 Model for Network Security
• using this model requires us to:
– design a suitable algorithm for the security
transformation
– generate the secret information (keys) used
by the algorithm
– develop methods to distribute and share the
secret information
– specify a protocol enabling the principals to
use the transformation and secret information
for a security service
Model for Network Access Security
Model for Network Access Security
• using this model requires us to:
– select appropriate gatekeeper functions to
identify users
– implement security controls to ensure only
authorised users access designated
information or resources
• trusted computer systems can be used to
implement this model
 Symmetric Encryption
• or conventional / private-key / single-key
• sender and recipient share a common key
• all classical encryption algorithms are
private-key
• was only type prior to invention of public-
key in 1970’s
 Basic Terminology
• plaintext - the original message
• ciphertext - the coded message
• cipher - algorithm for transforming plaintext to ciphertext
• key - info used in cipher known only to sender/receiver
• encipher (encrypt) - converting plaintext to ciphertext
• decipher (decrypt) - recovering ciphertext from plaintext
• cryptography - study of encryption principles/methods
• cryptanalysis (codebreaking) - the study of principles/
methods of deciphering ciphertext without knowing key
• cryptology - the field of both cryptography and
cryptanalysis
Symmetric Cipher Model
 Requirements
• two requirements for secure use of
symmetric encryption:
– a strong encryption algorithm
– a secret key known only to sender / receiver
Y = EK(X)
X = DK(Y)
• assume encryption algorithm is known
• implies a secure channel to distribute key
 Cryptography
• can characterize by:
– type of encryption operations used
• substitution / transposition / product
– number of keys used
• single-key or private / two-key or public
– way in which plaintext is processed
• block / stream
 Types of Cryptanalytic Attacks
• ciphertext only
– only know algorithm / ciphertext, statistical, can
identify plaintext
• known plaintext
– know/suspect plaintext & ciphertext to attack cipher
• chosen plaintext
– select plaintext and obtain ciphertext to attack cipher
• chosen ciphertext
– select ciphertext and obtain plaintext to attack cipher
• chosen text
– select either plaintext or ciphertext to en/decrypt to
attack cipher
 Brute Force Search
• always possible to simply try every key
• most basic attack, proportional to key size
• assume either know / recognise plaintext
 More Definitions
• unconditional security
– no matter how much computer power is
available, the cipher cannot be broken since
the ciphertext provides insufficient information
to uniquely determine the corresponding
plaintext
• computational security
– given limited computing resources (eg time
needed for calculations is greater than age of
universe), the cipher cannot be broken
 Classical Substitution Ciphers
• where letters of plaintext are replaced by
other letters or by numbers or symbols
• or if plaintext is viewed as a sequence of
bits, then substitution involves replacing
plaintext bit patterns with ciphertext bit
patterns
 Caesar Cipher
• earliest known substitution cipher
• by Julius Caesar
• first attested use in military affairs
• replaces each letter by 3rd letter on
• example:
meet me after the toga party
PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
 Caesar Cipher
• can define transformation as:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C

• mathematically give each letter a number

a b c d e f g h i j k l m
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
n o p q r s t u v w x y Z
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

• then have Caesar cipher as:

C = E(p) = (p + k) mod (26)
p = D(C) = (C – k) mod (26)
 Cryptanalysis of Caesar Cipher
• only have 26 possible ciphers
– A maps to A,B,..Z
• could simply try each in turn
• a brute force search
• given ciphertext, just try all shifts of letters
• do need to recognize when have plaintext
• eg. break ciphertext "GCUA VQ DTGCM"
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
• rather than just shifting the alphabet
• could shuffle (jumble) the letters arbitrarily
• each plaintext letter maps to a different random
ciphertext letter
• hence key is 26 letters long

Plain: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cipher: DKVQFIBJWPESCXHTMYAUOLRGZN
Plaintext: ifwewishtoreplaceletters
Ciphertext: WIRFRWAJUHYFTSDVFSFUUFYA
Monoalphabetic Cipher Security
• now have a total of 26! = 4 x 1026 keys
• with so many keys, might think is secure
• but would be !!!WRONG!!!
• problem is language characteristics
 Language Redundancy and
Cryptanalysis
• human languages are redundant
• eg "th lrd s m shphrd shll nt wnt"
• letters are not equally commonly used
• in English e is by far the most common letter
• then T,R,N,I,O,A,S
• other letters are fairly rare
• cf. Z,J,K,Q,X
• have tables of single, double & triple letter
frequencies
English Letter Frequencies
 Use in Cryptanalysis
• key concept - monoalphabetic substitution
ciphers do not change relative letter frequencies
• discovered by Arabian scientists in 9th century
• calculate letter frequencies for ciphertext
• compare counts/plots against known values
• if Caesar cipher look for common peaks/troughs
– peaks at: A-E-I triple, NO pair, RST triple
– troughs at: JK, X-Z
• for monoalphabetic must identify each letter
– tables of common double/triple letters help
 Example Cryptanalysis
• given ciphertext:
UZQSOVUOHXMOPVGPOZPEVSGZWSZOPFPESXUDBMETSXAIZ
VUEPHZHMDZSHZOWSFPAPPDTSVPQUZWYMXUZUHSX
EPYEPOPDZSZUFPOMBZWPFUPZHMDJUDTMOHMQ
• count relative letter frequencies (see text)
• guess P & Z are e and t
• guess ZW is th and hence ZWP is the
• proceeding with trial and error fially get:
it was disclosed yesterday that several informal but
direct contacts have been made with political
representatives of the viet cong in moscow
 Playfair Cipher
• not even the large number of keys in a
monoalphabetic cipher provides security
• one approach to improving security was to
encrypt multiple letters
• the Playfair Cipher is an example
• invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854,
but named after his friend Baron Playfair
 Playfair Key Matrix
• a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
• fill in letters of keyword (sans duplicates)
• fill rest of matrix with other letters
• eg. using the keyword MONARCHY
MONAR
CHYBD
EFGIK
LPQST
UVWXZ
 Encrypting and Decrypting
• plaintext encrypted two letters at a time:
1. if a pair is a repeated letter, insert a filler like 'X',
eg. "balloon" encrypts as "ba lx lo on"
2. if both letters fall in the same row, replace each with
letter to right (wrapping back to start from end),
eg. “ar" encrypts as "RM"
3. if both letters fall in the same column, replace each
with the letter below it (again wrapping to top from
bottom), eg. “mu" encrypts to "CM"
4. otherwise each letter is replaced by the one in its
row in the column of the other letter of the pair, eg.
“hs" encrypts to "BP", and “ea" to "IM" or "JM" (as
desired)
 Security of the Playfair Cipher
• security much improved over monoalphabetic
• since have 26 x 26 = 676 digrams
• would need a 676 entry frequency table to
analyse (verses 26 for a monoalphabetic)
• and correspondingly more ciphertext
• was widely used for many years (eg. US &
British military in WW1)
• it can be broken, given a few hundred letters
• since still has much of plaintext structure
 Polyalphabetic Ciphers
• another approach to improving security is to use
multiple cipher alphabets
• called polyalphabetic substitution ciphers
• makes cryptanalysis harder with more alphabets
to guess and flatter frequency distribution
• use a key to select which alphabet is used for
each letter of the message
• use each alphabet in turn
• repeat from start after end of key is reached
 Vigenère Cipher
• simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher
is the Vigenère Cipher
• effectively multiple caesar ciphers
• key is multiple letters long K = k1 k2 ... kd
• ith letter specifies ith alphabet to use
• use each alphabet in turn
• repeat from start after d letters in message
• decryption simply works in reverse
 Example
• write the plaintext out
• write the keyword repeated above it
• use each key letter as a caesar cipher key
• encrypt the corresponding plaintext letter
• eg using keyword deceptive
key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ
 Aids
• simple aids can assist with en/decryption
• a Saint-Cyr Slide is a simple manual aid
– a slide with repeated alphabet
– line up plaintext 'A' with key letter, eg 'C'
– then read off any mapping for key letter
• can bend round into a cipher disk
• or expand into a Vigenère Tableau (see
text Table 2.3)
 Security of Vigenère Ciphers
• have multiple ciphertext letters for each
plaintext letter
• hence letter frequencies are obscured
• but not totally lost
• start with letter frequencies
– see if look monoalphabetic or not
• if not, then need to determine number of
alphabets, since then can attach each
 Kasiski Method
• method developed by Babbage / Kasiski
• repetitions in ciphertext give clues to period
• so find same plaintext an exact period apart
• which results in the same ciphertext
• of course, could also be random fluke
• eg repeated “VTW” in previous example
• suggests size of 3 or 9
• then attack each monoalphabetic cipher
individually using same techniques as before
 Autokey Cipher
• ideally want a key as long as the message
• Vigenère proposed the autokey cipher
• with keyword is prefixed to message as key
• knowing keyword can recover the first few letters
• use these in turn on the rest of the message
• but still have frequency characteristics to attack
• eg. given key deceptive
key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA
 One-Time Pad
• if a truly random key as long as the
message is used, the cipher will be secure
• called a One-Time pad
• is unbreakable since ciphertext bears no
statistical relationship to the plaintext
• since for any plaintext & any ciphertext
there exists a key mapping one to other
• can only use the key once though
• have problem of safe distribution of key
 Transposition Ciphers
• now consider classical transposition or
permutation ciphers
• these hide the message by rearranging
the letter order
• without altering the actual letters used
• can recognise these since have the same
frequency distribution as the original text
 Rail Fence cipher
• write message letters out diagonally over a
number of rows
• then read off cipher row by row
• eg. write message out as:
m e m a t r h t g p r y
e t e f e t e o a a t
• giving ciphertext
MEMATRHTGPRYETEFETEOAAT
 Row Transposition Ciphers
• a more complex scheme
• write letters of message out in rows over a
specified number of columns
• then reorder the columns according to
some key before reading off the rows
Key: 3 4 2 1 5 6 7
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
o s t p o n e
d u n t i l t
w o a m x y z
Ciphertext: TTNAAPTMTSUOAODWCOIXKNLYPETZ
 Product Ciphers
• ciphers using substitutions or transpositions are
not secure because of language characteristics
• hence consider using several ciphers in
succession to make harder, but:
– two substitutions make a more complex substitution
– two transpositions make more complex transposition
– but a substitution followed by a transposition makes a
new much harder cipher
• this is bridge from classical to modern ciphers
 Rotor Machines
• before modern ciphers, rotor machines were
most common product cipher
• were widely used in WW2
– German Enigma, Allied Hagelin, Japanese Purple
• implemented a very complex, varying
substitution cipher
• used a series of cylinders, each giving one
substitution, which rotated and changed after
each letter was encrypted
• with 3 cylinders have 263=17576 alphabets
 Steganography
• an alternative to encryption
• hides existence of message
– using only a subset of letters/words in a
longer message marked in some way
– using invisible ink
– hiding in LSB in graphic image or sound file
• has drawbacks
– high overhead to hide relatively few info bits
 Modern Block Ciphers
• will now look at modern block ciphers
• one of the most widely used types of
cryptographic algorithms
• provide secrecy and/or authentication
services
• in particular will introduce DES (Data
Encryption Standard)
 Block vs Stream Ciphers
• block ciphers process messages in into
blocks, each of which is then en/decrypted
• like a substitution on very big characters
– 64-bits or more
• stream ciphers process messages a bit or
byte at a time when en/decrypting
• many current ciphers are block ciphers
• hence are focus of course
 Block Cipher Principles
• most symmetric block ciphers are based on a
Feistel Cipher Structure
• needed since must be able to decrypt ciphertext
to recover messages efficiently
• block ciphers look like an extremely large
substitution
• would need table of 264 entries for a 64-bit block
• instead create from smaller building blocks
• using idea of a product cipher
Claude Shannon and Substitution-
Permutation Ciphers
• in 1949 Claude Shannon introduced idea of
substitution-permutation (S-P) networks
– modern substitution-transposition product cipher
• these form the basis of modern block ciphers
• S-P networks are based on the two primitive
cryptographic operations we have seen before:
– substitution (S-box)
– permutation (P-box)
• provide confusion and diffusion of message
 Confusion and Diffusion
• cipher needs to completely obscure
statistical properties of original message
• a one-time pad does this
• more practically Shannon suggested
combining elements to obtain:
• diffusion – dissipates statistical structure
of plaintext over bulk of ciphertext
• confusion – makes relationship between
ciphertext and key as complex as possible
 Feistel Cipher Structure
• Horst Feistel devised the feistel cipher
– based on concept of invertible product cipher
• partitions input block into two halves
– process through multiple rounds which
– perform a substitution on left data half
– based on round function of right half & subkey
– then have permutation swapping halves
• implements Shannon’s substitution-
permutation network concept
Feistel Cipher Structure
Feistel Cipher Design Principles
• block size
– increasing size improves security, but slows cipher
• key size
– increasing size improves security, makes exhaustive key
searching harder, but may slow cipher
• number of rounds
– increasing number improves security, but slows cipher
• subkey generation
– greater complexity can make analysis harder, but slows cipher
• round function
– greater complexity can make analysis harder, but slows cipher
• fast software en/decryption & ease of analysis
– are more recent concerns for practical use and testing
Feistel Cipher Decryption
 Data Encryption Standard (DES)
• most widely used block cipher in world
• adopted in 1977 by NBS (now NIST)
– as FIPS PUB 46
• encrypts 64-bit data using 56-bit key
• has widespread use
• has been considerable controversy over
its security
 DES History
• IBM developed Lucifer cipher
– by team led by Feistel
– used 64-bit data blocks with 128-bit key
• then redeveloped as a commercial cipher
with input from NSA and others
• in 1973 NBS issued request for proposals
for a national cipher standard
• IBM submitted their revised Lucifer which
was eventually accepted as the DES
 DES Design Controversy
• although DES standard is public
• was considerable controversy over design
– in choice of 56-bit key (vs Lucifer 128-bit)
– and because design criteria were classified
• subsequent events and public analysis
show in fact design was appropriate
• DES has become widely used, esp in
financial applications
DES Encryption
 Initial Permutation IP
• first step of the data computation
• IP reorders the input data bits
• even bits to LH half, odd bits to RH half
• quite regular in structure (easy in h/w)
• see text Table 3.2
• example:
IP(675a6967 5e5a6b5a) = (ffb2194d 004df6fb)
 DES Round Structure
• uses two 32-bit L & R halves
• as for any Feistel cipher can describe as:
Li = Ri–1
Ri = Li–1 xor F(Ri–1, Ki)
• takes 32-bit R half and 48-bit subkey and:
– expands R to 48-bits using perm E
– adds to subkey
– passes through 8 S-boxes to get 32-bit result
– finally permutes this using 32-bit perm P
DES Round Structure
 Substitution Boxes S
• have eight S-boxes which map 6 to 4 bits
• each S-box is actually 4 little 4 bit boxes
– outer bits 1 & 6 (row bits) select one rows
– inner bits 2-5 (col bits) are substituted
– result is 8 lots of 4 bits, or 32 bits
• row selection depends on both data & key
– feature known as autoclaving (autokeying)
• example:
S(18 09 12 3d 11 17 38 39) = 5fd25e03
 DES Key Schedule
• forms subkeys used in each round
• consists of:
– initial permutation of the key (PC1) which
selects 56-bits in two 28-bit halves
– 16 stages consisting of:
• selecting 24-bits from each half
• permuting them by PC2 for use in function f,
• rotating each half separately either 1 or 2 places
depending on the key rotation schedule K
 DES Decryption
• decrypt must unwind steps of data computation
• with Feistel design, do encryption steps again
• using subkeys in reverse order (SK16 … SK1)
• note that IP undoes final FP step of encryption
• 1st round with SK16 undoes 16th encrypt round
• ….
• 16th round with SK1 undoes 1st encrypt round
• then final FP undoes initial encryption IP
• thus recovering original data value
 Avalanche Effect
• key desirable property of encryption alg
• where a change of one input or key bit
results in changing approx half output bits
• making attempts to “home-in” by guessing
keys impossible
• DES exhibits strong avalanche
 Strength of DES – Key Size
• 56-bit keys have 256 = 7.2 x 1016 values
• brute force search looks hard
• recent advances have shown is possible
– in 1997 on Internet in a few months
– in 1998 on dedicated h/w (EFF) in a few days
– in 1999 above combined in 22hrs!
• still must be able to recognize plaintext
• now considering alternatives to DES
 Strength of DES – Timing Attacks
• attacks actual implementation of cipher
• use knowledge of consequences of
implementation to derive knowledge of
some/all subkey bits
• specifically use fact that calculations can
take varying times depending on the value
of the inputs to it
• particularly problematic on smartcards
Strength of DES – Analytic Attacks
• now have several analytic attacks on DES
• these utilise some deep structure of the cipher
– by gathering information about encryptions
– can eventually recover some/all of the sub-key bits
– if necessary then exhaustively search for the rest
• generally these are statistical attacks
• include
– differential cryptanalysis
– linear cryptanalysis
– related key attacks
 Differential Cryptanalysis
• one of the most significant recent (public)
advances in cryptanalysis
• known by NSA in 70's cf DES design
• Murphy, Biham & Shamir published 1990
• powerful method to analyse block ciphers
• used to analyse most current block ciphers
with varying degrees of success
• DES reasonably resistant to it, cf Lucifer
 Differential Cryptanalysis
• a statistical attack against Feistel ciphers
• uses cipher structure not previously used
• design of S-P networks has output of
function f influenced by both input & key
• hence cannot trace values back through
cipher without knowing values of the key
• Differential Cryptanalysis compares two
related pairs of encryptions
 Differential Cryptanalysis
Compares Pairs of Encryptions
• with a known difference in the input
• searching for a known difference in output
• when same subkeys are used
 Differential Cryptanalysis
• have some input difference giving some
output difference with probability p
• if find instances of some higher probability
input / output difference pairs occurring
• can infer subkey that was used in round
• then must iterate process over many
rounds (with decreasing probabilities)
Differential Cryptanalysis
 Differential Cryptanalysis
• perform attack by repeatedly encrypting plaintext pairs
with known input XOR until obtain desired output XOR
• when found
– if intermediate rounds match required XOR have a right pair
– if not then have a wrong pair, relative ratio is S/N for attack
• can then deduce keys values for the rounds
– right pairs suggest same key bits
– wrong pairs give random values
• for large numbers of rounds, probability is so low that
more pairs are required than exist with 64-bit inputs
• Biham and Shamir have shown how a 13-round iterated
characteristic can break the full 16-round DES
 Linear Cryptanalysis
• another recent development
• also a statistical method
• must be iterated over rounds, with
decreasing probabilities
• developed by Matsui et al in early 90's
• based on finding linear approximations
• can attack DES with 247 known plaintexts,
still in practise infeasible
 Linear Cryptanalysis
• find linear approximations with prob p != ½
P[i1,i2,...,ia](+)C[j1,j2,...,jb] =
K[k1,k2,...,kc]
where ia,jb,kc are bit locations in P,C,K
• gives linear equation for key bits
• get one key bit using max likelihood alg
• using a large number of trial encryptions
• effectiveness given by: |p–½|
 Block Cipher Design Principles
• basic principles still like Feistel in 1970’s
• number of rounds
– more is better, exhaustive search best attack
• function f:
– provides “confusion”, is nonlinear, avalanche
• key schedule
– complex subkey creation, key avalanche
 Modes of Operation
• block ciphers encrypt fixed size blocks
• eg. DES encrypts 64-bit blocks, with 56-bit key
• need way to use in practise, given usually have
arbitrary amount of information to encrypt
• four were defined for DES in ANSI standard
ANSI X3.106-1983 Modes of Use
• subsequently now have 5 for DES and AES
• have block and stream modes
 Electronic Codebook Book (ECB)
• message is broken into independent
blocks which are encrypted
• each block is a value which is substituted,
like a codebook, hence name
• each block is encoded independently of
the other blocks
Ci = DESK1 (Pi)
• uses: secure transmission of single values
Electronic Codebook Book (ECB)
Advantages and Limitations of ECB
• repetitions in message may show in
ciphertext
– if aligned with message block
– particularly with data such graphics
– or with messages that change very little,
which become a code-book analysis problem
• weakness due to encrypted message
blocks being independent
• main use is sending a few blocks of data
 Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
• message is broken into blocks
• but these are linked together in the
encryption operation
• each previous cipher blocks is chained
with current plaintext block, hence name
• use Initial Vector (IV) to start process
Ci = DESK1(Pi XOR Ci-1)
C-1 = IV
• uses: bulk data encryption, authentication
Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
Advantages and Limitations of CBC
• each ciphertext block depends on all message blocks
• thus a change in the message affects all ciphertext
blocks after the change as well as the original block
• need Initial Value (IV) known to sender & receiver
– however if IV is sent in the clear, an attacker can change bits of
the first block, and change IV to compensate
– hence either IV must be a fixed value (as in EFTPOS) or it must
be sent encrypted in ECB mode before rest of message
• at end of message, handle possible last short block
– by padding either with known non-data value (eg nulls)
– or pad last block with count of pad size
• eg. [ b1 b2 b3 0 0 0 0 5] <- 3 data bytes, then 5 bytes pad+count
 Cipher FeedBack (CFB)
• message is treated as a stream of bits
• added to the output of the block cipher
• result is feed back for next stage (hence name)
• standard allows any number of bit (1,8 or 64 or
whatever) to be feed back
– denoted CFB-1, CFB-8, CFB-64 etc
• is most efficient to use all 64 bits (CFB-64)
Ci = Pi XOR DESK1(Ci-1)
C-1 = IV
• uses: stream data encryption, authentication
Cipher FeedBack (CFB)
Advantages and Limitations of CFB
• appropriate when data arrives in bits/bytes
• most common stream mode
• limitation is need to stall while do block
encryption after every n-bits
• note that the block cipher is used in
encryption mode at both ends
• errors propogate for several blocks after
the error
 Output FeedBack (OFB)
• message is treated as a stream of bits
• output of cipher is added to message
• output is then feed back (hence name)
• feedback is independent of message
• can be computed in advance
Ci = Pi XOR Oi
Oi = DESK1(Oi-1)
O-1 = IV
• uses: stream encryption over noisy channels
Output FeedBack (OFB)
Advantages and Limitations of OFB
• used when error feedback a problem or where need to
encryptions before message is available
• superficially similar to CFB
• but feedback is from the output of cipher and is
independent of message
• a variation of a Vernam cipher
– hence must never reuse the same sequence (key+IV)
• sender and receiver must remain in sync, and some
recovery method is needed to ensure this occurs
• originally specified with m-bit feedback in the standards
• subsequent research has shown that only OFB-64
should ever be used
 Counter (CTR)
• a “new” mode, though proposed early on
• similar to OFB but encrypts counter value
rather than any feedback value
• must have a different key & counter value
for every plaintext block (never reused)
Ci = Pi XOR Oi
Oi = DESK1(i)
• uses: high-speed network encryptions
Counter (CTR)
Advantages and Limitations of CTR
• efficiency
– can do parallel encryptions
– in advance of need
– good for bursty high speed links
• random access to encrypted data blocks
• provable security (good as other modes)
• but must ensure never reuse key/counter
values, otherwise could break (cf OFB)
 Origins
• clear a replacement for DES was needed
– have theoretical attacks that can break it
– have demonstrated exhaustive key search attacks
• can use Triple-DES – but slow with small blocks
• US NIST issued call for ciphers in 1997
• 15 candidates accepted in Jun 98
• 5 were shortlisted in Aug-99
• Rijndael was selected as the AES in Oct-2000
• issued as FIPS PUB 197 standard in Nov-2001
 AES Requirements
• private key symmetric block cipher
• 128-bit data, 128/192/256-bit keys
• stronger & faster than Triple-DES
• active life of 20-30 years (+ archival use)
• provide full specification & design details
• both C & Java implementations
• NIST have released all submissions &
unclassified analyses
 AES Evaluation Criteria
• initial criteria:
– security – effort to practically cryptanalyse
– cost – computational
– algorithm & implementation characteristics
• final criteria
– general security
– software & hardware implementation ease
– implementation attacks
– flexibility (in en/decrypt, keying, other factors)
 AES Shortlist
• after testing and evaluation, shortlist in Aug-99:
– MARS (IBM) - complex, fast, high security margin
– RC6 (USA) - v. simple, v. fast, low security margin
– Rijndael (Belgium) - clean, fast, good security margin
– Serpent (Euro) - slow, clean, v. high security margin
– Twofish (USA) - complex, v. fast, high security margin
• then subject to further analysis & comment
• saw contrast between algorithms with
– few complex rounds verses many simple rounds
– which refined existing ciphers verses new proposals
 The AES Cipher - Rijndael
• designed by Rijmen-Daemen in Belgium
• has 128/192/256 bit keys, 128 bit data
• an iterative rather than feistel cipher
– treats data in 4 groups of 4 bytes
– operates an entire block in every round
• designed to be:
– resistant against known attacks
– speed and code compactness on many CPUs
– design simplicity
 Rijndael
• processes data as 4 groups of 4 bytes (state)
• has 9/11/13 rounds in which state undergoes:
– byte substitution (1 S-box used on every byte)
– shift rows (permute bytes between groups/columns)
– mix columns (subs using matrix multipy of groups)
– add round key (XOR state with key material)
• initial XOR key material & incomplete last round
• all operations can be combined into XOR and
table lookups - hence very fast & efficient
Rijndael
 Byte Substitution
• a simple substitution of each byte
• uses one table of 16x16 bytes containing a
permutation of all 256 8-bit values
• each byte of state is replaced by byte in row (left
4-bits) & column (right 4-bits)
– eg. byte {95} is replaced by row 9 col 5 byte
– which is the value {2A}
• S-box is constructed using a defined
transformation of the values in GF(28)
• designed to be resistant to all known attacks
 Shift Rows
• a circular byte shift in each each
– 1st row is unchanged
– 2nd row does 1 byte circular shift to left
– 3rd row does 2 byte circular shift to left
– 4th row does 3 byte circular shift to left
• decrypt does shifts to right
• since state is processed by columns, this
step permutes bytes between the columns
 Mix Columns
• each column is processed separately
• each byte is replaced by a value
dependent on all 4 bytes in the column
• effectively a matrix multiplication in GF(28)
using prime poly m(x) =x8+x4+x3+x+1
 Add Round Key
• XOR state with 128-bits of the round key
• again processed by column (though
effectively a series of byte operations)
• inverse for decryption is identical since
XOR is own inverse, just with correct
round key
• designed to be as simple as possible
AES Round
 AES Key Expansion
• takes 128-bit (16-byte) key and expands
into array of 44/52/60 32-bit words
• start by copying key into first 4 words
• then loop creating words that depend on
values in previous & 4 places back
– in 3 of 4 cases just XOR these together
– every 4th has S-box + rotate + XOR constant
of previous before XOR together
• designed to resist known attacks
 AES Decryption
• AES decryption is not identical to
encryption since steps done in reverse
• but can define an equivalent inverse
cipher with steps as for encryption
– but using inverses of each step
– with a different key schedule
• works since result is unchanged when
– swap byte substitution & shift rows
– swap mix columns & add (tweaked) round key
 Implementation Aspects
• can efficiently implement on 8-bit CPU
– byte substitution works on bytes using a table
of 256 entries
– shift rows is simple byte shifting
– add round key works on byte XORs
– mix columns requires matrix multiply in GF(28)
which works on byte values, can be simplified
to use a table lookup
 Implementation Aspects
• can efficiently implement on 32-bit CPU
– redefine steps to use 32-bit words
– can precompute 4 tables of 256-words
– then each column in each round can be
computed using 4 table lookups + 4 XORs
– at a cost of 16Kb to store tables
• designers believe this very efficient
implementation was a key factor in its
selection as the AES cipher