Cipher Techniques

April 9, 2013
1
 Road Map
 Basic Terminology
 Cryptosystem

 Classical Cryptography

 Algorithm Types and Modes

 Data Encryption Standard

 Other Stream & Block Ciphers

April 9, 2013
2
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

April 9, 2013
3
Cryptosystem

A cryptosystem is a five-tuple (P,C,K,E,D),

where the following are satisfied:
1. P is a finite set of possible plaintexts.
2. C is a finite set of possible ciphertexts.
3. K, the key space, is a finite set of possible
keys
4. ∀K∈K, ∃EK∈E (encryption rule), ∃DK∈D
(decryption rule).
Each EK: P→C and DK: C→P are functions
such that ∀x∈P, DK(EK(x)) = x.
April 9, 2013
4
Cryptography
 Cryptography
 Symmetric / private key / single key
 Asymmetric / public-key / two - key

April 9, 2013
5
Symmetric Cryptography

April 9, 2013
6
Asymmetric Cryptography

April 9, 2013
7
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

April 9, 2013
8
Symmetric cryptography
 Transposition Techniques
 Substitution techniques
 Caesar Cipher
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
 Polyalphabethic Cipher
 Playfair Cipher

April 9, 2013
9
 Types of Cryptanalytic Attacks
adversary needs
strongest attack  ciphertext only
 only know algorithm / ciphertext, statistical, can
identify plaintext, or worse: the key
 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

adversary’s attacks cipher

can be weaker  chosen text
April 9, 2013
 select either plaintext or ciphertext to en/decrypt 10
to
Brute Force Search
 always possible to simply try every key
 most basic attack, proportional to size of key
space
 assume either know / recognise plaintext

April 9, 2013
11
Transposition Ciphers
 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

April 9, 2013
12
Rail Fence cipher
 writemessage 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

April 9, 2013
13
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: 4 3 1 2 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
April 9, 2013
14
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

April 9, 2013
15
Caesar Cipher
 earliest known substitution cipher
 by Julius Caesar

 first attested use in military affairs

 replaces each letter by 3rd letter after it

 example:

meet me after the toga party

PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB

April 9, 2013
16
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)

April 9, 2013
17
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

April 9, 2013
18
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

April 9, 2013
19
Playfair Key Matrix
 a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
 (I and J aren’t distinguished)
 fill in letters of keyword (sans duplicates)
 fill rest of matrix with other letters
 eg. using the keyword MONARCHY
MONAR
CHYBD
EFGIK
LPQST
UVWXZ

April 9, 2013
20
Encrypting and Decrypting
 plaintext encrypted two letters at a time:
1. 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). Except when that
doesn’t work!
2. if a pair is a repeated letter, insert a filler like 'X', eg.
"balloon" transformed to "ba lx lo on"
3. 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"
4. 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"

April 9, 2013
21
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

April 9, 2013
22
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

April 9, 2013
23
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

April 9, 2013
24
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
April 9, 2013
25