Virtual Machine

Virtual machine is a software emulation of a physical computer that runs on a host machine.

Linux kernel

The linux kernel is the foundation of the linux operating system.A kernel is the lowest level of
software that can interface with computer hardware.All linux applications and servers also interface
with the linux kernel.Kernel provides interface for applications and hardware.Kernel is a system
software which is a paart of an operating system.An operating system provides interface between
user and hardware.

AntiVirus and Antimalware

They are specialized software that can detect ,prevent and even destroy a computer virus or
malware.They use malware definitions.It scans the system and search for matches against the
malware definitions.These definitions get constantly updated by vendors.

Cryptography

This is a secret writing.It creates a secure communication that may be understood by the intended
recipient only.Since there is a data in motion and data at rest,both needs to be secured.Its not new,it
has been there for thousands of years now.Example include; Egyptians Hieroglyphics,spartan
scytale,caesar cipher,etc.

Key Concepts of Cryptography

1.Confidentiality: is the process of assuring that only the intended parties can read and understand
the message.
2.Integrity: is the process of actually detecting if the message has been changed,where the message
should be altered in any way in the process of being transmitted.
3.Authentication: is the process of identifying or authenticating with someone or something that
something or some message is actually correct.
4.Non-Repudiation: is the process of detecting if something or someone has done something and
that someone cannot deny that action or that message which was sent by him or her.
5.Cryptoanalysis: is basically the process of analyzing ciphers in cryptographic algorithms.
6.Cipher: is the actual algorithm that encrypts a message.
7.Ciphertext: refers to the plaintext gone through the cipher ,which the cipher has been applied to a
plaintext and the ciphertext is something that its not human readable.
8.Encryption: is the process of transforming plaintext into ciphertext.
9.Decryption: is the process of transforming the ciphertext into a plaintext using the cipher as well
on those two key concept.
10.Plaintext: Its just plaintext that can be human readable.

Cryptographic Strength

Relies on maths,not secrecy and these ciphers that have stood the test of time are public
algorithms.Modular ciphers use modular maths.There are monoalphabetic or polyalphabetic
ciphers.
 Types of Cipher

1.Stream Cipher encrypt or decrypt bit per bit.

2.Block Cipher encrypt or decrypt in blocks or several sizes,depending on the algorithm.

Types of Cryptography

There are three primary types of modern encryption;

1.Symmetric Encryption
2.Asymmetric Encryption
3.Hash Function

Symmetric Encryption

It uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt.Its security depends on keeping the key secret at all
times.Strengths include speed and cryptographic strength per bit of key.The bigger the key,the
stronger the algorithm.Key need to be shared using a secure and out-of-band method.DES<Triple
DES,AES are examples of symmetric encryption.

Asymmetric Encryption

This uses two keys;one key for encryption and one for decryption.One key can be made
public,called public key and the other one needs to be kept private,called the private key.It is used in
digital certificates.It makes use of public key infrastructure-PKI.It uses one-way algorithms to
generate the two keys,like factoring prime numbers and discrete logarithm.It is slower than
symmetric encyption.

Hash Functions

A hash function provides encryption using an algorithm and no key.A variable-length plaintext is
hashed into fixed-length hash value,often called a message-digest or simply a hash.If the hash of a
plaintext changes,the plaintext itself has changed.This provides integrity verification.SHA-1,MD5
are older algorithms prone to collision.SHA-2 is the newer and recommended alternative.A collision
means two different plaintexts having the same hash.

Common Forms of Cryptographic Attacks

1.Brute Force
2.Rainbow Tables
3.Social Engineering
4.Known Plaintexts
5.Known Ciphertexts

Brute Force is an attack based on trial and error,and effectively would work through submission of
many passwords or fast traces to hope that eventually it will guess correctly.

Rainbow Tables are similar,but they use a limited amount of information or entity,or files and they
actually contain three hash passwords that we can check against hash customers,that makes attack
alot faster.
Social Engineering consists using non-technical methods to get those,maybe get the password from
the end users themselves.

The Known Plaintext attack is based on having only plain text and doing analysis based on that
palintext to try to understand how the cipher works and how the cipher encrypts the information.

The Known Ciphertext is the process of having only ciphertext,based on that ciphertext ,we try to
defer the key used in the cipher to again,encrypt and decrypt information.

The Language of Cryptography

Plaintext Encrption algorithm Ciphertext Decryption algorithm

plaintext

Symmetric Key Crypto: Sender and receiver key are identical.

Public Key Crypto: Encytption key public,decryption key secret(Private).

Principles of Symmetric Key Cryptography

Substitution Cipher: substituting one thing for another.

Monoalphabetic Cipher: substitute one letter for another.

Plaintext: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Ciphertext:mnbvcxzasdfghjklpoiuytrewq

Example: Plaintext: bob.i love you.alice.

Ciphertext: nkn.s gkty wky.mgsbc.

Symmetric Key Crypto:DES

DES: Data Encryption Standard
Its a US encryption standard(NIST 1993).It uses 56-bit symmetric key and 64-bit plaintext input.
How secure is DES?
56-bit key encrypted phrase.(strong cryptography makes a safer place)decrypted(bruteforce) in
4months.”NO known backdoor decryption approach”.
To make DES more secure:
1.use three keys sequentially (3-DES) on each datum.
2.use cipher-blick chaining.

AES: Advanced Encryption Standard

It is a new(Nov.2001) symmetric key NIST standard,replacing DES.It processes data in 128bits
block.It uses 128,192,or 256 bit keys.bruteforce decryption (try each key)taking 1sec on DES,takes
149 trillion years for AES.