Cyberspace

UNIT 8 DATA ENCRYPTION AND

DIGITAL SIGNATURES
Structure
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Objectives
8.3 Conventional Cryptography
8.3.1 Types of Ciphers

8.4 Meaning of Encryption

8.5 Algorithm used in Encryption
8.6 Encryption Scheme: Symmetric Key vs Asymmetric Key
8.7 Digital Signature
8.8 Authentication and Identification
8.9 Hash Functions
8.10 Protocol and Mechanisms
8.11 Key Establishment, Management and Certification
8.12 Trusted Third Parties and Public Key Certificates
8.13 Pseudorandom Numbers and Sequences
8.14 Summary
8.15 Terminal Questions
8.16 Answers and Hints
8.17 References and Suggested Readings

8.1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most powerful and important methods for security in computer systems
is to encrypt sensitive records and messages in transit and in storage. Cryptography
has a long and colorful history. Historically, four groups of people have used and
contributed to the art of Cryptography, the military, the diplomatic corps, diarists,
and lovers. The military has had the most sensitive role and has shaped the field.
At present, information and data security plays a vital role in the security of the
country, the security of the corporate sector and also of every individual, working
for personal benefit.

8.2 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you will able to:
36 • discuss what is conventional cryptography and types of ciphers;
• explain the meaning of encryptions ; Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
• describe Algorithms used in Cryptology;
• discuss encryption schemes, their merits and demerits;
• explain the meaning and use of Digital Signature;
• discuss cryptographic hash functions and cryptographic protocols and
mechanism;
• describe methodology for ensuring the secure distribution of keys for
cryptographic purposes; and
• explain the concept of trusted third parties and public key certificates.

8.3 CONVENTIONAL CRYPTOGRAPHY

The message or data to be encrypted, also known as the plaintext, is transformed
by a function that is parameterized by a KEY. The output of the encryption process,
known as the cipher text, is then transmitted through the insecure communication
channel. The art of breaking ciphers is called cryptanalysis. The art of devising
ciphers (cryptography) and breaking them (cryptanalysis) is collectively known as
cryptology.
Mathematically, C = Ek (P) meaning that the encryption of the plaintext P using key
K gives the cipher text C. Similarly, P = Dk(C) implies the decryption of C to get the
plaintext again. It then follows that Dk (Ek (P)) = P.

8.3.1 Types of Ciphers

Conventionally, there are two types of ciphers. They are the following:
Substitution Ciphers: Another letter or group of letters to disguise it replaces each
letter or group of letters. One of the oldest known ciphers is the Caesar Cipher,
attributed to Julius Caesar. For example, using this cipher, attack becomes
DWWDFN. Here plaintext is in lowercase and cipher text in uppercase letters. A
slight generalisation of the Caesar cipher allows the cipher text alphabet to be shifted
by k letters, instead of always 3.In this case k becomes a key to the general method
of circularly shifted alphabets. Example in Fig. 1 shows:
JULIUSCAESAR Plaintext
EFGEFGEFGEFG Key EFG repeated
10 21 12 09 21 19 03 01 05 19 01 18 Plaintext, numeric
05 06 07 05 06 07 05 06 07 05 06 07 Key EFG, numeric
15 19 11 12 19 20 06 07 02 22 07 21 Cipher text (Plain XOR key)
Figure 1

A FUNCTION BASED SUBSTITUTION CIPHER

A substitution cipher can be made unbreakable by using a long no repeating key.
Such a key is called one-time pad. A one-time pad may be formed by using words
from a book starting from specific place known to both the sender and receiver. For 37
Cyberspace example, starting with this sentence and using XOR on ASCII encoding of the letters
of the plaintext and of the key. The encryption would proceed as given in Fig. 2.The
textual equivalent of the cipher text is not given because it contains nonprintable
ASCII characters. The message can be deciphered by reversing the process. XO
Ring each letter of the cipher text with the ASCII representation of the key produces
the ASCII encoding of a letter of the plaintext.

JULIUSCAESAR Plaintext

FOREXAMPLEST key-starting sentence (one-time pad)

74 85 76 73 85 83 67 65 69 83 65 82 Plaintext, ASCII

70 79 82 69 88 65 77 80 76 69 83 84 Key ASCII

12 26 30 12 13 18 14 17 09 22 18 06 Cipher text = Plain XOR key

Figure 2

A ONE-TIME PAD

One-time pad ciphers are unbreakable because they give no information to the
cryptanalyst. The primary difficulty with one-time pad is that the key must be as long
as the message itself, so key distribution becomes a problem, since a different pad
must be used for each communication.

Transposition Ciphers: It operates by reordering the plaintext symbols, whereas

substitution ciphers preserve the order of the plaintext symbols but try to disguise
them. An example of it Columnar transposition is described below:

CONSULT Keyword

1435726 Column numbers

E N C RYPT Plaintext:

I ONISP E

ENCRYPTIONSPERFORMEDBYWRITINGTHEPLAINTEXT

R FORMED

B YWR ITI

N G T H E P L cipher text:

A I N T E X

TEIRBNAPPETPXCNOWTNNOFYGIRIRRHTTEDILTYSMIEE

FIGURE for Transposition Cipher

Please answer the following Self Assessment Question.

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 Data Encryption and
Self Assessment Question 1 Spend 3 Min. Digital Signatures

Fill in the blanks:

i) The output of the encryption process is known as ___________________.
ii) Substitution and _________________ are two types of Ciphers.

8.4 MEANING OF ENCRYPTION

Encryption is one common method of protecting information transmitted over
unreliable links. In practice, the following is the mechanism of encryption:
A) The information (text) is encrypted (encoded) from its initial readable form
(called clear text), to an internal form (called cipher text). This internal text
form, although readable, does not make any sense.
B) The cipher text can be stored in a readable file, or transmitted over unprotected
channels.
C) The receiver must decrypt (decode) it back into clear text to understand the
meaning of the cipher text.
Since it is likely that people may become involved with negative aspects of computing,
care has to be taken to see that encryption algorithms are free from statistical and
mathematical weakness and that they are not feasible to break computationally so
that cracking becomes prohibitively time-consuming. At the other end, the
computational complexity of encryption and decryption should be reasonable
because they represent processing overhead that increases communication delays.

8.5 ALGORITHM USED IN ENCRYPTION

The Secret-Key Algorithm: A system where one secret key shared is called
Symmetric or secret key cryptography.
Data Encryption Standard (DES): It was originally developed by IBM and was
adopted as an NBS Standard in 1977. It is no longer secure in its original form
(Wayner, 1995), but in modified form it is still useful. DES is a symmetric
cryptosystem, so the cipher text is decrypted using the same key. It operates on 64-
bit (8 byte) blocks of input at a time. The algorithm, which is parameterized by a 56-
bit key, has 19 distinct stages. The first stage is a key independent transposition on
the 64-bit plaintext. The last stage is the exact inverse of this transposition. The
stage prior to the last one exchanges the leftmost 32 bits with the rightmost 32 bits.
The remaining 16 stages are functionally identical but are parameterized by
different functions of the key.
The steps of the DES encryption algorithm operating on 64-bit block are:
L0R0 = t(input)
Repeat for n = 1 to 16
Ln = Rn−1
Rn = Ln−1 + f(Rn−1,Kn)
Output = t −1 (L16r16) 39
Cyberspace Obviously, DES is a complex algorithm. But critics say that its key is too short,
which makes it susceptible to brute-force attack. In 1977, two standford
Cryptography researchers, Diffie and Hellman designed a machine to break DES
and estimated it could be built for 20 Million dollars. Given a small piece of plaintext
and matched cipher text, this machine could find the key by exhaustive search of the
entry key space in under 1 day. Nowadays such a machine would cost perhaps 1
million dollars. A detailed design for a machine that can break DES by exhaustive
search in about four hours is presented in (Wiener, 1994).
Another calculation says that software encryption is 1000 times slower than
hardware encryption and that, a high-end home computer can still do about 3, 50,
000 encryption/sec in software and is probably idle 2 million second/month. This
idle time could be put to use breaking DES. Probably the most innovative idea for
breaking DES is the CHINESE LOTTERY (Quisquater and Girault, 1991). With
this, every radio and television has to be equipped with a cheap DES chip capable
of performing 1 million encryption /sec in hardware.
Public Key Algorithms: A cryptosystem where two different keys are used for
encryption and decryption is called Asymmetric or Public key System. The key
distribution is the most important thing whatever may be the cryptosystem. If
somehow the key is stolen, the total system would be worthless. The primary
advantage of public key cryptography is increased security. The secret keys don’t
have to be transmitted or revealed to anyone. Another advantage of this system is
that public key and the secret key can both be used for encoding as well as decoding.
Their functions are interchangeable.
RSA Algorithm: These are the initials of three discoverers (Rivest, Shamir, and
Adleman) at M.I.T. They all produced this algorithm, which is totally based on
modular mathematics of Number theory. It is an asymmetric cryptography algorithm
because it uses two different keys for encoding and decoding.
One of the properties of modular arithmetic is the possibility of computing
multiplicative inverses. That is, given an integer e in the range of [0, n−1], it is
sometimes possible to find a unique integer d in the range [0, n−1] such that
ed mod n = 1
For example, 3 and 7 are multiplicative inverses modulo 20, because 21 mod 20 =
1. It can be shown that integer e [0.n−1] has a unique multiplicative inverse mod n
when e and n are relatively prime, that is when gcd (e, n) = 1.(gcd denotes the
greatest common divisor). The no. of positive integers that are relatively prime to n
is a function denoted as @n. For n = pq and p and q are prime, it can be shown that
@n = (p−1)(q−1)
For number P set of [0, n−1] it can be shown that the equation
C = pe mod n (First) is an inverse of
P = Cd mod n (Second)
If ed mod @(n) = 1 where @n = (p−1)(q−1)
First equation is used for encryption by several public keys algorithms with e and n
as the key. Decryption is performed using second equation with d and n as keys.
40
Since the key (e, n) is public, only the number d in the decryption pair (d, n) is Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
private.
This above idea is used in case of RSA also. The determination of n, d and e is
prescribed in the following way:
Choose two large primes, p and q, each greater than 10 100
Calculate n= pq and @n = (p−1)(q−1)
Assume a number d to be a large, random integer that is relatively prime to @n that
is such that ed mod @(n) = 1
Calculate e such that ed mod @(n) = 1
These parameters may be used to encipher plaintext P where 0 less that equal to
less than n. If the plaintext is longer, it must be broken into strings smaller than n.
Cipher text is obtained as C = pe mod n. C may be then decrypted as P = cd mod n.
Steps of algorithm ensures that encryption and decryption are inverses of each other.
Yet breaking of RSA is not reported yet wide use of it has been tremendous increased.
A cryptanalyst would presumably use factoring to derive d from n and e, which are
publicly known.
Please answer the following Self Assessment Question.

Self Assessment Question 2 Spend 3 Min.

Why is RSA algorithm more widely used than DES?
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8.6 ENCRYPTION SCHEME: SYMMETRIC KEY

VS ASYMMETRIC KEY
Symmetric-key and public-key encryption schemes have various advantages and
disadvantages, some of which are common to both. This section highlights a number
of these and summarizes features pointed out in previous sections.
i) Advantages of symmetric-key cryptography
1) Symmetric-key ciphers can be designed to have high rates of data
throughput. Some hardware implementations achieve of hundreds of
megabytes per second, while software implementations may attain
throughput rates in the megabytes per second range.
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Cyberspace 2) Keys for symmetric-key ciphers are relatively short.
3) Symmetric-key ciphers can be employed as primitives to construct various
cryptographic mechanisms including pseudorandom number generators,
hash functions and computationally efficient digital signature schemes, to
name just a few.
4) Symmetric-key ciphers can be composed to produce stronger ciphers.
Simple transformations which are easy to analyse, but are weak on their
own weak, can be used to construct strong product ciphers.
5) Symmetric-key encryption is perceived to have an extensive history,
although it must be acknowledged that, notwithstanding the invention of
rotor machines earlier, much of the knowledge in this area has been acquired
subsequent to the invention of the digital computer, and in particular, the
design of the Data Encryption Standard in the early 1970s.
ii) Disadvantages of symmetric-key cryptography
1) In a two-party communication, the key must remain secret at both ends.
2) In a large network, there are many key pairs to be managed. Consequently,
effective key management requires the use of an unconditionally trusted
TTP .
3) In a two-party communication between entities µ and ¶, sound
cryptographic practice dictates that the key be changed frequently and
perhaps for each communication session.
4) Digital signature mechanisms arising from symmetric-key encryption
typically require either large keys for the public verification function or the
use of a TTP.
iii) Advantages of public-key cryptography
1) Only the private key must be kept secret (authenticity of public keys must,
however, be guaranteed).
2) The administration of keys on a network requires the presence of only a
functionally trusted TTP as opposed to an unconditionally trusted TTP.
Depending on the mode of usage, the TTP might only be required in an
“off-line” manner, as opposed to in real time.
3) Depending on the mode of usage, a private key/public key pair may remain
unchanged for considerable periods of time, e.g., many sessions (even
several years).
4) Many public-key schemes yield relatively efficient digital signature
mechanisms. The key used to describe the public verification function is
typically much smaller than for the symmetric-key counterpart.
5) In a large network, the number of keys necessary may be considerably
smaller than in the symmetric-key scenario.
iv) Disadvantages of public-key encryption

42 1) Throughput rates for the most popular public-key encryption methods

 are several orders of magnitude slower than the best-known symmetric- Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
key schemes.
2) Key sizes are typically much larger than those required for symmetric-
key encryption and the size of public-key signatures is larger than that of
tags providing data origin authentication from symmetric-key techniques.
3) No public-key scheme has been proven to be secure (the same can be
said for block ciphers). The most effective public-key encryption schemes
found to date have their security based on the presumed difficulty of a
small set of number-theoretic problems.
4) Public-key cryptography does not have as extensive a history as
symmetric-key encryption, being discovered only in the mid 1970s.
Summary of comparison
Symmetric-key and public-key encryptions have a number of complementary
advantages.
Current cryptographic systems exploit the strengths of each. Public-key encryption
techniques may be used to establish a key for a symmetric-key system being used
by communicating entities and in this scenario, we can take advantage of the long
term nature of the public/private keys of the public-key scheme and the performance
efficiencies of the symmetric-key scheme. Since data encryption is frequently the
most time consuming part of the encryption process, the public-key scheme for key
establishment is a small fraction of the total encryption process.
To date, the computational performance of public-key encryption is inferior to that
of symmetric-key encryption. There is, however, no proof that this must be the
case. The important points in practice are:
1. Public-key cryptography facilitates efficient signatures (particularly non-
repudiation) and key management; and
2. Symmetric-key cryptography is efficient for encryption and some data integrity
applications.
Please answer the following Self Assessment Question.

Self Assessment Question 3 Spend 3 Min.

What are the basic advantages of Asymmetric Key?
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Cyberspace
8.7 DIGITAL SIGNATURE
People authenticate other people by recognising their faces, voices and handwriting.
Signatures on letterhead paper handle proof of signing raised seals and so on.
Handwriting, paper, and ink experts can usually detect tampering. But none of these
options are available electronically. That’s why the concept of Digital signature came
into existence to authenticate electronic documents.

A Digital Signature is a technique by which it is possible to secure electronic

information in such a way that the originator of the information, as well as the
integrity of the information, can be verified. This procedure of guaranteeing the
origin and the integrity of the information is also called Authentication.

The authenticity of many legal, financial, and other documents is determined by the
presence or absence of an authorized handwritten signature. For a computerised
message system to replace the physical transport of paper and ink documents
handwritten signatures have to be replaced by Digital Signatures. Basically what is
needed, is a system by which one party can send a “signed” message to another
party in such a way that

A) The receiver can verify the claimed identity of the sender.

B) The sender cannot repudiate the contents of the message.

C) The receiver cannot possibly have concocted the message himself/ herself.

A digital signature is only a technique that can be used for different authentication
purposes. For an E-record, it comes functionally very close to the traditional hand-
written signatures. The user himself/ herself can generate key pair by using specific
crypto software. Now Microsoft IE and Netscape, allow the user to create his/ her
own key pair.

Here, the most important thing is how can the user be sure that public keys belong to
his/ her partner only? In this case, a third party (TTP) will guarantee the relationship
between the identity and the public keys. The TTP are popularly called Certified
Authorities (CAs).

Digital Certificate: These certificates are provided by CAs to authenticate that a

particular site is globally secured. There are so many reputed CAs all over the
world. Some of them are Very Sign from USA and Thawte Consulting from South
Africa. Popular India CAs are SafeScrypt Ltd, TCS, IDRBT, MTNL Ltd and NIC.

Digital certificates contain the following:

Issuer, Issued to, orgnization name, organization unit, validity, Version, Public Keys,
Thumbprint, algorithms etc.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is the widely used protocol for digital certificates. The
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) starts with “https” instead of “http” and are
secured by SSL. At the bottom of the window, a lock symbol appears for SSL.
Generally 128 bits SSL are used.40 bits SSL are also available.

Please answer the following Self Assessment Question.

44
 Data Encryption and
Self Assessment Question 4 Spend 3 Min. Digital Signatures

Is digital signature equivalent to handwritten signature legally?

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8.8 AUTHENTICATION AND IDENTIFICATION

Authentication is a term which is used (and often abused) in a very broad sense. By
itself, it has little meaning other than to convey the idea that some means has been
provided to guarantee that entities are who they claim to be, or that information has
not been manipulated by unauthorized parties. Authentication is specific to the
security objective which one is trying to achieve. Examples of specific objectives
include access control. The host countries might not permit secrecy on the channel;
one or both countries might want the ability to monitor all communications. Jack and
Bond, however, would like to be assured of the identity of each other, and of the
integrity and origin of the information they send and receive.
Authentication is one of the most important of all information security objectives.
Until the mid 1970s it was generally believed that secrecy and authentication were
intrinsically connected. With the discovery of hash functions and digital signatures, it
was realised that secrecy and authentication were truly separate and independent
information security objectives. It may at first not seem important to separate the
two but there are situations where it is not only useful but essential. For example, if
a two-party communication between Jack and Bond is to take place where Jack is
in one country and Bond in another, the host countries might not permit secrecy
on the channel; one or both countries might want the ability to monitor all
communications. Jack and Bond, however, would like to be assured of the identity
of each other, and of the integrity and origin of the information they send and receive.
The preceding scenario illustrates several independent aspects of authentication. If
Jack and Bond desire assurance of each other’s identity, there are two possibilities
to consider.
1) Jack and Bond could be communicating with no appreciable time delay. That
is, they are both active in the communication in “real time”.
2) Jack or Bond could be exchanging messages with some delay. That is, messages
might be routed through various networks, stored, and forwarded at some
later time. In the first instance Jack and Bond would want to verify identities in
real time. This might be accomplished by Jack sending Bond some challenge,
to which Bond is the only entity which can respond correctly. Bond could
perform a similar action to identify Jack. This type of authentication is
commonly referred to as entity authentication or more simply phrase
challenge for identification.
For the second possibility, it is not convenient to challenge and await response, and
moreover the communication path may be only in one direction. Different techniques
45
Cyberspace are now required to authenticate the originator of the message. This form of
authentication is called data origin authentication.
Thus Data origin authentication or message authentication techniques provide
to one for originality.

8.9 HASH FUNCTIONS

One of the fundamental primitives in modern cryptography is the cryptographic
hash function, often informally called a one-way hash function simplified definition
of hash function is given below.
Definition A hash function is a computationally efficient function mapping binary
strings of arbitrary length to binary strings of some fixed length, called hash-values.
The most common cryptographic uses of hash functions are with digital signatures
and for data integrity. With digital signatures, a long message is usually hashed
(using a publicly available hash function) and only the hash-value is signed. The
party receiving the message then hashes the received message and verifies that the
received signature is correct for this hash-value. This saves both time and space
compared to signing the message directly, which would typically involve splitting
the message into appropriate-sized blocks and signing each block individually.
Note here that the inability to find two messages with the same hash-value is a
security requirement, since otherwise, the signature on one message hash-value
would be the same as that on another, allowing a signer to sign one message and at
a later point in time claim to have signed another.

Hash functions may be used for data integrity as follows. The hash-value
corresponding to a particular input is computed at some point in time. The integrity
of this hash-value is protected in some manner. At a subsequent point in time, to
verify that the input data has not been altered, the hash-value is recomputed using
the input at hand, and compared for equality with the original hash-value. Specific
applications include virus protection and software distribution.

A third application of hash functions is their use in protocols involving prior

commitments, including some digital signature schemes and identification protocols.

Hash functions as discussed above are typically publicly known and involve no
secret keys. When used to detect whether the message input has been altered, they
are called modification detection codes (MDCs). Related to these are hash functions
which involve a secret key, and provide data origin authentication as well as data
integrity; these are called message authentication codes (MACs).

8.10 PROTOCOL AND MECHANISMS

Definition A cryptographic protocol (protocol) is a distributed algorithm defined
by a sequence of steps precisely specifying the actions required of two or more
entities to achieve a specific security objective.

Remark (protocol vs mechanism) As opposed to a protocol, a mechanism is a

more general term encompassing protocols, algorithms (specifying the steps
followed by a single entity), and non-cryptographic techniques (e.g., hardware
46 protection and procedural controls) to achieve specific security objectives.
Protocols play a major role in cryptography and are essential in meeting Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
cryptographic goals. Encryption schemes, digital signatures, hash functions, and
random number generation are among the primitives which may be utilized to
build a protocol.

Protocol and mechanism failure

Definition A protocol failure or mechanism failure occurs when a mechanism

fails to meet the goals for which it was intended, in a manner whereby an adversary
gains advantage not by breaking an underlying primitive such as an encryption
algorithm directly, but by manipulating the protocol or mechanism itself.

Example (mechanism failure) Jack and Bond are communicating using a stream
cipher.
Messages which they encrypt are known to have a special form: the first twenty bits
carry information which represents a monetary amount. An active adversary can
simply XOR an appropriate bit string into the first twenty bits of cipher text and
change the amount. While the adversary has not been able to read the underlying
message, she has been able to alter the transmission. The encryption has not been
compromised but the protocol has failed to perform adequately; the inherent
assumption that encryption provides data integrity is incorrect.
Example (forward search attack) Suppose that in an electronic bank transaction
the bit field which records the value of the transaction is to be encrypted using a
public-key scheme. This simple protocol is intended to provide privacy of the value
field – but does it? An adversary could easily take all possible entries that could be
plaintext in this field and encrypt them using the public encryption function.
(Remember that by the very nature of public-key encryption this function must be
available to the adversary.) each of the cipher texts with the one which is actually
encrypted in the transaction, the adversary can determine the plaintext. Here the
public-key encryption function is not compromised, but rather the way it is used.

8.11 KEY ESTABLISHMENT, MANAGEMENT AND

CERTIFICATION
This section gives a brief introduction to methodology for ensuring the secure
distribution of keys for cryptographic purposes.
Definition Key establishment is any process whereby a shared secret key becomes
available to two or more parties, for subsequent cryptographic use.
Definition Key management is the set of processes and mechanisms which support
key establishment and the maintenance of ongoing keying relationships between
authorized parties, including replacing older keys with new keys as and when
necessary.
Key establishment can be broadly subdivided into key agreement and key transport.
Many and protocols have been proposed to provide key establishment.
Key management encompasses techniques and procedures supporting:
1. initialisation of system users within a domain;
2. generation, distribution, and installation of keying material; 47
Cyberspace 3. controlling the use of keying material;
4. update, revocation, and destruction of keying material; and
5. storage, backup/recovery, and archival of keying material.
Key management through symmetric-key techniques
One solution which employs symmetric-key techniques involves an entity in the
network which is trusted by all other entities. This entity is referred to as a trusted
third party (TTP). Each entity shares a distinct symmetric key with the TTP. These
keys are assumed to have been distributed over a secured channel. If two entities
subsequently wish to communicate, the TTP generates a key (sometimes called a
session key) and sends it encrypted under each of the fixed keys. This approach
has certain advantages and disadvantages.
A symmetric cryptographic system is a system involving two transformations – one
for the originator and one for the recipient – both of which make use of either the
same secret key (symmetric key) or two keys easily computed from each other. An
asymmetric cryptographic system is a system involving two related transformations
– one defined by a public key (the public transformation), and another defined by a
private key (the private transformation) – with the property that it is computationally
infeasible to determine the private transformation from the public transformation.
Advantages
1. It is easy to add and remove entities from the network.
2. Each entity needs to store only one long-term secret key.
Disadvantages
1. All communications require initial interaction with the TTP.
2. The TTP must store long-term secret keys.
3. The TTP has the ability to read all messages.
4. If the TTP is compromised, all communications are insecure.
Key management through public-key techniques
There are a number of ways to address the key management problem through public-
key techniques. Each entity in the network has a public/private encryption key pair.
The public key along with the identity of the entity is stored in a central repository
called a public file.
Advantages of this approach include:
1. No trusted third party is required.
2. The public file could reside with each entity.
3. Only public keys need to be stored to allow secure communications between
any pair of entities, assuming the only attack is that by a passive adversary.
The key management problem becomes more difficult when one must take into
account an adversary who is active (i.e. an adversary who can alter the public file
48 containing public keys).
Please answer the following Self Assessment Question. Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
Self Assessment Question 5 Spend 1 Min.
Key establishment can be divided into ____________________ and key
transport.

8.12 TRUSTED THIRD PARTIES AND PUBLIC KEY

CERTIFICATES
Definition A TTP is said to be unconditionally trusted if it is trusted on all matters.
For example, it may have access to the secret and private keys of users, as well as
be charged with the association of public keys to identifiers.
Various third party services require different types of trust and competency in the
third party. For example, a third party possessing secret decryption keys (or entity
authentication keys) must be trusted not to disclose encrypted information (or
impersonate users). A third party required (only) to bind an encryption public key to
an identity must still be trusted not to create false associations and thereafter
impersonate an entity. In general, three levels of trust in a third party T responsible
for certifying credentials for users may be distinguished. Level 1: T knows each
user’s secret key. Level 2: T does not know users’ secret keys, but can create false
credentials without detection. Level 3: T does not know users’ secret keys, and
generation of false credentials is detectable
Definition A TTP is said to be functionally trusted if the entity is assumed to be
honest and fair but it does not have access to the secret or private keys of users.
Public-key certificates
The distribution of public keys is generally easier than that of symmetric keys, since
secrecy is not required. However, the integrity (authenticity) of public keys is critical.
Primary advantages offered by public-key (vs symmetric-key) techniques for
applications related to key management include:
1) Simplified key management. To encrypt data for another party, only the
encryption public key of that party need be obtained. This simplifies key
management as only authenticity of public keys is required, not their secrecy. .
The situation is analogous for other types of public-key pairs, e.g., signature
key pairs.
2) On-line trusted server not required. Public-key techniques allow a trusted
on-line server to be replaced by a trusted off-line server plus any means for
delivering authentic public keys (e.g., public-key certificates and a public
database provided by an un-trusted on-line server). For applications where an
on-line trusted server is not mandatory, this may make the system more amenable
to scaling, to support very large numbers of users.
3) Enhanced functionality. Public-key cryptography offers functionality
which typically cannot be provided cost-effectively by symmetric techniques
(without additional online trusted third parties or customized secure
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Cyberspace hardware). The most notable such features are non-repudiation of digital
signatures, and true (single-source) data origin authentication.
A public-key certificate consists of a data part and a signature part. The data
part consists of the name of an entity, the public key corresponding to that entity,
possibly additional relevant information (e.g., the entity’s street or network address,
a validity period for the public key, and various other attributes). The signature part
consists of the signature of a TTP over the data part.

8.13 PSEUDORANDOM NUMBERS AND

SEQUENCES
Random number generation is an important primitive in many cryptographic
mechanisms.
For example, keys for encryption transformations need to be generated in a manner
which is unpredictable to an adversary. Generating a random key typically involves
the selection of random numbers or bit sequences. Random number generation
presents challenging issues.
Often in cryptographic applications, one of the following steps must be performed:
i) From a finite set of elements, select an element at random.
ii) From the set of all sequences (strings) of length over some finite alphabet of
symbols, select a sequence at random.
iii) Generate a random sequence (string) of symbols of length over a set of symbols.
It is not clear what exactly it means to select at random or generate at random.
Calling a number random without a context makes little sense. Is the number a
random number?
Let us now summarize the points covered in this unit.

8.14 SUMMARY
• Encryption is one common method of protecting information transmitted over
unreliable lines where plain text is being converted to Cipher text and then
again to plain text.
• Basically there are two algorithms used for encryption .One is RSA and other
one is DES.
• RSA is an asymmetric cryptography and DES is symmetric one.
• A system where one secret key shared is called Symmetric or Secret Key
Cryptography.
• A cryptosystem where two different keys are used for encryption and
decryption is called Asymmetric or Public Key System.
• Digital signature is a technique to secure electronic information in such a way
that the originator of the information, as well as the integrity of information can
50 be verified with proper authentication.
• Digital certificates are provided by Certified Authorities (CAs) to authenticate Data Encryption and
Digital Signatures
that a particular site is globally secured.
• There are five common CAs in India. They are Safescrypt Ltd, TCS, IDRBT,
MTNL and NIC.
• A hash function is a computationally efficient function mapping binary strings of
arbitrary length to binary strings of some fixed length called hash-values. The
most common cryptographic uses of hash functions are with digital signatures
and for data integrity.
• Key establishment is any process whereby a shared secret key becomes
available to two or more parties, for subsequent cryptographic use.
• Key establishment can be subdivided into key agreement and key transport.
• Key management is the set of processes and mechanisms, which support key
establishment and the maintenance of ongoing keying relationships between
parties, including replacing older keys with new keys as and when necessary.

8.15 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1) What do you mean by Encryption? Describe RSA algorithm with examples.
2) How do you know that URL is secured?
3) What are the differences between digital signatures and certificates?

8.16 ANSWERS AND HINTS

Self Assessment Questions
1) (i) Cipher text, (ii) Transposition
2) RSA is asymmetric cryptographic algorithm and uses two different keys for
encoding and decoding while DES is a symmetric cryptosystem and the cipher
text is decrypted using the same key. It is a complex algorithm. So far no
breaking of RSA has been reported though DES can be broken.
3) The advantages of Asymmetric keys are as follows:
1) Only the private key must be kept secret
2) The administration of keys on a network requires the presence of only a
functionally trusted TTP as opposed to an unconditionally trusted TTP
3) Depending on the mode of usage, a private key/public key pair may remain
unchanged for considerable periods of time.
4) According to Patrick W. Brown, Digital Signature technology may be employed
to produce legally enforceable signatures in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
among computer users within the same general guidelines and requirements as
those developed for handwritten signatures on paper. Digital Signature
technology may be employed to produce legally enforceable signatures in
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) among computer users within the same
general guidelines and requirements as technology promises assurance at least
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Cyberspace equal to written signatures. From a legal standpoint, this assurance remains to
be tested in the evidentiary process. Business policies for organizational use of
this technology are being created as the use of digital signature technology is
adopted. Digital signatures may be used to provide assurances in distributed
and networked computer environments where electronic transactions require
a high degree of trust.
5) Key Agreement
Terminal Questions
1) Refer to section 8.4 and 8.5 of the unit.
2) Refer to section8.7 of the unit.
3) Refer to section 8.7 and 8.13 of the unit.
Apart from above, please follow other reference books for in depth knowledge.

8.17 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Brown, P.W. “Digital signatures: are they legal for electronic commerce”.
Communications Magazine. IEEE. 32.9 (Sept. 1994): 76 – 80.

2. Mlen Milenkivic. Operating System Concepts and design. New York :

McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1992.

3. Silberschatz. Galvin, Gagne. Operating System Concepts. 7th ed. John Wiley
& Sons, 2006.

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