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Contemporary Symmetric Ciphers

This document discusses several symmetric ciphers: Triple-DES was developed as a replacement for DES due to theoretical attacks on DES; Blowfish is a block cipher that is fast, compact, and has a simple structure; RC5 is a family of ciphers that can vary key size, data size, and number of rounds. It also briefly introduces stream ciphers, which encrypt data bit-by-bit using XOR with a pseudorandom key stream.

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Rohit Somra
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29 views25 pages

Contemporary Symmetric Ciphers

This document discusses several symmetric ciphers: Triple-DES was developed as a replacement for DES due to theoretical attacks on DES; Blowfish is a block cipher that is fast, compact, and has a simple structure; RC5 is a family of ciphers that can vary key size, data size, and number of rounds. It also briefly introduces stream ciphers, which encrypt data bit-by-bit using XOR with a pseudorandom key stream.

Uploaded by

Rohit Somra
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Chapter 6 – Contemporary

Symmetric Ciphers
Triple DES
• A replacement for DES was needed
– theoretical attacks that can break it
– demonstrated exhaustive key search attacks
• AES is a new cipher alternative
• Before AES alternative
– use multiple encryptions with DES
• Triple-DES is the chosen form
Why Triple-DES?
• why not Double-DES?
– NOT same as some other single-DES use,
but have
• meet-in-the-middle attack
– works whenever use a cipher twice
– since X = EK1[P] = DK2[C]
– attack by encrypting P with all keys and store
– then decrypt C with keys and match X value
– can show takes O(256) steps
Triple-DES with Two-Keys
• hence must use 3 encryptions
– would seem to need 3 distinct keys
– Key of 56 X 3 = 168 bits seems too long
• but can use 2 keys with E-D-E sequence
– C = EK1[DK2[EK1[P]]]
– No cryptographic significance to the use of D in the
second step
• standardized in ANSI X9.17 & ISO8732
• no current known practical attacks
– some are now adopting Triple-DES with three keys
for greater security
Triple-DES with Three-Keys
• although are no practical attacks on two-
key Triple-DES have some indications
• can use Triple-DES with Three-Keys to
avoid even these
– C = EK3[DK2[EK1[P]]]
• has been adopted by some Internet
applications
Blowfish
• a symmetric block cipher designed by
Bruce Schneier in 1993/94
• characteristics
– fast implementation on 32-bit CPUs, 18 clock
cycles per byte
– compact in use of memory, less than 5KB
– simple structure for analysis/implementation
– variable security by varying key size
• Allows tuning for speed/security tradeoff
Blowfish Key Schedule

• uses a 32 to 448 bit key


• used to generate
– 18 32-bit subkeys stored in P-array: P1 to P18
– S-boxes stored in Si,j,
• i=1..4
• j=0..255
Blowfish Encryption
• uses two primitives: addition & XOR
• data is divided into two 32-bit halves L0 & R0
for i = 1 to 16 do
Ri = Li-1 XOR Pi;
Li = F[Ri] XOR Ri-1;
L17 = R16 XOR P18;
R17 = L16 XOR i17;
• where
F[a,b,c,d] = ((S1,a + S2,b) XOR S3,c) + S4,a
Break 32-bit Ri into (a,b,c,d)
Discussion
• provided key is large enough, brute-force key
search is not practical, especially given the high
key schedule cost
• key dependent S-boxes and subkeys make
analysis very difficult
– Very few cryptoanalysis results on blowfish
• changing both halves in each round increases
security
– Some study shows improved avalanche effects
RC5
• can vary key size / input data size /
#rounds
• very clean and simple design
• easy implementation on various CPUs
• yet still regarded as secure
– Vary parameters to achieve tradeoffs
RC5 Ciphers
• RC5 is a family of ciphers RC5-w/r/b
– w = word size in bits (16/32/64) data=2w
– r = number of rounds (0..255)
– b = number of bytes in key (0..255)
• nominal version is RC5-32/12/16
– ie 32-bit words so encrypts 64-bit data blocks
– using 12 rounds
– with 16 bytes (128-bit) secret key
RC5 Key Expansion
• RC5 uses 2r+2 subkey words (w-bits)
– Two subkeys for each round
– 2 subkeys for additional operations
• subkeys are stored in array S[i], i=0..t-1
• Key expansion: fill in pseudo-random bits
to the original key K
• Certain amount of one-wayness
– Difficult to determine K from S
RC5 Encryption
• split input into two halves A & B
L0 = A + S[0];
R0 = B + S[1];
for i = 1 to r do
Li = ((Li-1 XOR Ri-1) <<< Ri-1) + S[2 x i];
Ri = ((Ri-1 XOR Li) <<< Li) + S[2 x i + 1];
• each round is like 2 DES rounds
• note rotation is main source of non-linearity
• need reasonable number of rounds (eg 12-16)
• Striking features: simplicity, data-dependent
rotations
RC5 Modes
• RFC2040 defines 4 modes used by RC5
– RC5 Block Cipher, is ECB mode
– RC5-CBC, input length is a multiples of 2w
– RC5-CBC-PAD, any length CBC with padding
• Output can be longer than input
– RC5-CTS, CBC with padding
• Output has same length than input
Block Cipher Characteristics
• features seen in modern block ciphers are:
– variable key length / block size / no rounds
– mixed operators
• data/key dependent rotation
• key dependent S-boxes
– more complex key scheduling
• Lengthy key generation, simple encryption rounds
– operation of full data in each round
Stream Ciphers
• process the message bit by bit (as a stream)
• typically have a (pseudo) random key stream
• combined (XOR) with plaintext bit by bit
• randomness of key stream completely destroys
any statistically properties in the message
– Ci = Mi XOR StreamKeyi
• what could be simpler!!!!
• but must never reuse key stream
– otherwise can remove effect and recover messages
Block/Stream Ciphers
• Stream ciphers
– For applications that require encryt/decryt of a stream
of data
– Examples: data communication channel, brower/web
link
• Block ciphers
– For applications dealing with blocks of data
– Examples: file transfer, e-mail, database
• Either type can be used in virtually any
application
Stream Cipher Properties
• some design considerations are:
– long period with no repetitions
– statistically random
– Highly nonlinear correlation
RC4
• variable key size, byte-oriented stream
cipher
• widely used (web SSL/TLS between
browser and server, wireless WEP)
• key forms random permutation of a 8-bit
string
• uses that permutation to scramble input
info processed a byte at a time
RC4 Security
• claimed secure against known attacks
– have some analyses, none practical
• result is very non-linear
• since RC4 is a stream cipher, must never
reuse a key
Summary
• have considered:
– some other modern symmetric block ciphers
– Triple-DES
– Blowfish
– RC5
– briefly introduced stream ciphers

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