CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Cryptography and Security

Cunsheng DING
HKUST, Hong Kong

Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Lecture 01: Introduction to Cryptography

Outline of this Lecture

A brief introduction to:

• data confidentiality, encryption;
• data integrity;
• sender authentication, receiver authentication;
• anti-replay, data origin authentication;
• signer nonrepudiation; secret sharing; cryptographic protocols;
• history of cryptography.

Page 1 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Data Confidentiality

Data in transmission or stored in a storage system could be very sensitive

and only authorized people are allowed to read.
Data confidentiality means the prevention of unauthorized reading of data.
3 trang thái: lưu trữ,

Page 2 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

How to Achieve Data Confidentiality

By encryption, i.e., use a secret 1-to-1 mapping (function) f to map a

plaintext m into a ciphertext c, i.e., c = f (m).
To recover the plaintext m from the ciphertext c, apply the inverse
mapping f −1 to c, yielding

f −1 (c) = f −1 (f (m)) = (f −1 f )(m) = m.

This is called decryption.

Page 3 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Example of Encryption

Consider the English alphabet arranged in the order

a, b, c, d, · · · , w, x, y, z

Define the 1-to-1 mapping f by

f (x) = the third letter after x,

where the 3rd letter after x, y, z is resp. a, b, c.

Then the plaintext “kill” is encrypted into

f (kill) = f (k)f (i)f (l)f (l) = nloo.

Question: What is f −1 ? How to decrypt?

Remark: Used by Julius Caesar (the Roman Emperor)

Page 4 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Example of Encryption

Churchyard Cipher: It was engraved on a tombstone in St. Paul’s

Churchyard, New York, in 1796.
.. . .. . .. . . .. . . . .

. . . .
a b. c . k . l .m . t u v

. . . .
d e . f . n . o .p. w x y

. h. . . .s. z
g i q . r . . j

Question: What is the original plaintext?

Remark: Very hard to break without the secret key.

Page 5 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Data Integrity

Data integrity: For data in transmission or stored in a storage system the

following could happen:
• It could be modified by an unauthorized person.
• It could be replaced with another data by an unauthorized person.
Question: How do we detect any modification or replacement of data?
Answer: Protocols for providing this service will be introduced later.

Page 6 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Authenticity of Sender and Receiver

Question: If you received a message with alleged sender X, how could you
be sure that the sender is indeed X?
Question: If you sent a message to a receiver Y , how could you be sure
that the receiver indeed received the message?
Remark: Detailed techniques for authentication of a message’s sender will
be introduced later.

Page 7 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Anti-replay

Replay attack: An attacker intercepted a message from Alice to Bob

earlier and sends it to Bob later (assuming that the attacker has control of
the communication channel).
Anti-replay: The detection of a replayed message.
Question: How do we detect a replayed message?
Answer: Techniques will be covered later.

Page 8 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Data Origin Authentication

Definition: The verification of the creator (i.e., source) of a piece of data

or message.
Remark: Detailed techniques for data origin authentication will be
introduced later.
Remark: The sender of a message may or may not be the creator of the
message. Hence, sender authentication and data origin authentication are
different.
Example: Eva intercepted a message from Alice to Bob yesterday and
replays it to Bob now.

Page 9 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Signer Nonrepudiation

Remark: If I wrote you a letter, saying that I will pay you US$100,000 if
you finish that job for me, I could not deny this offer later because I must
have signed on this letter.
Question: If I sent you an electronic message that orders you to kill
someone, but later denying that I sent you this message, how could you
prove that I indeed sent you this message?
Solution: Digital signature (introduced later).
Signer nonrepudiation: The detection of repudiation of a signature of
signer.

Page 10 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Secret Sharing

Problem: A father has put a lot of treasure into a secure room with an
electronic key k. He has three sons, and would have his three sons to share
the electronic key in some way so that the following conditions are satisfied:
(1) Each of his son has a share (could be a number), which gives zero
information about k.
(2) When any two of his sons come together with their shares, they get no
information at all about the electronic key.
(3) Only when all the three sons come together with their shares, they are
able to recover k with their shares.
How could the father design a system for sharing the electronic key?

Page 11 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Cryptographic Protocols

Problem: A group of banks would have an electronic funds transfer

system that does the following:
“Data confidentiality, data integrity, sender authentication, and
nonrepudiation”
Suppose that you have an algorithm for doing each of the jobs above. How
do you combine these algorithms so that they work as a whole?
Solution: Cryptographic protocols.

Page 12 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Main Topics of Cryptography

• Data confidentiality (design and analysis of encryption and decryption

algorithms).
• Authentication of data, data sender, and data receiver. (data integrity)
• Anti-replay, data origin authentication.
• Signer nonrepudiation.
• Secret sharing.
• Cryptographic protocols.

Page 13 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

History of Cryptography

• Cryptography has a history of five thousand years, starting with human

writings.
• At the early stage, they are called codes. Encryption and decryption
were done by hands.
• Cipher devices were invented in about 1817.
• Cryptography has played an important role during World War I and II.
Sixty Japanese navy ciphers were broken during World War II.
• Modern cryptography started with Shannon’s paper
“Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems, Bell System Technical
Journal 28 (1949) 656–715.”

Page 14 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

References on the History

The history of cryptography is too rich to be covered here. The following

references are recommended:
1. David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing, Scribner,
revised edition, 1996 (First Edition 1967).
2. Cipher Devours, David Kahn, Louis Kruh, Greg Mellen, Brian Winkel,
Cryptology: Machines, history and Methods, Artech House, 1989.
3. Fred B. Wrixon, Codes and Ciphers, Prentice Hall, 1992.

Page 15 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Who Are Using Cryptography?

1. Diplomatic personnel, military personnel, police organizations,

government officials.
2. Banks.
3. Business companies for communications between their divisions and for
keeping their documents confidential.
4. Gangsters, Mafia and other criminal organizations.
5. Ordinary people (email, mobile phones, faxes, computers, online
shopping and banking).
With the implementation of e-cash, almost everyone will have to use
cryptography directly or indirectly!

Page 16 Version 3
 CUNSHENG DING

❁
HKUST, Hong Kong Cryptography and Security

Who Works on Cryptography?

1. Computer Scientists.
2. Mathematicians.
3. Electrical Engineers.
The researchers are working for two sectors:
• the secret sector (military and government organizations),
• the public sector (research institutions and universities).

Page 17 Version 3