Chapter 2:

Cryptographic Tools
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Cryptographic Tools

• cryptographic algorithms important el-

ement in security services
• review various types of elements
 symmetric encryption
 public-key (asymmetric) encryption
 digital signatures and key management
 secure hash functions
• example is use to encrypt stored data
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Symmetric Encryption
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Attacking Symmetric Encryption

• Cryptanalysis
 rely on nature of the algorithm
 plus some knowledge of plaintext
characteristics
 even some sample plaintext-ciphertext pairs
 exploits characteristics of algorithm to
deduce specific plaintext or key
• Brute-force attack
 try all possible keys on some ciphertext until
get an intelligible translation into plaintext
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Exhaustive Key Search

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Symmetric Encryption Algorithms

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DES and Triple-DES

• Data Encryption Standard (DES) is the

most widely used encryption scheme
 uses 64 bit plaintext block and 56 bit key to
produce a 64 bit ciphertext block
 concerns about algorithm & use of 56-bit key
• Triple-DES
 repeats basic DES algorithm three times
 using either two or three unique keys
 much more secure but also much slower
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Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

• Needed a better replacement for DES

• NIST called for proposals in 1997
 efficiency, security, HW/SW suitability,
128, 256, 256 keys
• selected Rijndael in Nov 2001
• symmetric block cipher
• uses 128 bit data & 128/192/256 bit keys
• now widely available commercially
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Block
Verses
Stream
Ciphers
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Message Authentication

• protects against active attacks

• verifies received message is authentic
 contents unaltered
 from authentic source
 timely and in correct sequence
• can use conventional encryption
 only sender & receiver have key needed
• or separate authentication mechanisms
 append authentication tag to cleartext
message
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Message Authentication Codes

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Secure Hash Functions

 Message Authentication
13
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Hash Function Requirements

• applied to any size data

• H produces a fixed-length output.
• H(x) is relatively easy to compute for any given
x
• one-way property
 computationally infeasible to find x such that H(x) =
h
• weak collision resistance
 computationally infeasible to find y ≠ x such that
H(y) = H(x)
• strong collision resistance
 computationally infeasible to find any pair (x, y) such
that H(x) = H(y)
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Hash Functions

• two attack approaches

 cryptanalysis
• exploit logical weakness in algorithm
 brute-force attack
• trial many inputs
• strength proportional to size of hash code
(2n/2)
• SHA(Secure Hash Function) most
widely used hash algorithm
 SHA-1 gives 160-bit hash
 more recent SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
provide improved size and security
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Public Key Encryption

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Public Key Authentication

Authentication and/or data integrity
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Public Key Requirements

1. Computationally easy to create key pairs

2. Computationally easy for sender knowing
public key to encrypt messages
3. Computationally easy for receiver knowing
private key to decrypt ciphertext
4. Computationally infeasible for opponent to
determine private key from public key
5. Computationally infeasible for opponent to
otherwise recover original message
6. Useful if either key can be used for each role
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Public Key Algorithms

• RSA (Rivest, Shamir, Adleman)

 developed in 1977
 only widely accepted public-key encryption alg
 given tech advances need 1024+ bit keys
• Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm
 only allows exchange of a secret key
• Digital Signature Standard (DSS)
 provides only a digital signature function with SHA-1
• Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)
 new, security like RSA, but with much smaller keys
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Public Key
Certificates

(See textbook figure p.63)

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Digital Envelopes

Another application of public key algorithm

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Random Numbers

• random numbers have a range of uses

• requirements:
• randomness
 based on statistical tests for uniform dis-
tribution and independence
• unpredictability
 successive values not related to previous
 clearly true for truly random numbers
 but more commonly use generator
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Pseudorandom verses Random
Numbers
• often use algorithmic technique to cre-
ate pseudorandom numbers
 which satisfy statistical randomness tests
 but likely to be predictable
• true random number generators use a
nondeterministic source
 e.g. radiation, gas discharge, leaky capaci-
tors
 increasingly provided on modern processors
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Practical Application:
Encryption of Stored Data

• common to encrypt transmitted data

• much less common for stored data
 which can be copied, backed up, recov-
ered
• approaches to encrypt stored data:
 back-end appliance (hardware device close to
data storage; encrypt close to wire speed)
 library based tape encryption (co-processor
board embedded in tape drive)
 background laptop/PC data encryption
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Summary

• introduced cryptographic algorithms

• symmetric encryption algorithms for
confidentiality
• message authentication & hash func-
tions
• public-key encryption
• digital signatures and key management
• random numbers
End of Chapter 2