Principals of Cryptography
Week 3
Symmetric Encryption
or conventional / private-key / single-key
sender and recipient share a common key
all classical encryption algorithms are private-key
was only type prior to invention of public-key in 1970’s
and by far most widely used
Some Basic Terminology
plaintext - original message
ciphertext - coded message
cipher - algorithm for transforming plaintext to ciphertext
key - info used in cipher known only to sender/receiver
encipher (encrypt) - converting plaintext to ciphertext
decipher (decrypt) - recovering ciphertext from plaintext
cryptography - study of encryption principles/methods
cryptanalysis (codebreaking) - study of principles/ methods of
deciphering ciphertext without knowing key
cryptology - field of both cryptography and cryptanalysis
Symmetric Cipher Model
Requirements
two requirements for secure use of symmetric encryption:
a strong encryption algorithm
a secret key known only to sender / receiver
mathematically have:
Y = E(K, X)
X = D(K, Y)
assume encryption algorithm is known
implies a secure channel to distribute key
Cryptography
can characterize cryptographic system by:
type of encryption operations used
substitution
transposition
product
number of keys used
single-key or private
two-key or public
way in which plaintext is processed
block
stream
Cryptanalysis
objective to recover key not just message
general approaches:
cryptanalytic attack
brute-force attack
if either succeed all key use compromised
Cryptanalytic Attacks
➢ ciphertext only
⚫ only know algorithm & ciphertext, is statistical, know or can
identify plaintext
➢ known plaintext
⚫ know/suspect plaintext & ciphertext
➢ chosen plaintext
⚫ select plaintext and obtain ciphertext
➢ chosen ciphertext
⚫ select ciphertext and obtain plaintext
➢ chosen text
⚫ select plaintext or ciphertext to en/decrypt
Classical Substitution Ciphers
where letters of plaintext are replaced by other letters or by
numbers or symbols
or if plaintext is viewed as a sequence of bits, then
substitution involves replacing plaintext bit patterns with
ciphertext bit patterns
Caesar Cipher
earliest known substitution cipher
by Julius Caesar
first attested use in military affairs
replaces each letter by 3rd letter on
example:
meet me after the toga party
PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
Caesar Cipher
can define transformation as:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C
mathematically give each letter a number
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
then have Caesar cipher as:
c = E(k, p) = (p + k) mod (26)
p = D(k, c) = (c – k) mod (26)
Use in Cryptanalysis
key concept - monoalphabetic substitution ciphers do not
change relative letter frequencies
discovered by Arabian scientists in 9th century
calculate letter frequencies for ciphertext
compare counts/plots against known values
if caesar cipher look for common peaks/troughs
peaks at: A-E-I triple, NO pair, RST triple
troughs at: JK, X-Z
for monoalphabetic must identify each letter
tables of common double/triple letters help
Example Cryptanalysis
given ciphertext:
UZQSOVUOHXMOPVGPOZPEVSGZWSZOPFPESXUDBMETSXAIZ
VUEPHZHMDZSHZOWSFPAPPDTSVPQUZWYMXUZUHSX
EPYEPOPDZSZUFPOMBZWPFUPZHMDJUDTMOHMQ
count relative letter frequencies (see text)
guess P & Z are e and t
guess ZW is th and hence ZWP is the
proceeding with trial and error finally get:
it was disclosed yesterday that several informal but
direct contacts have been made with political
representatives of the viet cong in moscow
Summary
have considered:
classical cipher techniques and terminology
monoalphabetic substitution ciphers
cryptanalysis using letter frequencies
product ciphers and rotor machines
stenography
Asymmetric Key Encryption
The essential steps are the following:
1. Each user generates a pair of keys to be used for the encryption and
decryption of messages.
2. Each user places one of the two keys in a public register or other
accessible file.This is the public key.The companion key is kept
private.As the previous figure suggests, each user maintains a
collection of public keys obtained from others.
3. If Bob wishes to send a private message to Alice, Bob encrypts the
message using Alice’s public key.
4. When Alice receives the message, she decrypts it using her private
key. No other recipient can decrypt the message because only Alice
knows Alice’s private key.
The two keys used for public-key encryption are referred to
as the public key and the private key.
Invariably, the private key is kept secret, but it is
referred to as a private key rather than a secret key to avoid
confusion with conventional encryption.
References
William Stallings, Chapter 2, Fifth Edition,Cryptography and
Network Security
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