Cryptography and

Network Security
Chapter 2
Fourth Edition
by William Stallings

Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

 Basic Cryptography
 Cryptography is technique of securing information and
communications through use of codes so that only those person for
whom the information is intended can understand it and process it.
Thus preventing unauthorized access to information.
 The prefix “crypt” means “hidden” and suffix graphy means “writing”.
 In Cryptography the techniques which are use to protect information
are obtained from mathematical concepts and a set of rule based
calculations known as algorithms to convert messages in ways that
make it hard to decode it.
 These algorithms are used for cryptographic key generation, digital
signing, verification to protect data privacy, web browsing on internet
and to protect confidential transactions such as credit card and debit
card transactions.
Features Of Cryptography are as follows:
 Confidentiality: Information can only be accessed by the
person for whom it is intended and no other person except
him can access it.
 Integrity: Information cannot be modified in storage or
transition between sender and intended receiver without
any addition to information being detected.
 Non-repudiation: The creator/sender of information
cannot deny his intention to send information at later
stage.
 Authentication: The identities of sender and receiver are
confirmed. As well as destination/origin of information is
confirmed.
Types Of Cryptography: In general there
are three types Of cryptography:
1. Symmetric Key Cryptography: It is an encryption
system where the sender and receiver of message use a
single common key to encrypt and decrypt messages.

Symmetric Key Systems are faster and simpler but the

problem is that sender and receiver have to somehow
exchange key in a secure manner.

The most popular symmetric key cryptography system is

Data Encryption System(DES).
 Cont.
 2. Hash Functions: There is no usage of any key in
this algorithm. A hash value with fixed length is
calculated as per the plain text which makes it
impossible for contents of plain text to be recovered.
Many operating systems use hash functions to
encrypt passwords.
 3. Asymmetric Key Cryptography: Under this
system a pair of keys is used to encrypt and decrypt
information. A public key is used for encryption and
a private key is used for decryption. Public key and
Private Key are different. Even if the public key is
known by everyone the intended receiver can only
decode it because he alone knows the private key.
Applications Of Cryptography:
 Computer passwords
 Digital Currencies/cryptocurrencies
 Secure web browsing
 Electronic Signatures
 Authentication
 End-to-end encryption
 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 = EK(X)
X = DK(Y)
 assume encryption algorithm is known
 implies a secure channel to distribute key
 Cryptography
 Characterize/categories of cryptographic
system by:
1. type of encryption operations used
• substitution / transposition / product
2. number of keys used
• single-key or private / two-key or public
3. way in which plaintext is processed
• block / stream
 Steganography
 Steganography works by replacing bits of
useless or unused data in regular
computer files (such as graphics, sound,
text, HTML, or even floppy disks ) with bits
of different, invisible information
 Cryptanalysis
 objective to recover key not just message
 Cryptanalysis is the process of studying
cryptographic systems to look for
weaknesses or leaks of information. This
is done by Cryptanalyst
 general approaches:
 cryptanalytic attack
 brute-force attack
 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
Types of Cryptanalytic Attacks
 Types of Cryptanalytic Attacks
Known-Plaintext Analysis (KPA) :
In this type of attack, some plaintext-ciphertext pairs are
already known. Attacker maps them in order to find the
encryption key. This attack is easier to use as a lot of
information is already available.
Chosen-Plaintext Analysis (CPA) :
In this type of attack, the attacker chooses random
plaintexts and obtains the corresponding ciphertexts and
tries to find the encryption key.
Its very simple to implement like KPA but the success rate
is quite low.
 Cont.
Ciphertext-Only Analysis (COA) :
In this type of attack, only some cipher-text is known and the
attacker tries to find the corresponding encryption key and
plaintext.
Its the hardest to implement but is the most probable attack as
only ciphertext is required.
Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack :
In this type of attack, attacker intercepts the message/key
between two communicating parties through a secured channel.
Adaptive Chosen-Plaintext Analysis (ACPA) :
This attack is similar CPA. Here, the attacker requests the
cipher texts of additional plaintexts after they have ciphertexts
for some texts.
 More Definitions
 unconditional security
 no matter how much computer power or time
is available, the cipher cannot be broken
since the ciphertext provides insufficient
information to uniquely determine the
corresponding plaintext
 computational security
 given limited computing resources (eg time
needed for calculations is greater than age of
universe), the cipher cannot be broken
 Brute Force Search
 always possible to simply try every key
 most basic attack, proportional to key size
 assume either know / recognise plaintext

Key Size (bits) Number of Alternative Time required at 1 Time required at 106
Keys decryption/µs decryptions/µs
32 232 = 4.3  109 231 µs = 35.8 minutes 2.15 milliseconds
56 256 = 7.2  1016 255 µs = 1142 years 10.01 hours
128 2128 = 3.4  1038 2127 µs = 5.4  1024 years 5.4  1018 years

168 2168 = 3.7  1050 2167 µs = 5.9  1036 years 5.9  1030 years

26 characters 26! = 4  1026 2  1026 µs = 6.4  1012 years 6.4  106 years
(permutation)
 Basic approaches to
symmetric encryption
 The two basic building blocks of all
encryption technique are:
• substitution
• and transposition
 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
 Example :Ceaser Cipher
 Caesar Cipher
 earliest known substitution cipher by Julius
Caesar
 first attested use in military affairs
 replaces each letter by 3rd letter on
 Note A becomes D
 example:
meet me after the toga party
PHHW PH DJWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
 Caesar Cipher
 can define transformation as:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC

 mathematically give each letter a number

abcdefghij 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(p) = (p + k) mod (26)
p = D(c) = (c – k) mod (26)
 Cryptanalysis of Caesar
Cipher
 only have 26 possible ciphers
 A maps to A,B,..Z
 could simply try each in turn
 a brute force search
 given ciphertext, just try all shifts of letters
 do need to recognize when have plaintext
 eg. break ciphertext "GCUA VQ DTGCM"
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
 rather than just shifting the alphabet
 could shuffle (jumble) the letters arbitrarily
(randomaly or hapzard)
 each plaintext letter maps to a different random
ciphertext letter hence key is 26 letters long

Plain: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cipher: DKVQFIBJWPESCXHTMYAUOLRGZN

Plaintext: ifwewishtoreplaceletters
Ciphertext: WIRFRWAJUHYFTSDVFSFUUFYA
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
Security
 now have a total of 26! = 4 x 1026 keys
 with so many keys, might think is secure
 but would be !!!WRONG!!!
 problem is language characteristics
 Language Redundancy and
Cryptanalysis
 human languages are redundant
 eg "th lrd s m shphrd shll nt wnt"
 letters are not equally commonly used
 in English E is by far the most common letter
 followed by T,R,N,I,O,A,S
 other letters like Z,J,K,Q,X are fairly rare
 have tables of single, double & triple letter
frequencies for various languages
English Letter Frequencies
 Playfair Cipher
 not even the large number of keys in a
monoalphabetic cipher provides security
 one approach to improving security was to
encrypt multiple letters
 the Playfair Cipher is an example
 invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854,
but named after his friend Baron Playfair
 Playfair Key Matrix
 a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
 fill in letters of keyword (sans duplicates)
 fill rest of matrix with other letters
 eg. using the keyword MONARCHY

M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
 Encrypting and Decrypting
 plaintext is encrypted two letters at a time
1. if a pair is a repeated letter, insert filler like 'X’
2. if both letters fall in the same row, replace
each with letter to right (wrapping back to start
from end)
3. if both letters fall in the same column, replace
each with the letter below it (again wrapping to
top from bottom)
4. otherwise each letter is replaced by the letter
in the same row and in the column of the other
letter of the pair
 Security of Playfair Cipher
 security much improved over monoalphabetic
 since have 26 x 26 = 676 digrams
 would need a 676 entry frequency table to
analyse (verses 26 for a monoalphabetic)
 and correspondingly more ciphertext
 was widely used for many years
 eg. by US & British military in WW1
 it can be broken, given a few hundred letters
 since still has much of plaintext structure
 Polyalphabetic Ciphers
 polyalphabetic substitution ciphers
 improve security using multiple cipher alphabets
 make cryptanalysis harder with more alphabets
to guess and flatter frequency distribution
 use a key to select which alphabet is used for
each letter of the message
 use each alphabet in turn
 repeat from start after end of key is reached
 Vigenère Cipher
 simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher
 effectively multiple caesar ciphers
 key is multiple letters long K = k1 k2 ... kd
 ith
letter specifies ith alphabet to use
 use each alphabet in turn
 repeat from start after d letters in message
 decryption simply works in reverse
 Example of Vigenère Cipher
 write the plaintext out
 write the keyword repeated above it
 use each key letter as a caesar cipher key
 encrypt the corresponding plaintext letter
 eg using keyword deceptive
key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ
 Aids
 simple aids can assist with en/decryption
 a Saint-Cyr Slide is a simple manual aid
 a slide with repeated alphabet
 line up plaintext 'A' with key letter, eg 'C'
 then read off any mapping for key letter
 can bend round into a cipher disk
 or expand into a Vigenère Tableau
 Security of Vigenère Ciphers
 have multiple ciphertext letters for each
plaintext letter
 hence letter frequencies are obscured
 but not totally lost
 start with letter frequencies
 see if look monoalphabetic or not
 if not, then need to determine number of
alphabets, since then can attach each
 Kasiski Method
 method developed by Babbage / Kasiski
 repetitions in ciphertext give clues to period
 so find same plaintext an exact period apart
which results in the same ciphertext
 of course, could also be random fluke
 eg repeated “VTW” in previous example
 suggests size of 3 or 9
 then attack each monoalphabetic cipher
individually using same techniques as before
 Autokey Cipher
 ideally want a key as long as the message
 Vigenère proposed the autokey cipher
 with keyword is prefixed to message as key
 knowing keyword can recover the first few letters
 use these in turn on the rest of the message
 but still have frequency characteristics to attack
 eg. given key deceptive
key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA
 One-Time Pad
 if a truly random key as long as the message is
used, the cipher will be secure
 called a One-Time pad
 is unbreakable since ciphertext bears no
statistical relationship to the plaintext
 since for any plaintext & any ciphertext there
exists a key mapping one to other
 can only use the key once though
 problems in generation & safe distribution of key
 Transposition Ciphers
 now consider classical transposition or
permutation ciphers
 these hide the message by rearranging
the letter order
 without altering the actual letters used
 can recognise these since have the same
frequency distribution as the original text
 Rail Fence cipher
 write message letters out diagonally over a
number of rows
 then read off cipher row by row
 eg. write message out as:
m e m a t r h t g p r y
e t e f e t e o a a t
 giving ciphertext
MEMATRHTGPRYETEFETEOAAT
 Row Column Transposition
Ciphers
 a more complex transposition
 write letters of message out in rows over a
specified number of columns
 then reorder the columns according to
some key before reading off the rows
Key: 3 4 2 1 5 6 7 order of alphabet
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
ostpone
duntilt
woamxyz
Ciphertext: APTMTTNAAODWTSUOCOIXKNLYPETZ
 Product Ciphers
 ciphers using substitutions or transpositions are
not secure because of language characteristics
 hence consider using several ciphers in
succession to make harder, but:
 two substitutions make a more complex substitution
 two transpositions make more complex transposition
 but a substitution followed by a transposition makes a
new much harder cipher
 this is bridge from classical to modern ciphers
 Rotor Machines
 before modern ciphers, rotor machines were
most common complex ciphers in use
 widely used in WW2
 German Enigma, Allied Hagelin, Japanese Purple
 implemented a very complex, varying
substitution cipher
 used a series of cylinders, each giving one
substitution, which rotated and changed after
each letter was encrypted
 with 3 cylinders have 263=17576 alphabets
Hagelin Rotor Machine
 Steganography
 an alternative to encryption
 hides existence of message
 using only a subset of letters/words in a
longer message marked in some way
 using invisible ink
 hiding in LSB in graphic image or sound file
 has drawbacks
 high overhead to hide relatively few info bits
 Summary
 have considered:
 classical cipher techniques and terminology
 monoalphabetic substitution ciphers
 cryptanalysis using letter frequencies
 Playfair cipher
 polyalphabetic ciphers
 transposition ciphers
 product ciphers and rotor machines
 stenography