Cryptography and

Network Security
Chapter 9
Fourth Edition
by William Stallings

Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

 Chapter 9 – Public Key
Cryptography and RSA

Every Egyptian received two names, which were

known respectively as the true name and the
good name, or the great name and the little
name; and while the good or little name was
made public, the true or great name appears to
have been carefully concealed.
—The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer
 Private-Key Cryptography
 traditional private/secret/single key
cryptography uses one key
 shared by both sender and receiver
 if this key is disclosed communications are
compromised
 also is symmetric, parties are equal
 hence does not protect sender from
receiver forging a message & claiming is
sent by sender
 Public-Key Cryptography
 probably most significant advance in the
3000 year history of cryptography
 uses two keys – a public & a private key
 asymmetric since parties are not equal
 uses clever application of number
theoretic concepts to function
 complements rather than replaces private
key crypto
 Why Public-Key
Cryptography?
 developed to address two key issues:
 key distribution – how to have secure
communications in general without having to
trust a KDC with your key
 digital signatures – how to verify a message
comes intact from the claimed sender
 public invention due to Whitfield Diffie &
Martin Hellman at Stanford Uni in 1976
 known earlier in classified community
 Public-Key Cryptography
 public-key/two-key/asymmetric cryptography
involves the use of two keys:
 a public-key, which may be known by anybody, and
can be used to encrypt messages, and verify
signatures
 a private-key, known only to the recipient, used to
decrypt messages, and sign (create) signatures
 is asymmetric because
 those who encrypt messages or verify signatures
cannot decrypt messages or create signatures
Public-Key Cryptography
 Public-Key Characteristics
 Public-Key algorithms rely on two keys where:
 it is computationally impossible to find decryption
key knowing only algorithm & encryption key
 it is computationally easy to en/decrypt messages
when the relevant (en/decrypt) key is known
 either of the two related keys can be used for
encryption, with the other used for decryption (for
some algorithms)
Public-Key Cryptosystems
 Public-Key Applications
 can classify uses into 3 categories:
 encryption/decryption (provide secrecy)
 digital signatures (provide authentication)
 key exchange (of session keys)
 some algorithms are suitable for all uses,
others are specific to one
Security of Public Key Schemes
 like private key schemes brute force exhaustive
search attack is always theoretically possible
 but keys used are too large (>512bits)
 security relies on a large enough difference in
difficulty between easy (en/decrypt) and hard
(cryptanalyse) problems
 more generally the hard problem is known, but
is made hard enough to be impractical to break
 requires the use of very large numbers
 hence is slow compared to private key schemes
Examples of ASSYMETRIC ENCRIPTION
ALGORTHMS

 Examples of asymmetric encryption

include:
• Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA)
• the Digital Signature Standard (DSS), which
incorporates the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA)
• Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC)
• the Diffie-Hellman exchange method
• TLS/SSL protocol
 RSA
 by Rivest, Shamir & Adleman of MIT in 1977
 best known & widely used public-key scheme
 based on exponentiation in a finite (Galois) field
over integers modulo a prime
 nb. exponentiation takes O((log n)3) operations (easy)
 uses large integers (eg. 1024 bits)
 security due to cost of factoring large numbers
 nb. factorization takes O(e log n log log n) operations (hard)
 Cont.
 RSA encryption generates a public key by
multiplying two large, random prime
numbers together, and using these same
prime numbers, generates a private key.
 From there, standard asymmetric
encryption takes place: information is
encrypted using the public key and
decrypted using the private key.
 RSA Key Setup
 each user generates a public/private key pair by:
 selecting two large primes at random - p, q
 computing their system modulus n=p.q
 note ø(n)=(p-1)(q-1)
 selecting at random the encryption key e
• where 1<e<ø(n), gcd(e,ø(n))=1
 solve following equation to find decryption key d
 e.d=1 mod ø(n) and 0≤d≤n
 publish their public encryption key: PU={e,n}
 keep secret private decryption key: PR={d,n}
 RSA Use
 to encrypt a message M the sender:
 obtains public key of recipient PU={e,n}
 computes: C = Me mod n, where 0≤M<n
 to decrypt the ciphertext C the owner:
 uses their private key PR={d,n}
 computes: M = Cd mod n
 note that the message M must be smaller
than the modulus n (block if needed)
 Why RSA Works
 because of Euler's Theorem:
 aø(n)mod n = 1 where gcd(a,n)=1
 in RSA have:
 n=p.q
 ø(n)=(p-1)(q-1)
 carefully chose e & d to be inverses mod ø(n)
 hence e.d=1+k.ø(n) for some k
 hence :
Cd = Me.d = M1+k.ø(n) = M1.(Mø(n))k
= M1.(1)k = M1 = M mod n
 RSA Example - Key Setup
1. Select primes: p=17 & q=11
2. Compute n = pq =17 x 11=187
3. Compute ø(n)=(p–1)(q-1)=16 x 10=160
4. Select e: gcd(e,160)=1; choose e=7
5. Determine d: de=1 mod 160 and d < 160
Value is d=23 since 23x7=161= 10x160+1
6. Publish public key PU={7,187}
7. Keep secret private key PR={23,187}
RSA Example - En/Decryption
 sample RSA encryption/decryption is:
 given message M = 88 (nb. 88<187)
 encryption:
C = 887 mod 187 = 11
 decryption:
M = 1123 mod 187 = 88
 Exponentiation
 can use the Square and Multiply Algorithm
 a fast, efficient algorithm for exponentiation
 concept is based on repeatedly squaring base
 and multiplying in the ones that are needed to
compute the result
 look at binary representation of exponent
 only takes O(log2 n) multiples for number n
 eg. 75 = 74.71 = 3.7 = 10 mod 11
 eg. 3129 = 3128.31 = 5.3 = 4 mod 11
 Exponentiation
c = 0; f = 1
for i = k downto 0
do c = 2 x c
f = (f x f) mod n
if bi == 1 then
c=c+1
f = (f x a) mod n
return f
 Efficient Encryption
 encryption uses exponentiation to power e
 hence if e small, this will be faster
 often choose e=65537 (216-1)
 also see choices of e=3 or e=17
 but if e too small (eg e=3) can attack
 using Chinese remainder theorem & 3
messages with different modulii
 if e fixed must ensure gcd(e,ø(n))=1
 ie reject any p or q not relatively prime to e
 Efficient Decryption
 decryption uses exponentiation to power d
 this is likely large, insecure if not
 can use the Chinese Remainder Theorem
(CRT) to compute mod p & q separately.
then combine to get desired answer
 approx 4 times faster than doing directly
 only owner of private key who knows
values of p & q can use this technique
 RSA Key Generation
 users of RSA must:
 determine two primes at random - p, q
 select either e or d and compute the other
 primes p,q must not be easily derived
from modulus n=p.q
 means must be sufficiently large
 typically guess and use probabilistic test
 exponents e, d are inverses, so use
Inverse algorithm to compute the other
 RSA Security
 possible approaches to attacking RSA are:
 brute force key search (infeasible given size
of numbers)
 mathematical attacks (based on difficulty of
computing ø(n), by factoring modulus n)
 timing attacks (on running of decryption)
 chosen ciphertext attacks (given properties of
RSA)
 Factoring Problem
 mathematical approach takes 3 forms:
 factor n=p.q, hence compute ø(n) and then d
 determine ø(n) directly and compute d
 find d directly
 currently believe all equivalent to factoring
 have seen slow improvements over the years
• as of May-05 best is 200 decimal digits (663) bit with LS
 biggest improvement comes from improved algorithm
• cf QS to GHFS to LS
 currently assume 1024-2048 bit RSA is secure
• ensure p, q of similar size and matching other constraints
 Timing Attacks
 developed by Paul Kocher in mid-1990’s
 exploit timing variations in operations
 eg. multiplying by small vs large number
 or IF's varying which instructions executed
 infer operand size based on time taken
 RSA exploits time taken in exponentiation
 countermeasures
 use constant exponentiation time
 add random delays
 blind values used in calculations
 Chosen Ciphertext Attacks
• RSA is vulnerable to a Chosen Ciphertext
Attack (CCA)
• attackers chooses ciphertexts & gets decrypted
plaintext back
• choose ciphertext to exploit properties of RSA
to provide info to help cryptanalysis
• can counter with random pad of plaintext
• or use Optimal Asymmetric Encryption
Padding (OASP)
 Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC)
• ECC is an RSA alternative that uses smaller key sizes and
mathematical elliptic curves to execute asymmetric
encryption.
• It’s frequently used to digitally sign cryptocurrency
transactions;
• in fact, the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin uses ECC – the
Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), to be
exact - to digitally sign transactions and ensure that funds
are spent by authorized users only.
• ECC is much faster than RSA in terms of key and signature
generation, and many consider it the future of asymmetric
encryption, mainly for web traffic and cryptocurrency but for
other applications as well.
 Diffie-Hellman exchange method
 Diffie-Hellman, one of cryptography’s greatest
breakthroughs, is a key exchange method that two parties
who have never met can use to exchange public and private
key pairs over public, insecure communication channels.
 Prior to Diffie-Hellman, two parties seeking to encrypt their
communications between each other had to physically pre-
exchange encryption keys so that both parties could
decipher each other’s encrypted messages.
 Diffie-Hellman made it so that these keys could be securely
exchanged over public communication channels, where third
parties normally extract sensitive information and encryption
keys.
 Advantages of asymmetric encryption
algorithms

 Key distribution not necessary

 Exchange of private keys not necessary.
 Digital signature/message
authentication: with asymmetric
encryption, senders can use their private
keys to digitally sign and verify that a
message or file originated from them and
not an untrusted third party.
Disadvantages of asymmetric encryption
algorithm
 The main disadvantage of asymmetric encryption is that
it’s slower than symmetric encryption because of its
longer key lengths, not to mention that asymmetric
encryption calculations tend to be much more complex
than their symmetric counterparts.
 Summary
 have considered:
 principles of public-key cryptography
 RSA algorithm, implementation, security