CSC432 – INFORMATION

SECURITY

Dr. Adnan Ahmad

 Module # 4

CRYPTOGRAPHY AND
ENCRYPTION
Cryptography
 The word Cryptography comes from the Greek words,
“Crypt” means (hidden or secret) and “Graphy” means
(writing)
 So, cryptography is the art of secret writing
 The basic service provided by cryptography is the
ability to send information between participants in a
way that prevents others from reading it
Secure Channel for message transfer
between Alice and Bob

Sender Receiver
Encryption
 Alternatively, Encryption is the actual process of
transforming information into an illegible format
 Encryption basically is some process or algorithm to
make information hidden or secret
 To make that process useful, you need some code to
make information accessible again
 Modern day encryption uses different types of
algorithms to achieve results that vary in complexity
Encryption
 A message in its original form is known as plaintext or
cleartext
 The mangled information is known as ciphertext
 Encryption is a process by which a message (called
plaintext) is transformed into another message (called
ciphertext) using a mathematical function and a special
encryption password (called a key)
 The reverse of encryption is called decryption
Cryptography
 Cryptographic systems tend to involve both an
algorithm and a secret value (means they use
encryption/decryption)

 While cryptographers invent clever secret codes,

cryptanalysts attempt to break these codes

 These two disciplines constantly try to keep ahead of

each other
Cryptography
 Cryptographic algorithms involve substituting one
thing for another, in many possible ways
 A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or
decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be
followed as a procedure

 Example: Transposition cipher

 Rearranges the characters in the plaintext

 Example: Caesar cipher

 substitute each letter by the letter that appears k letters later in
the alphabet; while producing what looks like gibberish
 there are only 25 possible keys available
Example: Transposition cipher
 Plain text is HELLOWORLD
 HLOOL
 ELWRD
 And then combining it to form the cipher text HLOOLELWRD

 The attacker requires to rearrange the letters

 Called anagramming

http://crypto-flash.tripod.com/transpositionFlash.htm
Cryptography
Q: How hard is it to break these simple ciphers?
Objective is to recover key not just message

 Brute force attack (attempt all possibilities)

 Simple with the Caesar cipher, but gets quite difficult
with monoalphabetic or polyalphabetic ciphers

 Cryptanalytic attack
 Ciphertext-only attack: use statistics and other
information to decrypt intercepted ciphertext
 For example, simple statistics on letter placement and
occurrence in English makes further decryption simpler
Cryptography
 Known-plaintext attack: if some of the plaintext is
known, one could uncover some of the plaintext-
ciphertext mappings, making decryption easier
 For example, if we knew “Alice” was in the message, we get
some of the mappings right away without much difficulty

 Chosen-plaintext attack: the intruder can choose the

plaintext (to be encrypted) message and receive the
(corresponding) ciphertext form
Cryptography
 An encryption scheme is computationally secure if
 The cost of breaking the cipher exceeds the value of
information
 The time required to break the cipher exceeds the
lifetime of information

Unconditionally secure - Provably secure -

Computationally secure
Cryptography vs Steganography
 Cryptography is the practice of ‘scrambling’ messages
so that even if detected, they are very difficult to
decipher
 Steganography (means concealed writing) is to conceal
the message such that the very existence of the hidden
is ‘camouflaged’

 Steganography is data inside data

 It is mostly used to hide text inside pictures or sound
files (digital watermarking)
Steganography example
 An example of the message containing cipher text by a
German spy in WWII

 “Apparently neutral’s protest is thoroughly discounted

and ignored. Isman hard hit. Blockade issue affects
pretext for embargo on by products, ejecting suets and
vegetable oils.”

 Taking the second letter in each word, the following

message emerges

 Pershing sails from NY June 1.

 https://people.cs.umass.edu/~
verts/cmpsci145/SimpleSteganography/SimpleSteganogr
Types of Cryptography
 Symmetric key cryptography: encryption and
decryption keys are identical, so the key must be kept
secret
 This approach is also called secret/private key
cryptography

 Asymmetric key cryptography: different keys for

encryption and decryption (one public, the other
private)
 This approach is also called two key/public key
cryptography
Symmetric Key Cryptography
 Same key decrypts and encrypts information
 The encryption functions used need not be secret, but
the keys used must be secret

 Examples:
 ROT13: Very simple rotation algorithm
 Caesar cipher: Another (better) rotation algorithm
 Crypt: Original Unix encryption program
 DES: Data Encryption Standard
 AES: Advanced Encryption Standard
 IDEA: International Data Encryption Algorithm
 Skipjack: U.S. National Security Agency developed
algorithm
Symmetric Key Cryptography

K K
A-B A-B

encryption ciphertext decryption

plaintext
algorithm
plaintext
algorithm
message, m
K (m) m = K K( (m) )
A-B A-B A-B

 Bob and Alice share the same (symmetric) key: KA-B

 For example, the key is knowing substitution pattern in
a cipher
Symmetric Key Cryptography
Key Issues in Symmetric Key Cryptography

 Question: How do Bob and Alice agree on key value?

What if Bob and Alice have never “met” before?
 Even Better Question: How is the agreed upon key
distributed to both Bob and Alice in a secure fashion?
Asymmetric Key Cryptography
 Radically different approach (two different keys)
 Sender and receiver do not share secret key
 Public encryption key known to all
 Private decryption key known only by the owner

 Examples
 Diffie-Hellman: the first public key approach
proposed
 RSA: the best known public key system,
developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman
 DSA: Digital Signature Algorithm, developed by the
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
Asymmetric Key Cryptography
Keys are generated in pairs
 Public key is publicly registered so everyone knows it,
and private one is kept secret by the owner
 Each key can decrypt what the other encrypts, but not
what it encrypts itself (that why asymmetric)

Important properties of key generation:

 There is a one-to-one correspondence in the generated
key pairs – if one key can decrypt a message, it must
have been encrypted by the other
 It must be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
deduce the private key when given a public key
Asymmetric Key Cryptography

+ Bob’s public
K
B key

- Bob’s private
K
B key

plaintext encryption ciphertext decryption plaintext

message, m algorithm algorithm message
K+ (m)
B m = K - (K+ (m))
B B
Asymmetric Key Cryptography

- Alice’s private
K
A key

+ Alice’s public
K
A key

plaintext encryption decryption plaintext

ciphertext
message, m algorithm -
algorithm message
K (m) m = K + (K- (m))
A
A A
Asymmetric Key Cryptography
 This property will be very useful later:

K B− (K B+ (m)) = m = K A+ (K A − (m))

 use private key first, followed by public key

 use public key first, followed by private key

 Result is the same

Applications of Cryptography
 Transmitting over an insecure channel
 Secure storage on insecure media

 Everything that SKC does can be done by PKC and

Digital Signatures
Cryptography Terms Summary
 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 plaintext from ciphertext
 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
Ciphers and Their Types
 Classical Ciphers
 Transposition Cipher
 Substitution Cipher
 Monoalphabetic
 Polyalphabetic

 Modern Cipher
 Asymmetric
 Symmetric
 Block
 Stream
Ciphers and Their Types
 Transposition: rearrange bits or characters in the data
(permutation)
 Substitution: replace bits, characters, or blocks of
characters with substitutes
 Monoalphabetic: A single alphabet is used to
encrypt the entire plaintext message
 Polyalphabetic: A more complex substitution that
uses a different alphabet to encrypt each bit,
character, or character block of a plaintext message
 A block cipher is one that breaks a message up into
chunks and combines a key with each chunk
 A stream cipher is one that applies a key to each bit,
one at a time
Ciphers and Their Types
Caesar Cipher
 One of the simplest examples of a cipher is the Caesar
cipher
 It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in
the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number
of positions down the alphabet
 For example, with a shift of 3, ‘A’ would be replaced by
‘D’, ‘B’ would become ‘E’, and so on
Plaintext: the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Ciphertext: WKH TXLFN EURZQ IRA MXPSV RYHU WKH
ODCB GRJ
 http://crypto-flash.tripod.com/caesarFlash.htm
Ciphers and Their Types
Vigenère Cipher

 The most common polyalphabetic cipher

 Vigenère cipher starts with a 26 x 26 matrix of
alphabets in sequence
 First row/column starts with ‘A’, second row/column
starts with ‘B’, etc
 It requires a keyword that the sender and receiver know
ahead of time
 Each character of the message is combined with the
characters of the keyword to find the ciphertext
character
Ciphers and Their Types
Vigenère Cipher Matrix

Message = SEE ME IN MALL

Keyword = INFOSEC
Encryption

SEEME INMALL
INFOS EC I NFO
-----------------------------
ARJAWMPUNQZ
Classwork
 Encrypt the plaintext
 "a simple example"
 using the keyword
 “battista.“
Ciphers and Their Types
Vigenère Cipher Matrix

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

A B C D E F G H I J

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

K L M N O P Q R S T

20 21 22 23 24 25

U V W X Y Z
Ciphers and Their Types
Vigenère Cipher Example

 Message = SEE ME IN MALL

 Keyword = INFOSEC
Encryption Decryption
SEEME INMALL A RJ AWMPUNQZ
INFOS EC I NFO I NFO S E C IN FO
----------------------------- ------------------------------
ARJAWMPUNQZ SEEM E I N MALL

 As its polyalphabetic, same plaintext character is

substituted by different ciphertext
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsewLHTAmsA
Ciphers and Their Types
Playfair Cipher

 The best known multiple-letter cipher (polyalphabetic),

which treats digrams in the plaintext as single units
 It is based on a 5x5 matrix of letters constructed using
a keyword
 Suppose we have a keyword “monarchy”
 The matrix is constructed by filling in the letter of the
keyword (minus duplicate) from left to right and from
top to bottom in alphabetic order
 The letter I and J count as one letter (as we have max
25 spaces available)
Ciphers and Their Types
Playfair Cipher Matrix

 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
Ciphers and Their Types
Playfair Cipher Matrix

 Plaintext is encrypted two letters at a time, according

to the following rules

 If in same column
 Move each letter down one
 If in same row
 Move each letter right one
 If form a rectangle
 Swap with the ends of the rectangle
Ciphers and Their Types
Playfair Cipher Example

 Repeating plaintext letters that would fall in the same

pair are separated with a filler letter, such as x, so that
‘balloon’ would be treated as ‘ba lx lo on’

 AR becomes RM
 CE becomes EL
 HS becomes BP
 EA becomes IM (or JM)
 Balloon becomes ?
Ciphers and Their Types
 Playfair Cipher Example

Example:
Plaintext: see me tomorrow
se em et om or ro wx
Ciphertext: li lc kl no nm mn xz

 Decryption is just the reverse of encryption

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quKhvu2tPy8
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher

 The affine cipher is a monoalphabetic substitution

cipher
 The encryption/decryption process is substantially
mathematical

 Step one: Substitute each letter in your plaintext

message with a number (range 0 to m-1)
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher Example

 Create a permutation of the alphabet by replacing each

a with the result of a simple equation:
 E(x) = (ax + b) mod m

 m is 26 in this case as total number of alphabets in

English language
 a is relatively prime to 26 (or the length of whatever
alphabet you're using), and b is an arbitrary integer of
your choice
 a and b need to be known to decrypt
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher Example

 lets encrypt the plaintext "affine cipher", using the key

a = 5, b = 8

Plaintext a f f i n e c i p h e r
x 0 5 5 8 13 4 2 8 15 7 4 17
5x+8 8 33 33 48 73 28 18 48 83 43 28 93
(5x+8) mod 8 7 7 22 21 2 18 22 5 17 2 15
26
Ciphertext I H H W V C S W F R C P
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher Example

 In decryption, we must perform the opposite (or inverse)

functions on the ciphertext to retrieve the plaintext,
using the following equation;
 D(x) = c(x - b) mod m

 c is the modular multiplicative inverse of a i.e., a*c = 1

mod m
 We know that, a = 5, b = 8
 The first step here is to find the inverse of a, which in this
case is 21
 (since 21 x 5 = 105 = 1 mod 26, as 26 x 4 = 104, and 105
- 104 = 1)
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher Example

 lets do decryption of the ciphertext

Ciphertext I H H W V C S W F R C P
y 8 7 7 22 21 2 18 22 5 17 2 15
21(y-8) 0 (-1+ 525 294 273 (-6+ 210 29 (-3+ 189 420 147
26)* 26)* 4 26)*
21= 21= 21=
525 420 483
21(y-8) mod 26 0 5 5 8 13 4 2 8 15 7 4 17
Plaintext A F F I N E C I P H E R
Ciphers and Their Types
Affine Cipher Example

 Encrypt ‘network security’ with a=5, b=6

 taxmyne saqcnuxw
Ciphers and Their Types
Rail Fence Cipher

 A transposition cipher that gets its name from the way

in which it is encoded
 Plaintext is written downwards on successive "rails" of
an imaginary fence, then moving up when we get to
the bottom
 Encrypted message (cipertext) is then read off in rows
Ciphers and Their Types
Rail Fence Cipher Example

 Using three "rails" and a plaintext 'WE ARE

DISCOVERED. FLEE AT ONCE‘
W. . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. E . R . D . S . O. E . E . F . E . A . O. C .
. . A . . . I . . . V . . . D . . . E . . . N. .

 Ciphertext = WECRL TEERD SOEEF EAOCA IVDEN

 Decryption is just the reverse of encryption

Ciphers and Their Types
One-time Pad

 Use a random key that is as long as the message so

that the key need not be repeated
 The key is used to encrypt and decrypt a single
message, and then is discarded
 Perfectly secure, unbreakable (if used correctly)
because it produces random output (from the random
key) that bears no statistical relationship to the
plaintext

 Drawbacks: large quantities of random keys needed,

key distribution and protection (both sender and
receiver)
Ciphers and Their Types
One-time Pad Example

plaintext: SECRETMESSAGE
one-time pad: CIJTHUUHMLFRU
ciphertext: UMLKLNGLEDFXY
Module # 4

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