Making Good Encryption Algorithms

Substitution algorithms hide the plaintext and dissipate high letter frequencies Transposition algorithms scramble text Many good algorithms combine both techniques

Shannons Characteristics of Good Ciphers

Amount of secrecy needed should determine the amount of labor appropriate for encryption/decryption. Set of keys and enciphering algorithm should be free from complexity. Implementation should be simple Errors in ciphering should not propogate. Size of ciphertext should be no larger than the size of the plaintext

Properties of Trustworthy Encryption Systems

Based on sound mathematics Been analyzed by competent experts and found to be sound Stood the test of time

Three Examples:
DES (data encryption standard) RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman) AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption Systems

Symmetric requires one secret key that is used for encryption AND decryption (e.g. Caesar cipher might use a key of 3 to indicate shift by 3) As long as key remains secret, authentication is provided Problem is key distribution; if there are n users, we need n * (n-1)/2 unique keys

Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption Systems

Asymmetric requires two keys one of which is a public key The public key is used for encryption and the private key is used for decryption If there are n users, there are n public keys that everyone knows and n private keys known only to the user

Stream and Block Ciphers

Stream ciphers convert one symbol of plaintext immediately into a symbol of ciphertext Transformation depends on the plaintext symbol, the key, and the algorithm Error can affect all text after the error

Stream and Block Ciphers

Block cipher encrypts a group of plaintext symbols as one block (e.g. columnar transposition)
Stream Block High diffusion Immunity to insertation of symbols

Advantages

Speed of transformation Low error propagation

disadvantages

Low diffusion Susceptibility to malicious insertations and modifications

Slowness of encryption Error propagation

Confusion and Diffusion

Confusion interceptor cannot predict what will happen to the ciphertext by changing one character in the plaintext Diffusion information from single plaintext is distributed over the entire ciphertext

Cryptanalysis

Ciphertext Only requires analysis using probabilities, distributions, and characteristics of the available ciphertext, plus any publicly known information Full or Partial Plaintext knows some plaintext and ciphertext (C & P in C = E(P) ); only needs to determine the algorithm; can use probable plaintext analysis Ciphertext of Any Plaintext analyst can insert data into plaintext to be encrypted

Cryptanalysis

Algorithm and Ciphertext analyst runs the algorithm on massive amounts of plaintext to try and match one with the ciphertext and deduce the senders encryption key Ciphertext and Plaintext try and determine the encryption key Weaknesses cryptanalysis often succeeds because of human error and/or carelessness

Elementary Tips for Frequency Analysis

Count frequencies

In English, look for repeated letters (ss, ee, tt, ff, ll, mm, oo) If ciphertext contains spaces, look for one, two, three letter words (a, I, of, to, in, it, is, be, as, at, so, we, he, by, or, on, do, if, me, my, up, an, go, no, us, am, the, and) Tailor table of frequencies to message you are trying to decipher (e.g. military messages omit pronouns and articles) Be willing to guess and use experience If the frequency of the ciphertext matches frequency table, the cipher is transpositon

j,k,q,x,z have frequency less than 1% e should have frequency greater than 10% (19% in German) Italian has 3 letters with frequency > 10% and 9 letters with frequency < 1%

Taken from Appendix B of The Code Book by Simon Singh, Doubleday, 1999.