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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

Sidra Malik
MS(Computer and Communication Security)
NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Outline
y Basic Idea y Characteristics of Proposed Idea y Description of a Single Round Cipher
y Encryption Example y Decryption Example

y Making Iterative y Strengths and Weaknesses y Conclusion and Future Directions

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Basic Idea
y What is a Transposition Cipher?
y a method of encryption by which the positions held by units of

plaintext (the text needed to be hidden) are shifted, so that the ciphertext constitutes a permutation of the plaintext. y In other words,
y Simply the order of text is changed.

y Contribution
y A new transposition/ordering scheme is proposed which is based on

graphical pattern of key letters

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

General Working of a Cipher


y Plaintext of size n is fed into the encryption

scheme
y Which is a process which consists of

substitution and transposition mainly. These methods can be applied in any order followed.
y one or more rounds of encryption (if the

block cipher is iterated) to attain the desired working of your cipher

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Characteristics of Crypt21
y substitution concept borrowed from
Select key

classical ciphers
y transposition based on key matrix and
Find permutations of key and generate a new key

merges it with the working phenomenon of iterated block ciphers


plaintext

New key

y The Cipher consists of mainly three

C=f(Plaintext, key) ciphertext1 Ciphertext Transformation using key pattern

steps: Key Extension, Substitution and Transposition.

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Description of a Single Round


y Key Extension
y Select a key, and make permutations of this key by ROT function.

Rotate previous shifted again, and store all the combinations of key. Calculate new extended key, Nk where
y Nk = Sum(Key) mod Keylength y Out of the previously stored combinations of key, select Nk

keys. Append them to make one long extended key.

y Substitution
y In this step, ciphertext is computed by using new key and plaintext by

formula given below


y C1 = P + K mod 26 y where C1 is the obtained ciphertext, P is the plaintext as input and K is the

extended key derived in the previous step

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Description of a Single Round


Transposition Based on Key
y create l (key length) times a 3*3 matrix and fill each with a pattern of

1s and 0s depicting each key letter.


y next step is to fill in these matrices where there is 1 with letters of

intermediate ciphertext
y The last step is to read the same 1 positioned values row wise to

generate final ciphertext.

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Description of a Single Round Example (Encryption)


y Plaintext:Mary had a little key it is all she could export y Key: excess

1) Step 1, Key Extension:


E(4) + X(23) + C(2) + E(4) + S(18) + S(18) = 69 69 mod 6 (keylength) = 3
y Use the above answer to rotate row wise with a shift of 1 towards left to get

permutations of key: XCESSE CESSEX ESSEXC SSEXCE SEXCES y Now consider rst three as 69 mod 6 equals 3 and concatenate them. y NEW KEY: XCESSECESSEXESSEXC
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Description of a Single Round Example (Encryption)


Step 2, Substitution: Substitution of plaintext using extended key is done as follows

A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Description of a Single Round Example (Encryption)


Step 3, Transposition based on key: y the ciphertext received in Step 2 is filled column wise into a pattern table of a key and then extracted out reading row wise.
y Final ciphertext received is given below:

JQFDQWBQWPWSVMVCZXCSVRWQVEEAPIKKDLUPBO

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

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Description of a Single Round Example (Decryption)


Step 1, Reverse Transposition: Decryption algorithm needs key and a ciphertext y Ciphertext:JQFDQWBQWPWSVMVCZXCSVRWQVEEAPIKKDLUPBO y Key: EXCESS Take a key pattern and ll the ciphertext row wise in the matrices and read it column wise

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Description of a Single Round Example (Decryption)


Step 2, Extension of Key: Follow exactly the same steps in Step1 of encryption to get extended new key and as a result same extended key will be generated similar to that in encryption. y NEW KEY: XCESSECESSEXESSEXC Step 3, De-Substitution: In this step, plaintext is computed by using new key and ciphertext by ceaser decryption formula
y P = C1 - K mod 26 (4)

y P= Maryhadalittlekeyitisallshecouldexport

P= Mary had a little key it is all she could export


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Iterative Design
y Why iterative?
y General phenomenon that more the rounds of cipher, more

secure it is considered.
y The idea of increasing rounds was to add complexity into

the system so that the overall process is somewhat computationally expensive for brute force attacks.

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Iterative Design
y The cipher is extended up to N

rounds by introducing a Key schedule function.


y Initial Key is used only once in

Extended Key function, and further in a pattern in transposition.

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

Strengths and Weaknesses


Strengths Strengths of this cipher include it is based on classical concepts as well as modern iterative methods.
y The transposition method is new and entirely dependent on key and key length as

compared to previous methods y Frequency analysis is not easy after successive iterations of cipher. y It depends upon the length and value of key letters in original key which determine the extended key i.e. for every key, there is a variable length extended key.Which

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

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Strengths and Weaknesses


Weaknesses
y Most of the previous ciphers have been broken due to weak

key schedule. y A good key schedule however should have the following properties:
y Given all but one of the sub-keys, it is impossible to determine the

remaining sub-key. y Given all of the sub-keys, it is impossible to determine the master key. y Each sub-key bit is a random function of all of the bits of the master key.

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

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Strengths and Weaknesses


y When the attacker knows number of rounds and the key schedule

function like ROT he is always able to determine


y the number of bits changing after every round which helpshim to

derive original key length. y Once, the key length is found, the brute force attack complexity reduces by a large number. y Thus a stronger key schedule may be introduced rather than just a Rotation Function.

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

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Conclusion and Future Directions


y A new transposition scheme based block cipher is proposed. It uses

classical substitution whereas proposed transposition scheme which is entirely dependent on key.
y Strengths include that it is safe from frequency analysis y and dependant on original key in many ways. y Weaknesses include weak key schedule. y Improvements that can be made in key schedule
y By generating the hash of extended key or using any one way function which

may not yield any related keys. y Future directions are extending this algorithm to bit level values y including ASCII characters in ciphertext as well.

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A Novel Key-based Transposition Scheme for Text Encryption

12/20/2011

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