Information Security

CCS 1306

Kasunika Guruge
Lecturer (P)
School of IT & Computing
SLTC Research University
 Information Security
CCS 1306

Cryptography III (Traditional Ciphers)

Earlier Cryptographic Systems
● Before proceeding further, you need to know some facts about historical
cryptosystems −
○ All of these systems are based on symmetric key encryption scheme.
○ The only security service these systems provide is confidentiality of information.
○ Unlike modern systems which are digital and treat data as binary numbers, the earlier
systems worked on alphabets as basic element.

● These earlier cryptographic systems are also referred to as Ciphers. In

general, a cipher is simply just a set of steps (an algorithm) for performing
both an encryption, and the corresponding decryption.

3
Earlier Cryptographic Systems
● Following are some of the earlier ciphers that was used before the
cryptographic algorithms based on the computers.
○ Substitution Ciphers
○ Transposition Ciphers
○ Rotor Machine

● The modern crypto systems are more complex, but the philosophy
remains the same. The primary change is that the modern algorithms
works on bits instead of characters.

4
Substitution Ciphers
● A substitution cipher is a type of cryptographic algorithm where the
letters of plaintext are replaced/substituted by other characters.
● The receiver inverts the substitution on the ciphertext to recover the
plaintext.
● In classical cryptography, there are four types of substitution ciphers.
○ Simple substitution cipher or Monoalphabetic cipher
○ Homophonic substitution cipher
○ Polygram substitution cipher
○ Polyalphabetic substitution cipher
5
1. Simple Substitution / Monoalphabetic Cipher
● Each character in the plaintext is replaced with a corresponding character
of ciphertext.

● Example – Caesar cipher

○ Earliest known substitution cipher introduced by Julius Caesar
○ Used mainly for the military communications
○ This cryptosystem is generally referred to as the Shift Cipher. The concept is to
replace each alphabet by another alphabet which is ‘shifted’ by some fixed number
between 0 and 25.

6
Caesar Cipher
● For this type of scheme, both sender and receiver agree on a ‘secret shift
number’ for shifting the alphabet. This number which is between 0 and 25
becomes the key to encryption.
● The name ‘Caesar Cipher’ is occasionally used to describe the shift cipher
when the ‘shift of three’ is used.

Shift = key = 3
7
Caesar Cipher
● Mathematically a shift cipher can be interpreted as below.

A B C D E F G H I J 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

c = E(k, p) = (p + k) mod (26)  Encryption

p = D(k, c) = (c - k) mod (26)  Dercryption

C – Numeric value of ciphertext.

P – Numeric value of plaintext.
K – key
E(k,p) – Encryption Algorithm
D(k,c) – Decryption Algorithm 8
Caesar Cipher
● Example: Encrypt the plaintext ‘CREATE’ using Caesar cipher

A B C D E F G H I J 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

c = E(k, p) = (p + k) mod (26)  Encryption

Plaintext C → (3 + 3) mod (26) = 6 → ciphertext = F

Plaintext R → (18 + 3) mod (26) = 21 → ciphertext = U
Plaintext E → (5 + 3) mod (26) = 8 → ciphertext = H
Plaintext A → (1 + 3) mod (26) = 4 → ciphertext = D
Plaintext T → (20 + 3) mod (26) = 23 → ciphertext = W
Plaintext E → (5 + 3) mod (26) = 8 → ciphertext = H
9
Caesar Cipher
● Example: Decrypt the ciphertext ‘FDNH’. (Encrypted using Caesar cipher)

A B C D E F G H I J 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

p = D(k, c) = (c - k) mod (26)  Decryption

Ciphertext F → (6 - 3) mod (26) = 3 → plaintext = C

Ciphertext D → (4 - 3) mod (26) = 1 → plaintext = A
Ciphertext N → (14 - 3) mod (26) = 11 → plaintext = K
Ciphertext H → (8 - 3) mod (26) = 5 → plaintext = E

10
Exercise

● Decrypt the following ciphertext. (Hint: Encryption algorithm used is Caesar

Cipher)
HDVB WR EUHDN

● Decrypt the following ciphertext. (Hint: key=5)

YMJ VZNHP GWTBS KTC OZRUX TAJW YMJ QFED ITL

● Encrypt the following (Use Caesar Cipher)

Meet me near the school

11
2. Polygram Substitution Cipher
● A Polygram substitution cipher is one in which blocks of characters are
encrypted in groups. Ex: ‘ABA’ could correspond to ‘RTQ’.
● Example: Playfair Cipher
○ Invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854 and named after his friend Baron Playfair.
○ Two letters are encrypted at once, therefore it is called bigram substitution cipher.

● Security is much improved than simple substitution cipher.

● This cipher was widely used for many years by US and British military in
WW1.

12
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
There are 02 steps:
● Step 01: Generate key square (5x5)
○ The key square is a 5 ×5 grid of alphabets that acts as the key for encrypting
the plaintext. Each of the 25 alphabets must be unique and one letter of the
alphabet.
○ Select a key word and fill it in the 5x5 grid and fill the remaining letters of the
alphabet in the grid in the alphabetic order as shown in the diagram.
M O N A R
Example: using the keyword ‘monarchy’ , thus the initial C H Y B D
entries are ‘m’, ‘o’, ‘n’, ‘a’, ‘r’, ‘c’, ‘h’ and ‘y’ . Followed by E F G I/J K
remaining characters from a z in alphabetic order. 'J' is L P Q S T
replaced with 'I' to fit 5x5 square.
U V W X Z 13
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
There are 02 steps:
● Step 02: Split the plaintext into pair of letters.
○ If there is an odd number of letters, a ‘Z’ is added to the last letter.
Ex: Plaintext → INSTRUMENTS
After split → IN ST RU ME NT SZ
○ If a pair has repeated letters insert ‘Z’ in the middle.
Ex: Plaintext → STRESS
M O N A R
After split → ST RE SZ SZ
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
14
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
Rules for encryption:
● Rule 01: if both letters are in the same column, take the letter below each one.
(going back to the top if at the bottom)
Ex: Plaintext digraph → ME
Encrypted text → CL

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
15
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
Rules for encryption:
● Rule 02: if both letters are in the same row, take the letter to the right of each
one. (going back to the leftmost if at the rightmost)
Ex: Plaintext digraph → ST
Encrypted text → TL

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
16
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
Rules for encryption:
● Rule 03: if neither of the above rule is true, form a rectangle with two letters
and take the letters on the horizontal opposite corner of the rectangle.
Ex: Plaintext digraph → RQ
Encrypted text → NT

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
17
Playfair Cipher - Encryption

18
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
● Plaintext: Instruments → Instrumentsz → ‘In’ ‘st’ ‘ru’ ‘me’ ‘nt’ ‘sz’
● Ciphertext: gatlmzclrqtx
I→g
n→a
s→t
t→l
r→m
u→z
m→c
e→l
n→r
t→q
s→t
z→x
19
Playfair Cipher - Decryption
● For the decryption of Playfair Cipher, you need to have the same 5x5 grid
you used in the encryption.

● Step 01: Generate key square (5x5)

● Step 02: : Split the ciphertext into pair of letters (digrams).
Example: Ciphertext -“gatlmzclrqtx”
After split -'ga' 'tl' 'mz' 'cl' 'rq' 'tx' 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
20
Playfair Cipher - Decryption
Rules for decryption:
● Rule 01: if both letters are in the same column, take the letter above each one.
(going back to the bottom if at the top)
Ex: Encrypted digraph → CL
Plaintext → ME

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
21
Playfair Cipher - Decryption
Rules for decryption:
● Rule 02: if both letters are in the same row, take the letter to the left of each
one. (going back to the rightmost if at the leftmost)
Ex: Encrypted digraph → TL
Plaintext → ST

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
22
Playfair Cipher - Encryption
Rules for encryption:
● Rule 03: if neither of the above rule is true, form a rectangle with two letters
and take the letters on the horizontal opposite corner of the rectangle.
Ex: Encrypted digraph → NT
Plaintext → RQ

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
23
Playfair Cipher - Decryption

24
Playfair Cipher - Decryption
● Ciphertext: gatlmzclrqtx → ‘ga’ ‘tl’ ‘mz’ ‘cl’ ‘rq’ ‘tx’
● Plaintext: Instrumentsz → Instruments
ga → in
tl → st
mz → ru
cl → me
rq → nt
tx → sz

25
Playfair Cipher
● Security is much improved with the Playfair cipher over the monoalphabetic
ciphers.

● Have 26x26 = 676 digrams to analyze. Caesar cipher only had 26 characters to
analyze

26
3. Polyalphabetic Substitution Ciphers
● A polyalphabetic substitution cipher is made up of multiple simple substitution
ciphers or you can say that it uses multiple alphabets when encrypting.

● Example for a polyalphabetic substitution cipher – Vigenère Cipher

•The simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher.
•Makes the cryptanalysis harder with more alphabets to guess.

● Case study: Find how the encryption and decryption steps of Vigenère cipher.

27
QUESTIONS?

Thank You!

28