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CNS UNIT 1 & 2

Cse (ai & ml) (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad)

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UNIT –I
Attacks on Computers and Computer Security: Introduction, The need of Security,
Security approaches, Principles of Security, Types of Security Attacks, Security Services,
Security Mechanisms, A model for Network Security.
Cryptography: Concepts and Techniques: Introduction, Plain text and Cipher Text,
Substitution Techniques, Transposition Techniques, Encryption and Decryption, Symmetric
and Asymmetric Cryptography, Steganography, Key Range and Key Size, Possible types of
Attacks.

Introduction:
This is the age of universal electronic connectivity, where the activities like
hacking, viruses, electronic fraud are very common. Unless security measures are taken,
a network conversation or a distributed application can be compromised easily.

Some simple examples are:

 Online purchases using a credit/debit card.
 A customer unknowingly being directed to a false website.
 A hacker sending a message to a person pretending to be someone else.

Network Security has been affected by two major developments over the last
several decades. First one is introduction of computers into organizations and the second
one being introduction of distributed systems and the use of networks and
communication facilities for carrying data between users & computers. These two
developments lead to ‘computer security’ and ‘network security’, where the computer
security deals with collection of tools designed to protect data and to thwart hackers.
Network security measures are needed to protect data during transmission. But keep in
mind that, it is the information and our ability to access that information that we are
really trying to protect and not the computers and networks.

Why We Need Information Security?

Because there are threats
Threats
A threat is an object, person, or other entity that represents a constant danger to an asset

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The 2007 CSI survey

 494 computer security practitioners
 46% suffered security incidents
 29% reported to law enforcement
 Average annual loss $350,424
 1/5 suffered ‗targeted attack‘
 The source of the greatest financial losses?
 Most prevalent security problem
 Insider abuse of network access
 Email
Threat Categories
 Acts of human error or failure
 Compromises to intellectual property
 Deliberate acts of espionage or trespass
 Deliberate acts of information extortion
 Deliberate acts of sabotage or vandalism
 Deliberate acts of theft
 Deliberate software attack
 Forces of nature
 Deviations in quality of service
 Technical hardware failures or errors
 Technical software failures or errors
 Technological obsolesce

Definitions
 Computer Security - generic name for the collection of tools designed to protect
data and to thwart hackers

 Network Security - measures to protect data during their transmission

 Internet Security - measures to protect data during their transmission over a

collection of interconnected networks

 our focus is on Internet Security

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 which consists of measures to deter, prevent, detect, and correct security

violations that involve the transmission & storage of information

ASPECTS OF SECURITY
 consider 3 aspects of information security:

 Security Attack

 Security Mechanism

 Security Service

SECURITY ATTACK
 any action that compromises the security of information owned by an
organization

 information security is about how to prevent attacks, or failing that, to detect

attacks on information-based systems

 often threat & attack used to mean same thing

 have a wide range of attacks

 can focus of generic types of attacks

 Passive
 Active

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Passive Attack

Active Attack

INTERRUPTION
An asset of the system is destroyed or becomes unavailable or unusable. It is an
attack on availability.
Examples:

 Destruction of some hardware

 Jamming wireless signals
 Disabling file management systems
INTERCEPTION
An unauthorized party gains access to an asset. Attack on confidentiality.

Examples:
 Wire tapping to capture data in a network.
 Illicitly copying data or programs
 Eavesdropping
MODIFICATION

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When an unauthorized party gains access and tampers an asset. Attack is on

Integrity.
Examples:
 Changing data file
 Altering a program and the contents of a message

FABRICATION
An unauthorized party inserts a counterfeit object into the system. Attack on
Authenticity. Also called impersonation

Examples:
 Hackers gaining access to a personal email and sending message
 Insertion of records in data files
 Insertion of spurious messages in a network

SECURITY SERVICES
It is a processing or communication service that is provided by a system to give a
specific kind of production to system resources. Security services implement security
policies and are implemented by security mechanisms.
Confidentiality

Confidentiality is the protection of transmitted data from passive attacks. It is used

to prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems. It has
been defined as “ensuring that information is accessible only to those authorized to have
access”.

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The other aspect of confidentiality is the protection of traffic flow from analysis. Ex: A
credit card number has to be secured during online transaction.

Authentication
This service assures that a communication is authentic. For a single message
transmission, its function is to assure the recipient that the message is from intended
source. For an ongoing interaction two aspects are involved. First, during connection
initiation the service assures the authenticity of both parties. Second, the connection
between the two hosts is not interfered allowing a third party to masquerade as one of
the two parties. Two specific authentication services defines in X.800 are

Peer entity authentication: Verifies the identities of the peer entities involved in
communication. Provides use at time of connection establishment and during data
transmission. Provides confidence against a masquerade or a replay attack
Data origin authentication: Assumes the authenticity of source of data unit, but does
not provide protection against duplication or modification of data units. Supports
applications like electronic mail, where no prior interactions take place between
communicating entities.
Integrity
Integrity means that data cannot be modified without authorization. Like
confidentiality, it can be applied to a stream of messages, a single message or selected
fields within a message. Two types of integrity services are available. They are
Connection-Oriented Integrity Service: This service deals with a stream of
messages, assures that messages are received as sent, with no duplication, insertion,
modification, reordering or replays. Destruction of data is also covered here. Hence, it
attends to both message stream modification and denial of service.
Connectionless-Oriented Integrity Service: It deals with individual messages
regardless of larger context, providing protection against message modification only.

An integrity service can be applied with or without recovery. Because it is related

to active attacks, major concern will be detection rather than prevention. If a violation is

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detected and the service reports it, either human intervention or automated recovery
machines are required to recover.
Non-repudiation
Non-repudiation prevents either sender or receiver from denying a transmitted
message. This capability is crucial to e-commerce. Without it an individual or entity can
deny that he, she or it is responsible for a transaction, therefore not financially liable.
Access Control
This refers to the ability to control the level of access that individuals or entities
have to a network or system and how much information they can receive. It is the ability
to limit and control the access to host systems and applications via communication links.
For this, each entity trying to gain access must first be identified or authenticated, so that
access rights can be tailored to the individuals.
Availability
It is defined to be the property of a system or a system resource being accessible
and usable upon demand by an authorized system entity. The availability can significantly
be affected by a variety of attacks, some amenable to automated counter measures i.e
authentication and encryption and others need some sort of physical action to prevent or
recover from loss of availability of elements of a distributed system.

SECURITY MECHANISMS
According to X.800, the security mechanisms are divided into those implemented
in a specific protocol layer and those that are not specific to any particular protocol layer
or security service. X.800 also differentiates reversible & irreversible encipherment
mechanisms. A reversible encipherment mechanism is simply an encryption algorithm
that allows data to be encrypted and subsequently decrypted, whereas irreversible
encipherment include hash algorithms and message authentication codes used in digital
signature and message authentication applications
Specific Security Mechanisms
Incorporated into the appropriate protocol layer in order to provide some of the
OSI security services,
Encipherment: It refers to the process of applying mathematical algorithms for
converting data into a form that is not intelligible. This depends on algorithm used and

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encryption keys.
Digital Signature: The appended data or a cryptographic transformation applied to any
data unit allowing to prove the source and integrity of the data unit and protect against
forgery.
Access Control: A variety of techniques used for enforcing access permissions to the
system resources.
Data Integrity: A variety of mechanisms used to assure the integrity of a data unit or
stream of data units.
Authentication Exchange: A mechanism intended to ensure the identity of an entity by
means of information exchange.
Traffic Padding: The insertion of bits into gaps in a data stream to frustrate traffic
analysis attempts.
Routing Control: Enables selection of particular physically secure routes for certain data
and allows routing changes once a breach of security is suspected.
Notarization: The use of a trusted third party to assure certain properties of a data
exchange
Pervasive Security Mechanisms
These are not specific to any particular OSI security service or protocol layer.
Trusted Functionality: That which is perceived to b correct with respect to some criteria
Security Level: The marking bound to a resource (which may be a data unit) that names
or designates the security attributes of that resource.
Event Detection: It is the process of detecting all the events related to network security.
Security Audit Trail: Data collected and potentially used to facilitate a security audit,
which is an independent review and examination of system records and activities.
Security Recovery: It deals with requests from mechanisms, such as event handling and
management functions, and takes recovery actions.

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MODEL FOR NETWORK SECURITY

Data is transmitted over network between two communicating parties, who must
cooperate for the exchange to take place. A logical information channel is established by
defining a route through the internet from source to destination by use of communication
protocols by the two parties. Whenever an opponent presents a threat to confidentiality,
authenticity of information, security aspects come into play. Two components are present
in almost all the security providing techniques.
A security-related transformation on the information to be sent making it unreadable

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by the opponent, and the addition of a code based on the contents of the message, used to
verify the identity of sender.
Some secret information shared by the two principals and, it is hoped, unknown to
the opponent. An example is an encryption key used in conjunction with the transformation
to scramble the message before transmission and unscramble it on reception
A trusted third party may be needed to achieve secure transmission. It is
responsible for distributing the secret information to the two parties, while keeping it
away from any opponent. It also may be needed to settle disputes between the two parties
regarding authenticity of a message transmission. The general model shows that there
are four basic tasks in designing a particular security service:
1. Design an algorithm for performing the security-related transformation. The
algorithm should be such that an opponent cannot defeat its purpose
2. Generate the secret information to be used with the algorithm
3. Develop methods for the distribution and sharing of the secret information
4. Specify a protocol to be used by the two principals that makes use of the security
algorithm and the secret information to achieve a particular security service
Various other threats to information system like unwanted access still exist. The
existence of hackers attempting to penetrate systems accessible over a network remains
a concern. Another threat is placement of some logic in computer system affecting various
applications and utility programs. This inserted code presents two kinds of threats.
Information access threats intercept or modify data on behalf of users who should
not have access to that data
Service threats exploit service flaws in computers to inhibit use by legitimate users
Viruses and worms are two examples of software attacks inserted into the system by
means of a disk or also across the network. The security mechanisms needed to cope with
unwanted access fall into two broad categories.

Some basic terminologies used

 CIPHER TEXT - the 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

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 DECIPHER (DECRYPT) - recovering ciphertext from plaintext

 CRYPTOGRAPHY - study of encryption principles/methods

 CRYPTANALYSIS (CODEBREAKING) - the study of principles/ methods of deciphering

ciphertext without knowing key

 CRYPTOLOGY - the field of both cryptography and cryptanalysis

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Cryptographic systems are generally classified along 3 independent dimensions:
Type of operations used for transforming plain text to cipher text
All the encryption algorithms are abased on two general principles: substitution,
in which each element in the plaintext is mapped into another element, and
transposition, in which elements in the plaintext are rearranged.
The number of keys used
If the sender and receiver uses same key then it is said to be symmetric key (or)
single key (or) conventional encryption. If the sender and receiver use different keys
then it is said to be public key encryption.
The way in which the plain text is processed
A block cipher processes the input and block of elements at a time, producing
output block for each input block. A stream cipher processes the input elements
continuously, producing output element one at a time, as it goes along.

CRYPTANALYSIS
The process of attempting to discover X or K or both is known as cryptanalysis. The
strategy used by the cryptanalysis depends on the nature of the encryption scheme and the
information available to the cryptanalyst. There are various types of cryptanalytic attacks
based on the amount of information known to the cryptanalyst.
Cipher text only – A copy of cipher text alone is known to the cryptanalyst.

Known plaintext – The cryptanalyst has a copy of the cipher text and the corresponding
plaintext.

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Chosen plaintext – The cryptanalysts gains temporary access to the encryption machine.
They cannot open it to find the key, however; they can encrypt a large number of suitably
chosen plaintexts and try to use the resulting cipher texts to deduce the key.
Chosen cipher text – The cryptanalyst obtains temporary access to the decryption machine,
uses it to decrypt several string of symbols, and tries to use the results to deduce the key.

CLASSICAL ENCRYPTION TECHNIQUES

There are two basic building blocks of all encryption techniques: substitution and
transposition.

SUBSTITUTION TECHNIQUES
A substitution technique is one in which the letters of plaintext are replaced by other
letters or by numbers or symbols. If the plaintext is viewed as a sequence of bits, then
substitution involves replacing plaintext bit patterns with cipher text bit patterns.
CAESAR CIPHER
The earliest known use of a substitution cipher and the simplest was by Julius
Caesar. The Caesar cipher involves replacing each letter of the alphabet with the letter
standing 3 places further down the alphabet. e.g., plain text : pay more money
Cipher text: SDB PRUH PRQHB
Note that the alphabet is wrapped around,
so that letter following „z‟ is „a‟.
For each plaintext letter p, substitute the cipher text letter c
such that C = E(p) = (p+3) mod 26
A shift may be any amount, so that general Caesar algorithm is C = E (p) = (p+k) mod 26
Where k takes on a value in the range 1 to 25.
The decryption algorithm is simply P = D(C) = (C-k) mod 26
MONOALPHABETIC CIPHERS
Here, Plaintext characters are substituted by a different alphabet stream of
characters shifted to the right or left by n positions. When compared to the Caesar
ciphers, these monoalphabetic ciphers are more secure as each letter of the ciphertext
can be any permutation of the 26 alphabetic characters leading to 26! or greater than 4 x
1026 possible keys. But it is still vulnerable to cryptanalysis, when a cryptanalyst is aware
of the nature of the plaintext, he can find the regularities of the language. To overcome

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these attacks, multiple substitutions for a single letter are used. For example, a letter can
be substituted by different numerical cipher symbols such as 17, 54, 69….. etc. Even this
method is not completely secure as each letter in the plain text affects on letter in the
ciphertext.
Or, using a common key which substitutes every letter of the plain text.
The key ABCDEFGHIIJ KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
QWERTYUIIOPAS DFGHJ KLZXCV BNM
Would encrypt the message
II think therefore II am
into
OZIIOFAZIITKTYGKTOQD
But any attacker would simply break the cipher by using frequency analysis by observing
the number of times each letter occurs in the cipher text and then looking upon the
English letter frequency table. So, substitution cipher is completely ruined by these
attacks. Monoalphabetic ciphers are easy to break as they reflect the frequency of the
original alphabet. A countermeasure is to provide substitutes, known as homophones for
a single letter.

PLAYFAIR CIPHERS
It is the best known multiple –letter encryption cipher which treats digrams in the
plaintext as single units and translates these units into ciphertext digrams. The Playfair
Cipher is a digram substitution cipher offering a relatively weak method of encryption. It
was used for tactical purposes by British forces in the Second Boer War and in World War
I and for the same purpose by the Australians and Germans during World War II. This
was because Playfair is reasonably fast to use and requires no special equipment. A
typical scenario for Playfair use would be to protect important but non-critical secrets
during actual combat. By the time the enemy cryptanalysts could break the message, the
information was useless to them. It is based around a 5x5 matrix, a copy of which is held
by both communicating parties, into which 25 of the 26 letters of the alphabet (normally
either j and i are represented by the same letter or x is ignored) are placed in a random
fashion. For example, the plain text is Shi Sherry loves Heath Ledger and the agreed key is
sherry. The matrix will be built according to the following rules.
 in pairs,

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 without punctuation,
 All Js are replaced with Is.

SH IS HE RR YL OV ES HE AT HL ED GE R
 Double letters which occur in a pair must be divided by an X or a Z.
 E.g. LI TE RA LL Y LI TE RA LX LY

SH IS HE RX RY LO VE SH EA TH LE DG ER The alphabet square is prepared using, a 5*5

matrix, no repetition letters, no Js and key is written first followed by the remaining
alphabets with no i and j.

SHERY
ABCDF
GIKLM
NOPQT
UVWXZ
For the generation of cipher text, there are three rules to be followed by each pair of
letters.

letters appear on the same row： replace them with the letters to their immediate right
respectively
letters appear on the same column： replace them with the letters immediately below
respectively
not on the same row or column： replace them with the letters on the same row

respectively but at the other pair of corners of the rectangle defined by the original pair.
Based on the above three rules, the cipher text obtained for the given plain text is
HE GH ER DR YS IQ WH HE SC OY KR AL RY
Another example which is simpler than the above one can be given as:
Here, key word is playfair. Plaintext is Hellothere hellothere becomes ---- he lx lo th er ex .
Applying the rules again, for each pair, If they are in the same row, replace each with the
letter to its right (mod 5)
he KG
If they are in the same column, replace each with the letter below it (mod 5)

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lo RV
Otherwise, replace each with letter we’d get if we swapped their column indices
lx YV
So the cipher text for the given plain text is KG YV RV QM GI KU

To decrypt the message, just reverse the process. Shift up and left instead of down and
right. Drop extra x’s and locate any missing I’s that should be j’s. The message will be back
into the original readable form. no longer used by military forces because of the advent
of digital encryption devices. Playfair is now regarded as insecure for any purpose
because modern hand-held computers could easily break the cipher within seconds.
HILL CIPHER
It is also a multi letter encryption cipher. It involves substitution of ‘m’ ciphertext
letters for ‘m’ successive plaintext letters. For substitution purposes using ‘m’ linear
equations, each of the characters are assigned a numerical values i.e. a=0, b=1, c=2,
d=3,…….z=25. For example if m=3, the system can be defined as: c1 = (k11p1 + k12p2 +
k13p3) mod 26 c2 = (k21p1 + k22p2 + k23p3) mod 26 c3 = (k31p1 + k32p2 + k33p3) mod 26
If we represent in matrix form, the above statements as matrices and column vectors:

Thus, C = KP mod26, where C= Column vectors of length 3 P = Column vectors of length 3 K

= 3x3 encryption key matrix. For decryption process, inverse of matrix K i.e. K-1 is required
which is defined by the equation KK-1 = K-1K = I, where I is the identity matrix that contains
only 0’s and 1’s as its elements. Plaintext is recovered by applying K-1 to the cipher text. It is
expressed as C = EK(P) = KP mod26 P = DK(C) = K-1C mod26. = K-1KP = IP = P
Example: The plain text is I can’t do it and the size of m is 3 and key K is chosen as following

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The main advantages of hill cipher are given below:

It perfectly hides single-letter frequencies.
Use of 3x3 Hill ciphers can perfectly hide both the single letter and two-letter
frequency information.

Strong enough against the attacks made only on the cipher text.
But, it still can be easily broken if the attack is through a known plaintext.

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POLYALPHABETIC CIPHERS
In order to make substitution ciphers more secure, more than one alphabet can be used.
Such ciphers are called polyalphabetic, which means that the same letter of a message
can be represented by different letters when encoded. Such a one-to-many
correspondence makes the use of frequency analysis much more difficult in order to crack
the code. We describe one such cipher named for Blaise de Vigenere a 16-th century
Frenchman. The Vigenere cipher is a polyalphabetic cipher based on using successively
shifted alphabets, a different shifted alphabet for each of the 26 English letters. The
procedure is based on the tableau shown below and the use of a keyword. The letters of
the keyword determine the shifted alphabets used in the encoding process.

For the message COMPUTING GIVES INSIGHT and keyword LUCKY we proceed by
repeating the keyword as many times as needed above the message, as follows.

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Encryption is simple: Given a key letter x and a plaintext letter y, the ciphertext letter is
at the intersection of the row labeled x and the column labeled y; so for L, the ciphertext
letter would be N. So, the ciphertext for the given plaintext would be given as:

Decryption is equally simple: The key letter again identifies the row and position
of ciphertext letter in that row decides the column and the plaintext letter is at the top of
that column. The strength of this cipher is that there are multiple ciphetext letters for
each plaintext letter, one for each unique letter of the keyword and thereby making the
letter frequency information is obscured. Still, breaking this cipher has been made
possible because this reveals some mathematical principles that apply in cryptanalysis.
To overcome the drawback of the periodic nature of the keyword, a new technique is
proposed which is referred as an autokey system, in which a key word is concatenated
with the plaintext itself to provide a running key. For ex In the above example, the key
would be luckycomputinggivesin Still, this scheme is vulnerable to cryptanalysis as both
the key and plaintext share the same frequency distribution of letters allowing a
statistical technique to be applied. Thus, the ultimate defense against such a cryptanalysis
is to choose a keyword that is as long as plaintext and has no statistical relationship to it.
A new system which works on binary data rather than letters is given as
Ci = pi ki where, pi = ith binary digit of plaintext ki = ith binary digit of key Ci= ith binary
digit of ciphertext
= exclusive-or operation. Because of the properties of XOR, decryption is done by
performing the same bitwise operation.
pi = Ci ki A very long but, repeation key word is used making cryptanalysis difficult.

TRANSPOSITION TECHNIQUES

All the techniques examined so far involve the substitution of a cipher text symbol for a
plaintext symbol. A very different kind of mapping is achieved by performing some sort
of permutation on the plaintext letters. This technique is referred to as a transposition
cipher.

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Rail fence is simplest of such cipher, in which the plaintext is written down as a sequence
of diagonals and then read off as a sequence of rows.

Plaintext = meet at the school house

To encipher this message with a rail fence of depth 2,

We write the message as follows: m e a t e c o l o s e t t h s h o h u e

The encrypted message is MEATECOLOSETTHSHOHUE

Row Transposition Ciphers-A more complex scheme is to write the message in a

rectangle, row by row, and read the message off, column by column, but permute the
order of the columns. The order of columns then becomes the key of the algorithm.

e.g., plaintext = meet at the school house

Key = 4 3 1 2 5 6 7

PT = m e e t a t t h e s c h o o l h o u s e

CT = ESOTCUEEHMHLAHSTOETO

A pure transposition cipher is easily recognized because it has the same letter frequencies
as the original plaintext. The transposition cipher can be made significantly more secure
by performing more than one stage of transposition. The result is more complex
permutation that is not easily reconstructed.

STEGANOGRAPHY
A plaintext message may be hidden in any one of the two ways. The methods of
steganography conceal the existence of the message, whereas the methods of
cryptography render the message unintelligible to outsiders by various transformations
of the text. A simple form of steganography, but one that is time consuming to construct
is one in which an arrangement of words or letters within an apparently innocuous text
spells out the real message. e.g., (i) the sequence of first letters of each word of the overall
message spells out the real (hidden) message. (ii) Subset of the words of the overall
message is used to convey the hidden message. Various other techniques have been used
historically, some of them are

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 Character marking – selected letters of printed or typewritten text are

overwritten in pencil. The marks are ordinarily not visible unless the paper is held
to an angle to bright light.
 Invisible ink – a number of substances can be used for writing but leave no visible
trace until heat or some chemical is applied to the paper.
 Pin punctures – small pin punctures on selected letters are ordinarily not visible
unless the paper is held in front of the light.
 Typewritten correction ribbon – used between the lines typed with a black
ribbon, the results of typing with the correction tape are visible only under a
strong light.

Drawbacks of Steganography
 Requires a lot of overhead to hide a relatively few bits of information.
 Once the system is discovered, it becomes virtually worthless.

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UNIT –2
Symmetric Key Ciphers: Block Cipher Principles and Algorithms (DES, AES, Blowfish, RC5),
IDEA, Block Cipher Modes of Operations, Stream Ciphers, RC4
Asymmetric Key Ciphers: Principles of Public Key Cryptosystems, Algorithms (RSA,
Elgamal Cryptography, Diffie- Hellman key Exchange), Knapsack algorithm

CONVENTIONAL ENCRYPTION PRINCIPLES

A Conventional/Symmetric encryption scheme has five ingredients

1. Plain Text: This is the original message or data which is fed into the algorithm as input.

2. Encryption Algorithm: This encryption algorithm performs various substitutions and

transformations on the plain text.

3. Secret Key: The key is another input to the algorithm. The substitutions and
transformations performed by algorithm depend on the key.

4. Cipher Text: This is the scrambled (unreadable) message which is output of the encryption
algorithm. This cipher text is dependent on plaintext and secret key. For a given plaintext,
two different keys produce two different cipher texts.

5. Decryption Algorithm: This is the reverse of encryption algorithm. It takes the cipher text
and secret key as inputs and outputs the plain text.

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The important point is that the security of conventional encryption depends on the secrecy

of the key, not the secrecy of the algorithm i.e. it is not necessary to keep the algorithm

secret, but only the key is to be kept secret. This feature that algorithm need not be kept

secret made it feasible for wide spread use and enabled manufacturers develop low cost

chip implementation of data encryption algorithms. With the use of conventional algorithm,

the principal security problem is maintaining the secrecy of the key.

FEISTEL CIPHER STRUCTURE

The input to the encryption algorithm are a plaintext block of length 2w bits and
a key K. the plaintext block is divided into two halves L 0 and R0. The two halves of the
data pass through „n‟ rounds of processing and then combine to produce the ciphertext
block. Each round „i‟ has inputs Li-1 and Ri-1, derived from the previous round, as well as
the subkey Ki, derived from the overall key K. in general, the subkeys Ki are different from
K and from each other.
All rounds have the same structure. A substitution is performed on the left half of
the data (as similar to S-DES). This is done by applying a round function F to the right half

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of the data and then taking the XOR of the output of that function and the left half of the
data. The round function has the same general structure for each round but is
parameterized by the round subkey ki. Following this substitution, a permutation is
performed that consists of the interchange of the two halves of the data. This structure is
a particular form of the substitution-permutation network. The exact realization of a
Feistel network depends on the choice of the following parameters and design features:
 Block size - Increasing size improves security, but slows cipher
 Key size - Increasing size improves security, makes exhaustive key searching
harder, but may slow cipher
 Number of rounds - Increasing number improves security, but slows cipher
 Subkey generation - Greater complexity can make analysis harder, but slows
cipher
 Round function - Greater complexity can make analysis harder, but slows cipher
 Fast software en/decryption & ease of analysis - are more recent concerns for
practical use and testing

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The process of decryption is essentially the same as the encryption process. The rule is

as follows: use the cipher text as input to the algorithm, but use the subkey ki in reverse

order. i.e., kn in the first round, kn-1 in second round and so on. For clarity, we use the

notation LEi and REi for data traveling through the decryption algorithm. The diagram

below indicates that, at each round, the intermediate value of the decryption process is

same (equal) to the corresponding value of the encryption process with two halves of the

value swapped.

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i.e., REi || LEi (or) equivalently RD16-i || LD16-i

After the last iteration of the encryption process, the two halves of the output are

swapped, so that the cipher text is RE16 || LE16. The output of that round is the cipher text.

Now take the cipher text and use it as input to the same algorithm. The input to the first

round is RE16 || LE16, which is equal to the 32-bit swap of the output of the sixteenth round

of the encryption process. Now we will see how the output of the first round of the

decryption process is equal to a 32-bit swap of the input to the sixteenth round of the

encryption process.

First consider the encryption process,

LE16 = RE15

RE16 = LE15(+) F (RE15, K16)

On the decryption side, LD1 =RD0 = LE16 =RE15

RD1 = LD0 (+) F (RD0, K16)

= RE16 F (RE15, K16)

= [LE15 F (RE15, K16)] F (RE15, K16)

= LE15

Therefore, LD1 = RE15 RD1 = LE15 In general, for the ith iteration of the encryption

algorithm, LEi = REi-1 REi = LEi-1 F (REi-1, Ki)

Finally, the output of the last round of the decryption process is RE0 || LE0. A 32-bit swap

recovers the original plaintext.

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DEFINITIONS

Encryption: Converting a text into code or cipher.

Converting computer data and messages into something, incomprehensible use a key,

so that only a holder of the matching key can reconvert them.

Conventional or Symmetric or Secret Key or Single Key encryption:

Uses the same key for encryption & decryption.

Public Key encryption: Uses different keys for encryption & decryption

Conventional Encryption Principles

 An encryption scheme has five ingredients:

1. Plaintext – Original message or data.

2. Encryption algorithm – performs substitutions & transformations on plaintext.

3. Secret Key – exact substitutions & transformations depend on this

4. Ciphertext - output ie scrambled input.

5. Decryption algorithm - converts ciphertext back to plaintext.

SIMPLIFIED DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD (S-DES)

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The figure above illustrates the overall structure of the simplified DES. The S-DES
encryption algorithm takes an 8-bit block of plaintext (example: 10111101) and a 10-bit
key as input and produces an 8-bit block of ciphertext as output. The S-DES decryption
algorithm takes an 8-bit block of ciphertext and the same 10-bit key used to produce that
ciphertext as input and produces the original 8-bit block of plaintext.

The encryption algorithm involves five functions:

 an initial permutation (IP)

 a complex function labeled fk, which involves both permutation and substitution
operations and depends on a key input

 a simple permutation function that switches (SW) the two halves of the data

 the function fk again

 a permutation function that is the inverse of the initial permutation

The function fk takes as input not only the data passing through the encryption algorithm,
but also an 8-bit key. Here a 10-bit key is used from which two 8-bit subkeys are
generated. The key is first subjected to a permutation (P10). Then a shift operation is
performed. The output of the shift operation then passes through a permutation function
that produces an 8-bit output (P8) for the first subkey (K1). The output of the shift
operation also feeds into another shift and another instance of P8 to produce the second
subkey (K2).
The encryption algorithm can be expressed as a composition composition1 of functions:
IP-1 ο fK2 ο SW ο fk1 ο IP
Which can also be written as
Ciphertext = IP-1 (fK2 (SW (fk1 (IP (plaintext)))))
Where
K1 = P8 (Shift (P10 (Key)))
K2 = P8 (Shift (shift (P10 (Key))))
Decryption can be shown as
Plaintext = IP-1 (fK1 (SW (fk2 (IP (ciphertext)))))

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S-DES depends on the use of a 10-bit key shared between sender and receiver.
From this key, two 8-bit subkeys are produced for use in particular stages of the
encryption and decryption algorithm. First, permute the key in the following fashion.
Let the 10-bit key be designated as (k1, K2, k3, k4, k5, k6, k7, k8, k9, k10).
Then the permutation P10 is defined as:
P10 (k1, K2, k3, k4, k5, k6, k7, k8, k9, k10) = (k3, k5, K2, k7, k4, k10 10, k1, k9, k8, k6) P10
can be concisely defined by the display:
P10
3 5 2 7 4 10 1 9 8 6

This table is read from left to right; each position in the table gives the identity of the
input bit that produces the output bit in that position. So the first output bit is bit 3 of the
input; the second output bit is bit 5 of the input, and so on. For example, the key
(1010000010) is permuted to (10000 01100). Next, perform a circular left shift (LS-1),
or rotation, separately on the first five bits and the second five bits. In our example, the
result is (00001 11000). Next we apply P8, which picks out and permutes 8 of the 10 bits
according to the following rule:
P8
6 3 7 4 8 5 10 9

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The result is subkey 1 (K1). In our example, this yields (10100100). We then go back to
the pair of 5-bit strings produced by the two LS-1 functions and performs a circular left
shift of 2 bit positions on each string. In our example, the value (00001 11000) becomes
(00100 00011). Finally, P8 is applied again to produce K2. In our example, the result is
(01000011).

S-DES encryption
Encryption involves the sequential application of five functions.
Initial and Final Permutations The input to the algorithm is an 8-bit block of plaintext,
which we first permute using the IP function:
IP
2 6 3 1 4 8 5 7
This retains all 8 bits of the plaintext but mixes them up.
Consider the plaintext to be 11110011.
Permuted output = 10111101
At the end of the algorithm, the inverse permutation is used:
IP –1
4 1 3 5 7 2 8 6

The Function fk
The most complex component of S-DES is the function fk, which consists of a combination
of permutation and substitution functions. The functions can be expressed as follows. Let
L and R be the leftmost 4 bits and rightmost 4 bits of the 8-bit input to f K, and let F be a
mapping (not necessarily one to one) from 4-bit strings to 4-bit strings.
Then we let fk(L, R) = ( L (+) F( R, SK), R)
Where SK is a subkey and (+) is the bit-by-bit exclusive-OR function.
e.g., permuted output = 1011 1101 and suppose F (1101, SK) = (1110) for some key SK.
Then f K(10111101) = 10111110, 1101 = 01011101
We now describe the mapping F. The input is a 4-bit number (n1 n2 n3 n4). The first
operation is an expansion/permutation operation:

E/P
4 1 2 3 2 3 4 1

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R= 1101 E/P output = 11101011 It is clearer to depict the result in this fashion:

The 8-bit subkey K1 = (k11, k12 12, k13 13, k14 14, k15 15, k16 16, k17 17, k18) is added
to this value using exclusive-OR:

Let us rename these 8 bits:

The first 4 bits (first row of the preceding matrix) are fed into the S-box S0 to produce a 2- bit
output, and the remaining 4 bits (second row) are fed into S1 to produce another 2- bit
output.
These two boxes are defined as follows:

The S-boxes operate as follows. The first and fourth input bits are treated as a 2-bit
number that specify a row of the S-box, and the second and third input bits specify a
column of the S-box. The entry in that row and column, in base 2, is the 2-bit output. For
example, if (p0,0 p0,3) = ) (00) and ( p0,1 p0,2) = (10), then the output is from row 0,
column 2 of S0, which is 3, or (11) in ) binary. Similarly, (p1,0 p1,3) and ( p1,1 p1,2) are
used to index into a row and column of S1 to produce an additional 2 bits. Next, the 4 bits
produced by S0 and S1 undergo a further permutation as follows:
P4
2 4 3 1

The output of P4 is the output of the function F.

The Switch Function The function f K only alters the leftmost 4 bits of the input. The switch
function (SW) interchanges the left and right 4 bits so that the second instance of f K operates

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on a different 4 bits. In this second instance, the E/P, S0, S1, and P4 functions are the same.
The key input is K2. Finally apply inverse permutation to get the ciphertext

DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD (DES)

The main standard for encrypting data was a symmetric algorithm known as the
Data Encryption Standard (DES). However, this has now been replaced by a new standard
known as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which we will look at later. DES is a
64 bit block cipher which means that it encrypts data 64 bits at a time. This is contrasted
to a stream cipher in which only one bit at a time (or sometimes small groups of bits such
as a byte) is encrypted. DES was the result of a research project set up by International
Business Machines (IBM) corporation in the late 1960’s which resulted in a cipher known
as LUCIFER. In the early 1970’s it was decided to commercialise LUCIFER and a number
of significant changes were introduced. IBM was not the only one involved in these
changes as they sought technical advice from the National Security Agency (NSA) (other
outside consultants were involved but it is likely that the NSA were the major
contributors from a technical point of view). The altered version of LUCIFER was put
forward as a proposal for the new national encryption standard requested by the
National Bureau of Standards (NBS)3 . It was finally adopted in 1977 as the Data
Encryption Standard - DES (FIPS PUB 46). Some of the changes made to LUCIFER have
been the subject of much controversy even to the present day. The most notable of these
was the key size. LUCIFER used a key size of 128 bits however this was reduced to 56 bits
for DES. Even though DES actually accepts a 64 bit key as input, the remaining eight bits
are used for parity checking and have no effect on DES’s security. Outsiders were
convinced that the 56 bit key was an easy target for a brute force attack4 due to its
extremely small size. The need for the parity checking scheme was also questioned
without satisfying answers. Another controversial issue was that the S-boxes used were
designed under classified conditions and no reasons for their particular design were ever
given. This led people to assume that the NSA had introduced a “trapdoor” through which
they could decrypt any data encrypted by DES even without knowledge of the key. One
startling discovery was that the S-boxes appeared to be secure against an attack known
as Differential Cryptanalysis which was only publicly discovered by Biham and Shamir in
1990. This suggests that the NSA were aware of this attack in 1977; 13 years earlier! In

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fact the DES designers claimed that the reason they never made the design specifications
for the S-boxes available was that they knew about a number of attacks that weren’t
public knowledge at the time and they didn’t want them leaking - this is quite a plausible
claim as differential cryptanalysis has shown. However, despite all this controversy, in
1994 NIST reaffirmed DES for government use for a further five years for use in areas
other than “classified”. DES of course isn’t the only symmetric cipher. There are many
others, each with varying levels of complexity. Such ciphers include: IDEA, RC4, RC5, RC6
and the new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES is an important algorithm and
was originally meant to replace DES (and its more secure variant triple DES) as the
standard algorithm for non-classified material. However as of 2003, AES with key sizes
of 192 and 256 bits has been found to be secure enough to protect information up to top
secret. Since its creation, AES had underdone intense scrutiny as one would expect for an
algorithm that is to be used as the standard. To date it has withstood all attacks but the
search is still on and it remains to be seen whether or not this will last. We will look at
AES later in the course.

INNER WORKING OF DES

DES (and most of the other major symmetric ciphers) is based on a cipher known as the Feistel

block cipher. It consists of a number of rounds where each round contains bit-shuffling, non-

linear substitutions (S-boxes) and exclusive OR operations. As with most encryption schemes,

DES expects two inputs - the plaintext to be encrypted and the secret key. The manner in which

the plaintext is accepted, and the key arrangement used for encryption and decryption, both

determine the type of cipher it is. DES is therefore a symmetric, 64 bit block cipher as it uses the

same key for both encryption and decryption and only operates on 64 bit blocks of data at a time5

(be they plaintext or ciphertext). The key size used is 56 bits, however a 64 bit (or eight-byte) key

is actually input. The least significant bit of each byte is either used for parity (odd for DES) or set

arbitrarily and does not increase the security in any way. All blocks are numbered from left to

right which makes the eight bit of each byte the parity bit.

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Once a plain-text message is received to be encrypted, it is arranged into 64 bit blocks required

for input. If the number of bits in the message is not evenly divisible by 64, then the last block will

be padded. Multiple permutations and substitutions are incorporated throughout in order to

increase the difficulty of performing a cryptanalysis on the cipher

OVERALL STRUCTURE

Figure below shows the sequence of events that occur during an encryption operation.

DES performs an initial permutation on the entire 64 bit block of data. It is then split into

2, 32 bit sub-blocks, Li and Ri which are then passed into what is known as a round (see

figure 2.3), of which there are 16 (the subscript i in Li and Ri indicates the current round).

Each of the rounds are identical and the effects of increasing their number is twofold - the

algorithms security is increased and its temporal efficiency decreased. Clearly these are

two conflicting outcomes and a compromise must be made. For DES the number chosen

was 16, probably to guarantee the elimination of any correlation between the ciphertext

and either the plaintext or key6 . At the end of the 16th round, the 32 bit Li and Ri output

quantities are swapped to create what is known as the pre-output. This [R16, L16]

concatenation is permuted using a function which is the exact inverse of the initial

permutation. The output of this final permutation is the 64 bit ciphertext.

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So in total the processing of the plaintext proceeds in three phases as can be seen from

the left hand side of figure

1. Initial permutation (IP - defined in table 2.1) rearranging the bits to form the

“permuted input”.

2. Followed by 16 iterations of the same function (substitution and permutation). The

output of the last iteration consists of 64 bits which is a function of the plaintext and

key. The left and right halves are swapped to produce the preoutput.

3. Finally, the preoutput is passed through a permutation (IP−1 - defined in table 2.1)

which is simply the inverse of the initial permutation (IP). The output of IP−1 is the 64-

bit ciphertext

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As figure shows, the inputs to each round consist of the Li , Ri pair and a 48 bit subkey

which is a shifted and contracted version of the original 56 bit key. The use of the key can

be seen in the right hand portion of figure 2.2: • Initially the key is passed through a

permutation function (PC1 - defined in table 2.2) • For each of the 16 iterations, a subkey

(Ki) is produced by a combination of a left circular shift and a permutation (PC2 - defined

in table 2.2) which is the same for each iteration. However, the resulting subkey is different for

each iteration because of repeated shifts.

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DETAILS OF INDIVIDUAL ROUNDS

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The main operations on the data are encompassed into what is referred to as the cipher function

and is labeled F. This function accepts two different length inputs of 32 bits and 48 bits and

outputs a single 32 bit number. Both the data and key are operated on in parallel, however the

operations are quite different. The 56 bit key is split into two 28 bit halves Ci and Di (C and D

being chosen so as not to be confused with L and R). The value of the key used in any round is

simply a left cyclic shift and a permuted contraction of that used in the previous round.

Mathematically, this can be written as

Ci = Lcsi(Ci−1), Di = Lcsi(Di−1)

Ki = P C2(Ci , Di)

where Lcsi is the left cyclic shift for round i, Ci and Di are the outputs after the shifts, P C2(.) is a
function which permutes and compresses a 56 bit number into a 48 bit number and Ki is the
actual key used in round i. The number of shifts is either one or two and is determined by the
round number i. For i = {1, 2, 9, 16} the number of shifts is one and for every other round it is two

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S-B OX Details

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ADVANCED ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM (AES)

 AES is a block cipher with a block length of 128 bits.
 AES allows for three different key lengths: 128, 192, or 256 bits. Most of our
discussion will assume that the key length is 128 bits.
 Encryption consists of 10 rounds of processing for 128-bit keys, 12 rounds for
192-bit keys, and 14 rounds for 256-bit keys.
 Except for the last round in each case, all other rounds are identical.
 Each round of processing includes one single-byte based substitution step, a row-
wise permutation step, a column-wise mixing step, and the addition of the round
key. The order in which these four steps are executed is different for encryption
and decryption.
 To appreciate the processing steps used in a single round, it is best to think of a
128-bit block as consisting of a 4 × 4 matrix of bytes, arranged as follows:

Therefore, the first four bytes of a 128-bit input block occupy the first column in
the 4 × 4 matrix of bytes. The next four bytes occupy the second column, and so
on.
The 4×4 matrix of bytes shown above is referred to as the state array in AES.

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The algorithm begins with an Add round key stage followed by 9 rounds of four stages
and a tenth round of three stages.
This applies for both encryption and decryption with the exception that each stage of a
round the decryption algorithm is the inverse of its counterpart in the encryption
algorithm.
The four stages are as follows: 1. Substitute bytes 2. Shift rows 3. Mix Columns 4. Add
Round Key

Substitute Bytes
• This stage (known as SubBytes) is simply a table lookup using a 16 × 16 matrix of byte
values called an s-box.
• This matrix consists of all the possible combinations of an 8 bit sequence (28 = 16 × 16
= 256).
• However, the s-box is not just a random permutation of these values and there is a well
defined method for creating the s-box tables.

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• The designers of Rijndael showed how this was done unlike the s-boxes in DES for which
no rationale was given.Our concern will be how state is effected in each round.
• For this particular round each byte is mapped into a new byte in the following way: the
leftmost nibble of the byte is used to specify a particular row of the s-box and the
rightmost nibble specifies a column.
• For example, the byte {95} (curly brackets represent hex values in FIPS PUB 197) selects
row 9 column 5 which turns out to contain the value {2A}.
• This is then used to update the state matrix.

Shift Row Transformation

• This stage (known as ShiftRows) is shown in figure below.
• Simple permutation an nothing more.
• It works as follow: – The first row of state is not altered. – The second row is shifted 1
bytes to the left in a circular manner. – The third row is shifted 2 bytes to the left in a
circular manner. – The fourth row is shifted 3 bytes to the left in a circular manner.

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MIX COLUMN TRANSFORMATION

• This stage (known as MixColumn) is basically a substitution
• Each column is operated on individually. Each byte of a column is mapped into a new
value that is a function of all four bytes in the column.
• The transformation can be determined by the following matrix multiplication on state
• Each element of the product matrix is the sum of products of elements of one row and
one column.
• In this case the individual additions and multiplications are performed in GF(28 ).
• The MixColumns transformation of a single column j (0 ≤ j ≤ 3) of state can be expressed
as:
s ′ 0,j = (2 • s0,j) ⊕ (3 • s1,j) ⊕ s2,j ⊕ s3,j
s ′ 1,j = s0,j ⊕ (2 • s1,j) ⊕ (3 • s2,j) ⊕ s3,j
s ′ 2,j = s0,j ⊕ s1,j ⊕ (2 • s2,j) ⊕ (3 • s3,j)
s ′ 3,j = (3 • s0,j) ⊕ s1,j ⊕ s2,j ⊕ (2 • s3,j)

ADD ROUND KEY TRANSFORMATION

• In this stage (known as AddRoundKey) the 128 bits of state are bitwise XORed with the
128 bits of the round key.
• The operation is viewed as a columnwise operation between the 4 bytes of a state
column and one word of the round key.

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• This transformation is as simple as possible which helps in efficiency but it also effects
every bit of state.
• The AES key expansion algorithm takes as input a 4-word key and produces a linear
array of 44 words. Each round uses 4 of these words as shown in figure.
• Each word contains 32 bytes which means each subkey is 128 bits long. Figure 7 show
pseudocode for generating the expanded key from the actual key.

BLOWFISH ALGORITHM
• a symmetric block cipher designed by Bruce Schneier in 1993/94
• characteristics
• fast implementation on 32-bit CPUs
• compact in use of memory
• simple structure for analysis/implementation
• variable security by varying key size
• has been implemented in various products
BLOWFISH KEY SCHEDULE
• uses a 32 to 448 bit key, 32-bit words stored in K-array Kj ,j from 1 to 14
• used to generate
• 18 32-bit subkeys stored in P array, P1 ….P18
• four 8x32 S-boxes stored in Si,j , each with 256 32-bit entries
Subkeys and S-Boxes Generation:
1. initialize P-array and then 4 S-boxes in order using the fractional part of pi P1 (
left most 32-bit), and so on,,, S4,255.
2. XOR P-array with key-Array (32-bit blocks) and reuse as needed: assume we have
up to k10 then P10 XOR K10,, P11 XOR K1 … P18 XOR K8
3. Encrypt 64-bit block of zeros, and use the result to update P1 and P2.
4. encrypting output form previous step using current P & S and replace P3 and P4.
Then encrypting current output and use it to update successive pairs of P.
5. After updating all P’s (last :P17 P18), start updating S values using the encrypted
output from previous step.
• requires 521 encryptions, hence slow in re-keying
• Not suitable for limited-memory applications.

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BLOWFISH ENCRYPTION
• uses two main operations: addition modulo 2 32 , and XOR
• data is divided into two 32-bit halves L0 & R0
for i = 1 to 16 do
Ri = Li-1 XOR Pi;
Li = F[Ri] XOR Ri-1;
L17 = R16 XOR P18;
R17 = L16 XOR P17;
• where
F[a,b,c,d] = ((S1,a + S2,b) XOR S3,c) + S4,d

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BLOCK CIPHER MODES OF OPERATIONS

• Direct use of a block cipher is inadvisable
• Enemy can build up “code book” of plaintext/ciphertext equivalents
• Beyond that, direct use only works on messages that are a multiple of the cipher block
size in length
• Solution: five standard Modes of Operation: Electronic Code Book (ECB), Cipher Block
Chaining (CBC), Cipher Feedback (CFB), Output Feedback (OFB), and Counter (CTR).
Electronic Code Book
• Direct use of the block cipher
• Used primarily to transmit encrypted keys
• Very weak if used for general-purpose encryption; never use it for a file or a message.
• Attacker can build up codebook; no semantic security
• We write {P}k → C to denote “encryption of plaintext P with key k to produce ciphertext C”

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Cipher Block Chaining

• We would like that same plaintext blocks produce different ciphertext blocks.
• Cipher Block Chaining (see figure) allows this by XORing each plaintext with the
Ciphertext from the previous round (the first round using an Initialisation Vector (IV)).
• As before, the same key is used for each block.
• Decryption works as shown in the figure because of the properties of the XOR operation,
i.e. IV ⊕ IV ⊕ P = P where IV is the Initialisation Vector and P is the plaintext.
• Obviously the IV needs to be known by both sender and receiver and it should be kept
secret along with the key for maximum security.

Cipher Feedback (CFB) Mode

• The Cipher Feedback and Output Feedback allows a block cipher to be converted into a
stream cipher.
• This eliminates the need to pad a message to be an integral number of blocks. It also can
operate in real time.
• Figure shows the CFB scheme.
• In this figure it assumed that the unit of transmission is s bits; a common value is s = 8.

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• As with CBC, the units of plaintext are chained together, so that the ciphertext of any
plaintext unit is a function of all the preceding plaintext (which is split into s bit
segments).
• The input to the encryption function is a shift register equal in length to the block cipher
of the algorithm (although the diagram shows 64 bits, which is block size used by DES,
this can be extended to other block sizes such as the 128 bits of AES).
• This is initially set to some Initialisation Vector (IV).

OUTPUT FEEDBACK (OFB) MODE

• The Output Feedback Mode is similar in structure to that of CFB, as seen in figure 13.
• As can be seen, it is the output of the encryption function that is fed back to the shift
register in OFB, whereas in CFB the ciphertext unit is fed back to the shift register.
• One advantage of the OFB method is that bit errors in transmission do not propagate.
• For example, if a bit error occurs in C1 only the recovered value of P1 is affected;
subsequent plaintext units are not corrupted.
With CFB, C1 also serves as input to the shift register and therefore causes additional
corruption downstream.

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Counter Mode

PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY

The development of public-key cryptography is the greatest and perhaps the only
true revolution in the entire history of cryptography. It is asymmetric, involving the use
of two separate keys, in contrast to symmetric encryption, which uses only one key.
Public key schemes are neither more nor less secure than private key (security depends
on the key size for both). Public-key cryptography complements rather than replaces
symmetric cryptography. Both also have issues with key distribution, requiring the use

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of some suitable protocol. The concept of public-key cryptography evolved from an

attempt to attack two of the most difficult problems associated with symmetric
encryption:
1.) key distribution – how to have secure communications in general without having to
trust a KDC with your key

2.) digital signatures – how to verify a message comes intact from the claimed sender
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 algorithms rely on one key for encryption and a different but related key
for decryption. These algorithms have the following important characteristics:
 it is computationally infeasible 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 like RSA)
The following figure illustrates public-key encryption process and shows that a public-key
encryption scheme has six ingredients: plaintext, encryption algorithm, public & private keys,
ciphertext & decryption algorithm.

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The essential steps involved in a public-key encryption scheme are given below:
1.) Each user generates a pair of keys to be used for encryption and decryption.

2.) Each user places one of the two keys in a public register and the other key is kept
private.

3.) If B wants to send a confidential message to A, B encrypts the message using A’s public
key.

4.) When A receives the message, she decrypts it using her private key. Nobody else can
decrypt the message because that can only be done using A’s private key (Deducing a
private key should be infeasible).

5.) If a user wishes to change his keys –generate another pair of keys and publish the
public one: no interaction with other users is needed.
Notations used in Public-key cryptography:
 The public key of user A will be denoted KUA.
 The private key of user A will be denoted KRA.
 Encryption method will be a function E.
 Decryption method will be a function D.
 If B wishes to send a plain message X to A, then he sends the cryptotext Y=E(KUA,X)
 The intended receiver A will decrypt the message: D(KRA,Y)=X
The first attack on Public-key Cryptography is the attack on Authenticity. An attacker may
impersonate user B: he sends a message E(KUA,X) and claims in the message to be B –A has
no guarantee this is so. To overcome this, B will encrypt the message using his private key:
Y=E(KRB,X). Receiver decrypts using B’s public key KRB. This shows the authenticity of the
sender because (supposedly) he is the only one who knows the private key. The entire
encrypted message serves as a digital signature. This scheme is depicted in the following
figure:

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But, a drawback still exists. Anybody can decrypt the message using B’s public key. So, secrecy
or confidentiality is being compromised. One can provide both authentication and
confidentiality using the public-key scheme twice:

B encrypts X with his private key: Y=E(KRB,X)

B encrypts Y with A’s public key: Z=E(KUA,Y)

A will decrypt Z (and she is the only one capable of doing it): Y=D(KRA,Z)

A can now get the plaintext and ensure that it comes from B (he is the only one who knows
his private key): decrypt Y using B’s public key: X=E(KUB,Y).

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Applications for public-key cryptosystems:

1.) Encryption/decryption: sender encrypts the message with the receiver’s public key.

2.) Digital signature: sender “signs” the message (or a representative part of the
message) using his private key

3.) Key exchange: two sides cooperate to exchange a secret key for later use in a secret-
key cryptosystem.

The main requirements of Public-key cryptography are:

1. Computationally easy for a party B to generate a pair (public key KUb, private key KRb).

2. Easy for sender A to generate ciphertext:

3. Easy for the receiver B to decrypt ciphertect using private key:

4. Computationally infeasible to determine private key (KRb) knowing public key (KUb)
5. Computationally infeasible to recover message M, knowing KUb and ciphertext C
6. Either of the two keys can be used for encryption, with the other used for decryption:
M= DKRb[EKUb(M)]=DKUb [EKRb(M)]
Easy is defined to mean a problem that can be solved in polynomial time as a function of
input length. A problem is infeasible if the effort to solve it grows faster than polynomial
time as a function of input size. Public-key cryptosystems usually rely on difficult math
functions rather than S-P networks as classical cryptosystems. One-way function is one,
easy to calculate in one direction, infeasible to calculate in the other direction (i.e., the
inverse is infeasible to compute). Trap-door function is a difficult function that becomes
easy if some extra information is known. Our aim to find a trap-door one-way function,
which is easy to calculate in one direction and infeasible to calculate in the other direction
unless certain additional information is known.
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, its just made too hard to do in practise.

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 Requires the use of very large numbers, hence is slow compared to private key
schemes

RSA ALGORITHM
RSA is the best known, and by far the most widely used general public key
encryption algorithm, and was first published by Rivest, Shamir & Adleman of MIT in
1978 [RIVE78]. Since that time RSA has reigned supreme as the most widely accepted
and implemented general-purpose approach to public-key encryption. The RSA scheme
is a block cipher in which the plaintext and the ciphertext are integers between 0 and n-
1 for some fixed n and typical size for n is 1024 bits (or 309 decimal digits). It is based on
exponentiation in a finite (Galois) field over integers modulo a prime, using large integers
(eg. 1024 bits). Its security is due to the cost of factoring large numbers. RSA involves a
public-key and a private-key where the public key is known to all and is used to encrypt
data or message. The data or message which has been encrypted using a public key can
only be decryted by using its corresponding private-key. Each user generates a key pair
i.e. public and private key using the following steps:
 each user selects two large primes at random - p, q
 compute their system modulus n=p.q
 calculate ø(n), where ø(n)=(p-1)(q-1)
 selecting at random the encryption key e, where 1<e<ø(n),and 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: KU={e,n}
 keep secret private decryption key: KR={d,n}

Both the sender and receiver must know the values of n and e, and only the receiver
knows the value of d. Encryption and Decryption are done using the following equations.
To encrypt a message M the sender:
– obtains public key of recipient KU={e,n}
– computes: C=Me mod n, where 0≤M<n
To decrypt the ciphertext C the owner:
– uses their private key KR={d,n}
– computes: M=Cd mod n = (Me) d mod n = Med mod n

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For this algorithm to be satisfactory, the following requirements are to be met.

a) Its possible to find values of e, d, n such that Med = M mod n for all M<n
b) It is relatively easy to calculate Me and C for all values of M < n.
c) It is impossible to determine d given e and n

The way RSA works is based on Number theory: Fermat’s little theorem: if p is
prime and a is positive integer not divisible by p, then ap-1 ≡ 1 mod p. Corollary: For
any positive integer a and prime p, ap ≡ a mod p.

Fermat’s theorem, as useful as will turn out to be does not provide us with integers
d,e we are looking for –Euler’s theorem (a refinement of Fermat’s) does. Euler’s function
associates to any positive integer n, a number φ(n): the number of positive integers
smaller than n and relatively prime to n. For example, φ(37) = 36 i.e. φ(p) = p-1 for any
prime p. For any two primes p,q, φ(pq)=(p-1)(q-1). Euler’s theorem: for any relatively
prime integers a,n we have aφ(n)≡1 mod n. Corollary: For any integers a,n we have
aφ(n)+1≡a mod n Corollary: Let p,q be two odd primes and n=pq. Then: φ(n)=(p-1)(q-
1) For any integer m with 0<m<n, m(p-1)(q-1)+1 ≡ m mod n For any integers k,m with
0<m<n, mk(p-1)(q-1)+1 ≡ m mod n Euler’s theorem provides us the numbers d, e such
that Med=M mod n. We have to choose d,e such that ed=kφ(n)+1, or equivalently, d≡e-
1mod φ(n)

An example of RSA can be given as,

Select primes: p=17 & q=11
Compute n = pq =17×11=187
Compute ø(n)=(p–1)(q-1)=16×10=160
Select e : gcd(e,160)=1; choose e=7
Determine d: de=1 mod 160 and d < 160 Value is d=23 since 23×7=161= 10×160+1
Publish public key KU={7,187}
Keep secret private key KR={23,187}
Now, given message M = 88 (nb. 88<187)
encryption: C = 887 mod 187 = 11
decryption: M = 1123 mod 187 = 88

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Another example of RSA is given as,

Let p = 11, q = 13, e = 11, m = 7
n = pq i.e. n= 11*13 = 143
ø(n)= (p-1)(q-1) i.e. (11-1)(13-1) = 120
e.d=1 mod ø(n) i.e. 11d mod 120 = 1 i.e. (11*11) mod 120=1;
so d = 11 public key :{11,143} and private key: {11,143}
C=Me mod n, so ciphertext = 711mod143 = 727833 mod 143; i.e. C = 106
M=Cd mod n, plaintext = 10611 mod 143 = 1008 mod 143; i.e. M = 7

For RSA key generation,

– determine two primes at random - p, q

– select either e or d and compute the other

– means must be sufficiently large

– typically guess and use probabilistic test

Security of RSA
There are three main approaches of attacking RSA algorithm.
Brute force key search (infeasible given size of numbers) As explained before, involves
trying all possible private keys. Best defence is using large keys.
Mathematical attacks (based on difficulty of computing ø(N), by factoring modulus N)
There are several approaches, all equivalent in effect to factoring the product of two
primes. Some of them are given as:

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– factor N=p.q, hence find ø(N) and then d

– determine ø(N) directly and find d

– find d directly

The possible defense would be using large keys and also choosing large numbers for p
and q, which should differ only by a few bits and are also on the order of magnitude 1075
to 10100. And gcd (p-1, q-1) should be small.

DIFFIE-HELLMAN KEY EXCHANGE

Diffie-Hellman key exchange (D-H) is a cryptographic protocol that allows two parties
that have no prior knowledge of each other to jointly establish a shared secret key over
an insecure communications channel. This key can then be used to encrypt subsequent
communications using a symmetric key cipher. The D-H algorithm depends for its
effectiveness on the difficulty of computing discrete logarithms.
First, a primitive root of a prime number p, can be defined as one whose powers generate
all the integers from 1 to p-1. If a is a primitive root of the prime number p, then the
numbers, a mod p, a2 mod p,..., ap-1 mod p, are distinct and consist of the integers from 1
through p 1 in some permutation.
For any integer b and a primitive root a of prime number p, we can find a unique exponent

i such that .The exponent i is referred to as the

discrete logarithm of b for the base a, mod p. We express this value as dloga,p (b). The
algorithm is summarized below:

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For this scheme, there are two publicly known numbers: a prime number q and an integer
α that is a primitive root of q. Suppose the users A and B wish to exchange a key. User A
selects a random integer XA < q and computes YA = αXA mod q. Similarly, user B
independently selects a random integer X A < q and computes YB = αXB mod q. Each side
keeps the X value private and makes the Y value available publicly to the other side. User
A computes the key as K = (YB)XA mod q and user B computes the key as K = (YA)XB mod
q. These two calculations produce identical results.
Discrete Log Problem
The (discrete) exponentiation problem is as follows: Given a base a, an exponent b and a
modulus p, calculate c such that ab ≡ c (mod p) and 0 ≤ c < p. It turns out that this problem
is fairly easy and can be calculated "quickly" using fast-exponentiation. The discrete log
problem is the inverse problem: Given a base a, a result c (0 ≤ c < p) and a modulus p,

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calculate the exponent b such that ab ≡ c (mod p). It turns out that no one has found

a quick way to solve this problem With DLP, if P had 300 digits, Xa and Xb have more than
100 digits, it would take longer than the life of the universe to crack the method.
Examples for D-H key distribution scheme:
1) Let p = 37 and g = 13.

Let Alice pick a = 10. Alice calculates 1310 (mod 37) which is 4 and sends that to Bob. Let
Bob pick b = 7. Bob calculates 137 (mod 37) which is 32 and sends that to Alice. (Note: 6
and 7 are secret to Alice and Bob, respectively, but both 4 and 32 are known by all.)
10 (mod 37) which is 30, the secret key.

7 (mod 37) which is 30, the same secret key.

2) Let p = 47 and g = 5. Let Alice pick a = 18. Alice calculates 5 18 (mod 47) which is 2 and
sends that to Bob. Let Bob pick b = 22. Bob calculates 522 (mod 47) which is 28 and sends
that to Alice.
18 (mod 47) which is 24, the secret key.

22 (mod 47) which is 24, the same secret key

Man-in-the-Middle Attack on D-H protocol

Suppose Alice and Bob wish to exchange keys, and Darth is the adversary. The attack
proceeds as follows:
1. Darth prepares for the attack by generating two random private keys X D1 and XD2 and
then computing the corresponding public keys Y D1 and YD2.

2. Alice transmits YA to Bob.

3. Darth intercepts YA and transmits YD1 to Bob. Darth also calculates K2 = (YA)XD2mod q.

4. Bob receives YD1 and calculates K1 = (YD1)XE mod q.

5. Bob transmits XA to Alice.

6. Darth intercepts XA and transmits YD2 to Alice. Darth calculates K1 = (YB)XD1 mod q.

7. Alice receives YD2 and calculates K2 = (YD2)XA mod q.

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At this point, Bob and Alice think that they share a secret key, but instead Bob and Darth
share secret key K1 and Alice and Darth share secret key K2. All future communication
between Bob and Alice is compromised in the following way:
1. Alice sends an encrypted message M: E(K2, M).

2. Darth intercepts the encrypted message and decrypts it, to recover M.

3. Darth sends Bob E(K1, M) or E(K1, M'), where M' is any message. In the first case, Darth
simply wants to eavesdrop on the communication without altering it. In the second case,
Darth wants to modify the message going to Bob.
The key exchange protocol is vulnerable to such an attack because it does not
authenticate the participants. This vulnerability can be overcome with the use of digital
signatures and public-key certificates.

ELLIPTIC CURVE CRYPTOGRAPHY (ECC)

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is an approach to public-key cryptography based on
the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. The use of elliptic curves in
cryptography was suggested independently by Neal Koblitz and Victor S. Miller in 1985.
The principal attraction of ECC compared to RSA is that it appears to offer equal security
for a far smaller bit size, thereby reducing the processing overhead.
Elliptic Curve over GF(p)
Let GF(p) be a finite field, p > 3, and let a, b
4a3 + 27b2 ≡ 0 (mod p). An elliptic curve, E(a,b)(GF(p)),

is defined as the set of points (x,y) ᴄ GF(p) * GF(p) which satisfy the equation
y2 ≡ x3 + ax + b (mod p), together with a special point, O, called the point at infinity. Let
P and Q be two points on E(a,b)(GF(p)) and O is the point at infinity.
• P+O = O+P = P

• If P = (x1,y1) then -P = (x1 ,-y1) and P + (-P) = O.

• If P = (x1,y1) and Q = (x2,y2), and P and Q are not O.

then P +Q = (x3 ,y3) where

x3 = ƛ 2 - x1 - x2
86

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y3 = ƛ (x1 - x3) - y1 and

ƛ = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) if P ≠ Q
ƛ = (3x12+a)/ 2y1 if P = Q

An elliptic curve may be defined over any finite field GF(q). For GF(2m), the curve has a
different form:- y2 + xy = x3 + ax2 + b, where b !=0.

Cryptography with Elliptic Curves

The addition operation in ECC is the counterpart of modular multiplication in RSA, and
multiple addition is the counterpart of modular exponentiation. To form a cryptographic
system using elliptic curves, some kind of hard problem such as discrete logarithm or
factorization of prime numbers is needed. Considering the equation, Q=kP, where Q,P are
points in an elliptic curve, it is “easy” to compute Q given k,P , but “hard” to find k given Q,P.
This is known as the elliptic curve logarithm problem. k could be so large as to make brute-
force fail.

ECC Key Exchange

Pick a prime number p= 2180 and elliptic curve parameters a and b for the equation
y2 ≡ x3 + ax + b (mod p) which defines the elliptic group of points Ep(a,b). Select
generator point G=(x1,y1) in Ep(a,b) such that the smallest value for which nG=O be a
very large prime number. Ep(a,b) and G are parameters of the cryptosystem known to all
participants. The following steps take place:
• A & B select private keys nA<n, nB<n

• compute public keys: PA=nA×G, PB=nB×G

• Compute shared key: K=nA×PB, K=nB×PA {same since K=nA×nB×G }

ECC Encryption/Decryption As with key exchange system, an encryption/decryption

system requires a point G and and elliptic group Ep(a,b) as parameters. First thing to be
done is to encode the plaintext message m to be sent as an x-y point Pm. Each user
chooses private key nA<n and computes public key PA=nA×G. To encrypt and send a
message to Pm to B, A chooses a random positive integer k and produces the ciphertext
Cm consisting of the pair of points Cm={kG, Pm+kPb}. here, A uses B’s public key. To

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decrypt the ciphertext, B multiplies the first point in the pair by B’s secret key and
subtracts the result from the second point Pm+kPb – nB(kG) = Pm+k(nBG) – nB(kG) =
Pm A has masked the message Pm by adding kPb to it. Nobody but A knows the value of
k, so even though Pb is a public key, nobody can remove the mask kPb. For an attacker to
recover the message, he has to compute k given G and kG, which is assumed hard.
Security of ECC To protect a 128 bit AES key it would take a RSA Key Size of 3072 bits
whereas an ECC Key Size of 256 bits.

Hence for similar security ECC offers significant computational advantages.

Applications of ECC:
 Wireless communication devices
 Smart cards
 Web servers that need to handle many encryption sessions
 Any application where security is needed but lacks the power, storage and
computational power that is necessary for our current cryptosystems

KEY MANAGEMENT
One of the major roles of public-key encryption has been to address the problem of key
distribution. Two distinct aspects to use of public key encryption are present.
The distribution of public keys.

Use of public-key encryption to distribute secret keys.

Distribution of Public Keys The most general schemes for distribution of public keys
are given below

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PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF PUBLIC KEYS

Here any participant can send his or her public key to any other participant or broadcast
the key to the community at large. For example, many PGP users have adopted the
practice of appending their public key to messages that they send to public forums.

Though this approach seems convenient, it has a major drawback. Anyone can forge such
a public announcement. Some user could pretend to be user A and send a public key to
another participant or broadcast such a public key. Until the time when A discovers about
the forgery and alerts other participants, the forger is able to read all encrypted messages
intended for A and can use the forged keys for authentication.

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DIRECTORY

A greater degree of security can be achieved by maintaining a publicly available dynamic
directory of public keys. Maintenance and distribution of the public directory would have
to be the responsibility of some trusted entity or organization. It includes the following
elements:
1. The authority maintains a directory with a {name, public key} entry for each
participant.
2. Each participant registers a public key with the directory authority. Registration would
have to be in person or by some form of secure authenticated communication.

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3. A participant may replace the existing key with a new one at any time, either
because of the desire to replace a public key that has already been used for a large
amount of data, or because the corresponding private key has been compromised
in some way.
4. Participants could also access the directory electronically. For this purpose,
secure, authenticated communication from the authority to the participant is
mandatory. This scheme has still got some vulnerabilities. If an adversary
succeeds in obtaining or computing the private key of the directory authority, the
adversary could authoritatively pass out counterfeit public keys and subsequently
impersonate any participant and eavesdrop on messages sent to any participant.
Or else, the adversary may tamper with the records kept by the authority.

PUBLIC-KEY AUTHORITY
Stronger security for public-key distribution can be achieved by providing tighter
control over the distribution of public keys from the directory. This scenario assumes the
existence of a public authority (whoever that may be) that maintains a dynamic directory
of public keys of all users. The public authority has its own (private key, public key) that
it is using to communicate to users. Each participant reliably knows a public key for the
authority, with only the authority knowing the corresponding private key. For example,
consider that Alice and Bob wish to communicate with each other and the following steps
take place and are also shown in the figure below:

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1.) Alice sends a timestamped message to the central authority with a request for Bob’s
public key (the time stamp is to mark the moment of the request)

2.) The authority sends back a message encrypted with its private key (for
authentication) –message contains Bob’s public key and the original message of Alice –
this way Alice knows this is not a reply to an old request;

3.) Alice starts the communication to Bob by sending him an encrypted message
containing her identity IDA and a nonce N1 (to identify uniquely this transaction)

4.) Bob requests Alice’s public key in the same way (step 1)

5.) Bob acquires Alice’s public key in the same way as Alice did. (Step-2)

6.) Bob replies to Alice by sending an encrypted message with N1 plus a new generated
nonce N2 (to identify uniquely the transaction)

7.) Alice replies once more encrypting Bob’s nonce N2 to assure bob that its
correspondent is Alice
Thus, a total of seven messages are required. However, the initial four messages need be
used only infrequently because both A and B can save the other's public key for future
use, a technique known as caching. Periodically, a user should request fresh copies of the
public keys of its correspondents to ensure currency.

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PUBLIC-KEY CERTIFICATES
The above technique looks attractive, but still has some drawbacks. For any
communication between any two users, the central authority must be consulted by both
users to get the newest public keys i.e. the central authority must be online 24 hours/day. If
the central authority goes offline, all secure communications get to a halt. This clearly leads
to an undesirable bottleneck. A further improvement is to use certificates, which can be used
to exchange keys without contacting a public-key authority, in a way that is as reliable as if
the keys were obtained directly from a public-key authority. A certificate binds an identity
to public key, with all contents signed by a trusted Public-Key or Certificate Authority (CA).
A user can present his or her public key to the authority in a secure manner, and obtain a
certificate. The user can then publish the certificate. Anyone needed this user's public key can
obtain the certificate and verify that it is valid by way of the attached trusted signature. A
participant can also convey its key information to another by transmitting its certificate.
Other participants can verify that the certificate was created by the authority. This certificate
issuing scheme does have the following requirements:
1. Any participant can read a certificate to determine the name and public key of the
certificate's owner.

2. Any participant can verify that the certificate originated from the certificate authority and
is not counterfeit.

3. Only the certificate authority can create and update certificates.

4. Any participant can verify the currency of the certificate.

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Application must be in person or by some form of secure authenticated communication.

For participant A, the authority provides a certificate of the form
CA = E(PRauth, [T||IDA||PUa]) where PRauth is the private key used by the authority and
T is a timestamp. A may then pass this certificate on to any other participant, who reads
and verifies the certificate as follows: D(PUauth, CA) = D(PUauth, E(PRauth, [T||IDA||PUa]))
= (T||IDA||PUa) The recipient uses the authority's public key, PUauth to decrypt the
certificate. Because the certificate is readable only using the authority's public key, this
verifies that the certificate came from the certificate authority. The elements IDA and PUa
provide the recipient with the name and public key of the certificate's holder. The
timestamp T validates the currency of the certificate. The timestamp counters the
following scenario. A's private key is learned by an adversary. A generates a new
private/public key pair and applies to the certificate authority for a new certificate.
Meanwhile, the adversary replays the old certificate to B. If B then encrypts messages
using the compromised old public key, the adversary can read those messages. In this
context, the compromise of a private key is comparable to the loss of a credit card. The
owner cancels the credit card number but is at risk until all possible communicants are
aware that the old credit card is obsolete. Thus, the timestamp serves as something like
an expiration date. If a certificate is sufficiently old, it is assumed to be expired.
One scheme has become universally accepted for formatting public-key certificates: the
X.509 standard. X.509 certificates are used in most network security applications,
including IP security, secure sockets layer (SSL), secure electronic transactions (SET), and
S/MIME.
SECRET KEY DISTRIBUTION WITH CONFIDENTIALITY AND AUTHENTICATION
It is assumed that A and B have exchanged public keys by one of the schemes described
earlier. Then the following steps occur:

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1. A uses B's public key to encrypt a message to B containing an identifier of A (IDA) and
a nonce (N1), which is used to identify this transaction uniquely.
2. B sends a message to A encrypted with PUa and containing A's nonce (N1) as well as a
new nonce generated by B (N2) Because only B could have decrypted message (1), the
presence of N1 in message (2) assures A that the correspondent is B.
3. A returns N2 encrypted using B's public key, to assure B that its correspondent is A.
4. A selects a secret key Ks and sends M = E(PUb, E(PRa, Ks)) to B. Encryption of this
message with B's public key ensures that only B can read it; encryption with A's
private key ensures that only A could have sent it.
5. B computes D(PUa, D(PRb, M)) to recover the secret key.

The result is that this scheme ensures both confidentiality and authentication in the
exchange of a secret key.

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KNAPSACK ALGORITHM

Public-Key cryptography was invented in the 1970s by Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman
and Ralph Merkle.

Public-key cryptography needs two keys. One key tells you how to encrypt (or code) a
message and this is "public" so anyone can use it. The other key allows you to decode
(or decrypt) the message. This decryption code is kept secret (or private) so only the
person who knows the key can decrypt the message. It is also possible for the person

with the private key to encrypt a message with the private key, then anyone holding the
public key can decrypt the message, although this seems to be of little use if you are
trying to keep something secret!

The First General Public-Key Algorithm used what we call the Knapsack Algorithm.
Although we now know that this algorithm is not secure we can use it to look at how
these types of encryption mechanisms work.

The knapsack algorithm works like this:

Imagine you have a set of different weights which you can use to make any total weight
that you need by adding combinations of any of these weights together.
Let us look at an example:
Imagine you had a set of weights 1, 6, 8, 15 and 24. To pack a knapsack weighing 30, you
could use weights 1, 6, 8 and 15. It would not be possible to pack a knapsack that weighs
17 but this might not matter.
You might represent the weight 30 by the binary code 11110 (one 1, one 6, one 8, one
15 and no 24).
Example:

Plain text 10011 11010 01011 00000

Knapsack 1 6 8 15 24 1 6 8 15 24 1 6 8 15 24 1 6 8 15 24

Cipher text 1 + 15 + 24 = 40 1 + 6 + 15 = 22 6 + 15 + 24 = 45 0=0

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What total weights is it possible to make?

So, if someone sends you the code 38 this can only have come from the plain text 01101.
When the Knapsack Algorithm is used in public key cryptography, the idea is to create
two different knapsack problems. One is easy to solve, the other not. Using the easy
knapsack, the hard knapsack is derived from it. The hard knapsack becomes the public
key. The easy knapsack is the private key. The public key can be used to encrypt messages,
but cannot be used to decrypt messages. The private key decrypts the messages.

The Superincreasing Knapsack Problem

An easy knapsack problem is one in which the weights are in a superincreasing

sequence. A superincreasing sequence is one in which the next term of the sequence is
greater than the sum of all preceding terms. For example, the set {1, 2, 4, 9, 20, 38} is
superincreasing, but the set {1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 24} is not because 10 < 1+2+3+9.
It is easy to solve a superincreasing knapsack. Simply take the total weight of the
knapsack and compare it with the largest weight in the sequence. If the total weight is
less than the number, then it is not in the knapsack. If the total weight is greater then
the number, it is in the knapsack. Subtract the number from the total, and compare with
the next highest number. Keep working this way until the total reaches zero. If the total
doesn't reach zero, then there is no solution.
So, for example, if you have a knapsack that weighs 23 that has been made from the
weights of the superincreasing series {1, 2, 4, 9, 20, 38} then it does not contain the
weight 38 (as 38 > 23)
but it does contain the weight 20; leaving 3;
which does not contain the weight 9 still leaving 3;
which does not contain the weight 4 still leaving 3;
which contains the weight 2, leaving 1; which contains the weight 1.
The binary code is therefore 110010.
It is much harder to decrypt a non-superincreasing knapsack problem. Give a friend a
non-superincreasing knapsack and a total and see why this is the case.
One algorithm that uses a superincreasing knapsack for the private (easy) key and a non-superincreasing
knapsack for the public key was created by Merkle and Hellman

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They did this by taking a superincreasing knapsack problem and converting it into a
non-superincreasing one that could be made public, using modulus arithmetic.

Making the Public Key

To produce a normal knapsack sequence, take a superincreasing sequence; e.g. {1, 2, 4,

10, 20, 40}. Multiply all the values by a number, n, modulo m. The modulus should be a
number greater than the sum of all the numbers in the sequence, for example, 110. The

multiplier should have no factors in common with the modulus. So let's choose 31. The
normal knapsack sequence would be:

1×31 mod(110) = 31
2×31 mod(110) = 62
4×31 mod(110) = 14
10×31 mod(110) = 90
20×31 mod(110) = 70
40×31 mod(110) = 30

So the public key is: {31, 62, 14, 90, 70, 30} and
the private key is {1, 2, 4, 10, 20.40}.

Let's try to send a message that is in binary code:

100100111100101110
The knapsack contains six weights so we need to split the message into groups of six:
100100
111100
101110
This corresponds to three sets of weights with totals as follows
100100 = 31 + 90 = 121
111100 = 31+62+14+90 = 197
101110 = 31+14+90+70 =205
So the coded message is 121 197 205.

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Now the receiver has to decode the message...

The person decoding must know the two numbers 110 and 31 (the modulus and the
multiplier). Let's call the modulus "m" and the number you multiply by "n".
We need n−1, which is a multiplicative inverse of n mod m, i.e. n(n−1) = 1 mod m

In this case I have calculated n−1 to be 71.

All you then have to do is multiply each of the codes 71 mod 110 to find the total in the
knapsack which contains {1, 2, 4, 10, 20, 40} and hence to decode the message.
The coded message is 121 197 205:

121×71 mod(110) = 11 = 100100

197×71 mod(110) = 17 = 111100
205×71 mod(110) = 35 = 101110

The decoded message is:

100100111100101110.
Just as I thought!

Simple and short knapsack codes are far too easy to break to be of any real use. For a
knapsack code to be reasonably secure it would need well over 200 terms each of length
200 bits.

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