Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Unit 2
Lect 2.4
Cryptographic System Trust model

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 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Agenda
1. To recognize what is cryptographic system?
2. How trust model works in cryptographic
system?
3. What are the countermeasures in
cryptographic system

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Cryptographic System
• A cryptographic system (or a cipher system) is
a method of hiding data so that only certain
people can view it.
• The objective of cryptographic system is that
at the end of the process, only the sender and
the receiver will know the plaintext.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Cryptographic System
The various components of a basic cryptographic system are as follows- −
• Plaintext- It is the data to be protected during transmission.
• Encryption Algorithm- It is a mathematical process that produces a
cipher text for any given plaintext and encryption key. It is a
cryptographic algorithm that takes plaintext and an encryption key as
input and produces a cipher text.
• Cipher text- It is the scrambled version of the plaintext produced by the
encryption algorithm using a specific the encryption key. The ciphertext
is not guarded. It flows on public channel. It can be intercepted or
compromised by anyone who has access to the communication channel.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Cryptographic System
• Decryption Algorithm- It is a mathematical process, that produces a unique
plaintext for any given cipher text and decryption key. It is a cryptographic
algorithm that takes a cipher text and a decryption key as input, and outputs a
plaintext. The decryption algorithm essentially reverses the encryption algorithm
and is thus closely related to it.
• Encryption Key- It is a value that is known to the sender. The sender inputs the
encryption key into the encryption algorithm along with the plaintext in order to
compute the cipher text.
• Decryption Key- It is a value that is known to the receiver. The decryption key is
related to the encryption key, but is not always identical to it. The receiver inputs
the decryption key into the decryption algorithm along with the cipher text in
order to compute the plaintext.
For a given cryptosystem, a collection of all possible decryption keys is called
a key space.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

What is the job of trust model in cryptography?

In cryptography, a web of trust is a concept
used in PGP, GnuPG, and other OpenPGP-
compatible systems to establish the
authenticity of the binding between a public
key and its owner.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

How to use a trust model to accomplish the

following tasks?
• Elaborate on and provide context to the other
components of a security architecture
• Determine and formalize a threshold for risk
• Support the risk analysis process utilized
during the development of a security
architecture
• Attenuate discovered risks

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Trust Models in Cryptography

• Secure use of cryptography requires trust. Though secret key
cryptography can ensure message confidentiality and hash
codes can ensure integrity but it cannot perform without
trust. Therefore, there are number of trust models used for
various cryptographic schemes-
• There is web of trust employed by Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP) users, which used their own set of trusted public keys.
• Kerberos is another method of secret key distribution
scheme which uses a trusted third party.
• Certificates which usually allow a set of trusted third parties
to authenticate each other & its users.

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 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Trust Model
• Understanding trust
• Defining Trust
• Establishing Trust
• Defining Trust modeling
• Threat Profile and Risk Analysis
• Original Entity Authentication and
Bootstrapping

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 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

• The PGP’s web of trust is very easy to maintain

and is based on the reality of users as people.
• Kerberos on the other hand has overcomes many
of the problems of PGP’s web of trust. It is
scalable and has a very large scope. But, it has
some limitation that it requires that the Kerberos
server have a priori knowledge of all client
systems prior to any transactions, thus making it
unfeasible for client/server in e-commerce world.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Cryptographic Attacks
In cryptography, following attacks occur-
1. Cipher text only- A cipher text only attack is one in which the attacker
has only the cipher text.
2. Known plaintext- In a known plaintext attack, an attacker has seen the
plaintext and the resulting cipher text. 
3. Chosen plaintext- In a chosen plaintext attack, the attacker chooses the
plaintext to be encrypted. 
4. Iterative chosen plaintext- In the iterative chosen plaintext attack, also
referred to as a batch chosen-plaintext attack, the attacker sends
multiple messages and captures the resulting cipher text.
5. Chosen cipher text- The weakest of all systems is the chosen cipher
text. Here the attacker produces cipher text and then sends it through a
decryption process to see the resulting plaintext. 
University Institute of Engineering(UIE)
 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

COUNTERMEASURES AGAINST CRYPTOGRAPHY ATTACKS

In computer security, a countermeasure is an
action, device, procedure, or technique that
reduces a threat, a vulnerability or
an attack by eliminating or preventing it, by
minimizing the harm it can cause, or by
discovering and reporting it so that corrective
action can be taken.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

COUNTERMEASURES AGAINST CRYPTOGRAPHY ATTACKS

Countermeasures to strengthen the

cryptosystem:
• Use strong passwords.
• Implement strong cryptosystems with
redundant encipherment.
• Implement long key spaces.

University Institute of Engineering(UIE)

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering(CSE)

Reference
Cryptographic System
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/cryp
tographic-system

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THANK YOU

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