Cryptography and

Network Security
Chapter 2
Fifth Edition
by William Stallings

Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

and Sohail Saif
 Symmetric Encryption
➢ or conventional / private-key / single-key
➢ sender and recipient share a common key
➢ all classical encryption algorithms are
private-key
➢ was only type prior to invention of public-
key in 1970’s
➢ and by far most widely used
 Some Basic Terminology
➢ plaintext - original message
➢ ciphertext - 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
➢ decipher (decrypt) - recovering ciphertext from plaintext
➢ cryptography - study of encryption principles/methods
➢ cryptanalysis (codebreaking) - study of principles/
methods of deciphering ciphertext without knowing key
➢ cryptology - field of both cryptography and cryptanalysis
Symmetric Cipher Model
 Requirements
➢ two
requirements for secure use of
symmetric encryption:
⚫ a strong encryption algorithm
⚫ a secret key known only to sender / receiver
➢ mathematically have:
Y = E(K, X)
X = D(K, Y)
➢ assume encryption algorithm is known
➢ implies a secure channel to distribute key
 Cryptography
➢ can characterize cryptographic system by:
⚫ type of encryption operations used
• substitution
• transposition
• product
⚫ number of keys used
• single-key or private
• two-key or public
⚫ way in which plaintext is processed
• block
• stream
 Cryptanalysis
➢ objectiveto recover key not just message
➢ general approaches:
⚫ cryptanalytic attack
⚫ brute-force attack
➢ if either succeed all key use compromised
 Cryptanalytic Attacks
➢ ciphertext only
⚫ only know algorithm & ciphertext, is statistical,
know or can identify plaintext
➢ known plaintext
⚫ know/suspect plaintext & ciphertext
➢ chosen plaintext
⚫ select plaintext and obtain ciphertext
➢ chosen ciphertext
⚫ select ciphertext and obtain plaintext
➢ chosen text
⚫ select plaintext or ciphertext to en/decrypt
 More Definitions
➢ unconditional security
⚫ no matter how much computer power or time
is available, the cipher cannot be broken
since the ciphertext provides insufficient
information to uniquely determine the
corresponding plaintext
➢ computational security
⚫ given limited computing resources (eg time
needed for calculations is greater than age of
universe), the cipher cannot be broken
 Brute Force Search
➢ always possible to simply try every key
➢ most basic attack, proportional to key size
➢ assume either know / recognise plaintext

Key Size (bits) Number of Alternative Time required at 1 Time required at 106
Keys decryption/µs decryptions/µs
32 232 = 4.3  109 231 µs = 35.8 minutes 2.15 milliseconds
56 256 = 7.2  1016 255 µs = 1142 years 10.01 hours
128 2128 = 3.4  1038 2127 µs = 5.4  1024 years 5.4  1018 years

168 2168 = 3.7  1050 2167 µs = 5.9  1036 years 5.9  1030 years

26 characters 26! = 4  1026 2  1026 µs = 6.4  1012 years 6.4  106 years
(permutation)
 Classical Substitution
Ciphers
➢ where letters of plaintext are replaced by
other letters or by numbers or symbols
➢ or if plaintext is viewed as a sequence of
bits, then substitution involves replacing
plaintext bit patterns with ciphertext bit
patterns
 Caesar Cipher
➢ earliest known substitution cipher
➢ by Julius Caesar
➢ first attested use in military affairs
➢ replaces each letter by 3rd letter on
➢ example:
meet me after the toga party
PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
 Caesar Cipher
➢ can define transformation as:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C

➢ mathematically give each letter a number

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

➢ then have Caesar cipher as:

c = E(k, p) = (p + k) mod (26)
p = D(k, c) = (c – k) mod (26)
 Caesar Cipher

Plain Text: JAVATPOINT

Encrypted Text: MDYDWSRLQW
SSF
 Caesar Cipher

Encrypted Text: MDYDWSRLQW

Plain Text: JAVATPOINT
SSF
 Cryptanalysis of Caesar
Cipher
➢ only have 26 possible ciphers
⚫ A maps to A,B,..Z
➢ could simply try each in turn
➢ a brute force search
➢ given ciphertext, just try all shifts of letters
➢ do need to recognize when have plaintext
➢ eg. break ciphertext "GCUA VQ DTGCM"
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
➢ rather than just shifting the alphabet
➢ could shuffle (jumble) the letters arbitrarily
➢ each plaintext letter maps to a different random
ciphertext letter
➢ hence key is 26 letters long

Plain: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cipher: DKVQFIBJWPESCXHTMYAUOLRGZN

Plaintext: ifwewishtoreplaceletters
Ciphertext: WIRFRWAJUHYFTSDVFSFUUFYA
 Monoalphabetic Cipher
Security
➢ now have a total of 26! = 4 x 1026 keys
➢ with so many keys, might think is secure
➢ but would be !!!WRONG!!!
➢ problem is language characteristics
 Language Redundancy and
Cryptanalysis
➢ human languages are redundant
➢ eg "th lrd s m shphrd shll nt wnt"
➢ letters are not equally commonly used
➢ in English E is by far the most common letter
⚫ followed by T,R,N,I,O,A,S
➢ other letters like Z,J,K,Q,X are fairly rare
➢ have tables of single, double & triple letter
frequencies for various languages
English Letter Frequencies
 Use in Cryptanalysis
➢ key concept - monoalphabetic substitution
ciphers do not change relative letter frequencies
➢ discovered by Arabian scientists in 9th century
➢ calculate letter frequencies for ciphertext
➢ compare counts/plots against known values
➢ if caesar cipher look for common peaks/troughs
⚫ peaks at: A-E-I triple, NO pair, RST triple
⚫ troughs at: JK, X-Z
➢ for monoalphabetic must identify each letter
⚫ tables of common double/triple letters help
 Example Cryptanalysis
➢ given ciphertext:
UZQSOVUOHXMOPVGPOZPEVSGZWSZOPFPESXUDBMETSXAIZ
VUEPHZHMDZSHZOWSFPAPPDTSVPQUZWYMXUZUHSX
EPYEPOPDZSZUFPOMBZWPFUPZHMDJUDTMOHMQ
➢ count relative letter frequencies (see text)
➢ guess P & Z are e and t
➢ guess ZW is th and hence ZWP is the
➢ proceeding with trial and error finally get:
it was disclosed yesterday that several informal but
direct contacts have been made with political
representatives of the viet cong in moscow
 Polyalphabetic Ciphers
➢ polyalphabetic substitution ciphers
➢ improve security using multiple cipher alphabets
➢ make cryptanalysis harder with more alphabets
to guess and flatter frequency distribution
➢ use a key to select which alphabet is used for
each letter of the message
➢ use each alphabet in turn
➢ repeat from start after end of key is reached
 Vigenère Cipher
➢ simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher
➢ effectively multiple caesar ciphers

Encryption Process
Ci = (Pi + Ki mod m) mod 26
Decryption Process
Pi = (Ci - Ki mod m) mod 26
 Example of Vigenère Cipher
➢ write the plaintext out
➢ write the keyword repeated above it
➢ use each key letter as a caesar cipher key
➢ encrypt the corresponding plaintext letter
➢ eg using keyword deceptive
key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ
Example of Vigenère Cipher
key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ

SSF
 Playfair Cipher
➢ not even the large number of keys in a
monoalphabetic cipher provides security
➢ one approach to improving security was to
encrypt multiple letters
➢ the Playfair Cipher is an example
➢ invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854,
but named after his friend Baron Playfair
 Playfair Key Matrix
➢a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
➢ fill in letters of keyword (sans duplicates)
➢ fill rest of matrix with other letters
➢ eg. using the keyword MONARCHY

M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
 Playfair Key Matrix
➢a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
➢ fill in letters of keyword (sans duplicates)
➢ fill rest of matrix with other letters
➢ eg. using the keyword MONARCHY

M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
 Encrypting and Decrypting
➢ 1. Digram
➢ 2. Repeating letters- Filler Letter
➢ 3. Same Column-Shift Down
➢ 4. Same Row-Shift Right
➢ 5. Rectangle- Swap

M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z

SSF
 Encrypting and Decrypting
Plain Text : attack M O N A R
Digram: at ta ck C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
Plain Text : cyber security L P Q S T
Digram: cy be re ec ur it yx
U V W X Z

Plain Text : balloon

Digram: ba ll oo n
Digram: ba lx lo on

SSF
 Encrypting and Decrypting
Plain Text : attack M O N A R
Digram: at ta ck C H Y B D
Ciphertext: rs sr de E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
Plain Text : cyber security
U V W X Z
Digram: cy be re ec ur it yx

Plain Text : mosque

Digram: mo sq ue
Ciphertext: on ts ml

SSF
 Security of Playfair Cipher
➢ security much improved over monoalphabetic
➢ since have 26 x 26 = 676 digrams
➢ would need a 676 entry frequency table to
analyse (verses 26 for a monoalphabetic)
➢ and correspondingly more ciphertext
➢ was widely used for many years
⚫ eg. by US & British military in WW1
➢ it can be broken, given a few hundred letters
➢ since still has much of plaintext structure
 Hill Cipher
➢ Multi letter cipher
➢ Developed by Lester Hill in 1929
➢ Encrypts a group of letters: Digraph, trigraph or
polygraph

SSF
 Hill Cipher
Preliminaries
✓ Matrix arithmetic modulo 26
✓ Square matrix
✓ Determinant
✓ Matrix Inverse
✓ Multiplicative inverse

SSF
Hill Cipher

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SSF
 Transposition Ciphers
➢ now consider classical transposition or
permutation ciphers
➢ these hide the message by rearranging
the letter order
➢ without altering the actual letters used
➢ can recognise these since have the same
frequency distribution as the original text
 Rail Fence cipher
➢ write message letters out diagonally over a
number of rows
➢ then read off cipher row by row
➢ eg. write message out as:
m e m a t r h t g p r y
e t e f e t e o a a t
➢ giving ciphertext
MEMATRHTGPRYETEFETEOAAT
 Row Transposition Ciphers
➢ isa more complex transposition
➢ write letters of message out in rows over a
specified number of columns
➢ then reorder the columns according to
some key before reading off the rows
Key: 4312567
Column Out 3 4 2 1 5 6 7
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
o s t p o n e
d u n t i l t
w o a m x y z
Ciphertext: TTNAAPTMTSUOAODWCOIXKNLYPETZ
 Product Ciphers
➢ ciphers using substitutions or transpositions are
not secure because of language characteristics
➢ hence consider using several ciphers in
succession to make harder, but:
⚫ two substitutions make a more complex substitution
⚫ two transpositions make more complex transposition
⚫ but a substitution followed by a transposition makes a
new much harder cipher
➢ this is bridge from classical to modern ciphers
 Steganography
➢ an alternative to encryption
➢ hides existence of message
⚫ using only a subset of letters/words in a
longer message marked in some way
⚫ using invisible ink
⚫ hiding in LSB in graphic image or sound file
➢ has drawbacks
⚫ high overhead to hide relatively few info bits
➢ advantage is can obscure encryption use