2170709 – Information and Network
Security
Credit – 6
Theory – 4, Practical -2
Reference: Cryptography and Network Security, 6/e, By William Stallings
Course Contents
1. Symmetric Cipher Model, Cryptography, Cryptanalysis and
Attacks; Substitution and Transposition techniques
2. Stream ciphers and block ciphers, Block Cipher structure, Data
Encryption standard (DES) with example, strength of DES,
Design principles of block cipher, AES with structure, its
transformation functions, key expansion, example and
implementation
3. Multiple encryption and triple DES, Electronic Code Book,
Cipher Block Chaining Mode, Cipher Feedback mode, Output
Feedback mode, Counter mode
Course Contents
4. Public Key Cryptosystems with Applications, Requirements and
Cryptanalysis, RSA algorithm, its computational aspects and
security, Diffie-Hillman Key Exchange algorithm, Man-in-
Middle attack
5. Cryptographic Hash Functions, their applications, Simple hash
functions, its requirements and security, Hash functions based
on Cipher Block Chaining, Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)
6. Multiple encryption and triple DES, Electronic Code Book,
Cipher Block Chaining Mode, Cipher Feedback mode, Output
Feedback mode, Counter mode
Course Contents
7. Digital Signature, its properties, requirements and security, various
digital signature schemes (Elgamal and Schnorr), NIST digital
Signature algorithm
8. Key management and distribution, symmetric key distribution using
symmetric and asymmetric encryptions, distribution of public keys,
X.509 certificates, Public key infrastructure
9. Remote user authentication with symmetric and asymmetric
encryption, Kerberos
10. Web Security threats and approaches, SSL architecture and protocol,
Transport layer security, HTTPS and SSH
Course Outcomes (Cos)
• Define information security and outline its major components.
• Identify the concepts in information security including security
policies, security models and various security mechanisms.
• Identify the major types of threats to information security and
the associated attacks.
• Demonstrate detailed knowledge about the role of encryption
to protect data.
Course Outcomes (COs)
• To provide solid foundation of the principal of Cryptographic
algorithms including secret key cryptography, hashes and
message digests, and public key algorithm.
• Gain awareness of network security issues involving stand alone
computers, locally networked computers and remotely
networked computers.
• Gain knowledge about basic principles and techniques for
designing a secure system.
Course Outcomes (Cos)
• Examine and apply network and distributed systems
security issues and solutions, including authentication,
key distribution, firewalls and network security
protocols.
• Identify the appropriate procedures required to secure
networks.
Reference Books
• Cryptography and Network Security, Principles And Practice Sixth
Edition, William Stallings, Pearson
• Information Security Principles and Practice By Mark Stamp, Willy
India Edition
• Cryptography & Network Security, Forouzan, Mukhopadhyay,
McGrawHill
• Cryptography and Network Security Atul Kahate, TMH
• Cryptography and Security, C K Shyamala, N Harini, T R Padmanabhan,
Wiley-India
• Information Systems Security, Godbole, Wiley-India
List of Experiments
• Implement Caesar cipher encryption-decryption.
• Implement Mono alphabetic cipher encryption-decryption.
• Implement Playfair cipher encryption-decryption.
• Implement Poly-alphabetic cipher encryption-decryption.
• Implement Hill cipher encryption-decryption.
• To implement Simple DES or AES.
List of Experiments
• Implement Diffi-Hellmen Key exchange Method.
• Implement RSA encryption-decryption algorithm.
• Write a program to generate SHA-1 hash.
• Implement a digital signature algorithm.
• Perform various encryption-decryption techniques with
cryptool.
• Study and use the Wireshark for the various network protocols.
Chapter 1 – Introduction
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the
likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on
our own readiness to receive him; not on the
chance of his not attacking, but rather on the
fact that we have made our position
unassailable.
—The Art of War, Sun Tzu
Background
• Information Security requirements have changed in
recent times
• traditionally provided by physical and administrative
mechanisms
• computer use requires automated tools to protect
files and other stored information
• use of networks and communications links requires
measures to protect data during transmission
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
Aim of Course
• our focus is on Cryptography & Network
Security
• which consists of measures to prevent, detect
and correct security violations that involve the
transmission & storage of information
Some Examples of Security Violation
User A Transmits a file to user B. The file contains sensitive information
that is to be protected from disclosure. User C, who is not authorized to
read the file, is able to monitor the transmission and capture a copy of
the file during it transmission.
A network manager D, transmits a message to a computer E, under
its management. The message instructs computer E to update an
authorization file to include the identities of a number of new users
who are to be given access to that computer. User F intercepts the
message , alters its contents to add or delete entries , and then
forwards the message to E, which accepts the message as coming
from D and updates its authorization file accordingly.
Some Examples of Security Violation
Rather than intercept a message , User F construct its own message
with the desired entries and transmit that message to E as if had
come from manager D. Computer E accepts the message as coming
from manager D and updates its authorization file accordingly.
An employee is fired without warning. The personnel manager sends
a message to a server system to invalidate the employee’s account.
When the invalidation is accomplished , the server is to post a notice
to the employee’s file as confirmation of the action. The employee is
able to intercept the message and delay it long enough to make a
final access to the server to retrieve , and the confirmation posted.
The employee’s action may go unnoticed for some considerable time.
A message is sent from a customer to a stockbroker with instruction
for various transaction. Subsequently , the investment lose value
and the customer denies sending the message.
OSI Security Architecture
• ITU-T X.800 “Security Architecture for OSI”
• defines a systematic way of defining and
providing security requirements
• for us it provides a useful, if abstract, overview
of concepts we will study
Aspects of Security
• consider 3 aspects of information security:
– security attack – Any action that compromise the security of
information owned by an organization.
– security mechanism – A process that is designed to detect,
prevent or recover form security attack.
– security service – A processing or communication services that
enhances the security of the data processing systems and the
information transfers of an organization. The services are intended to
counter security attacks, and they make use of one or more security
mechanisms to provide the services.
Security Attack
• can focus of generic types of attacks
– Passive
• Passive attacks are in the nature of eavesdropping on, or
monitoring of, transmission.
• The goal of the opponent is to obtain information that is being
transmitted.
– Active
• Active attack involves some modification of the data stream or the
creation of a false stream.
Passive Attacks
Passive Attacks (Cont.)
Active Attacks
A masquerade takes place when one entity pretends to be a
different entity
Active Attacks (Cont.)
Replay involves the passive capture of a data unit and its
subsequent retransmission to produce an unauthorized effect
Active Attacks (Cont.)
Modification of messages simply means that some portion
of a legitimate message is altered, or that messages are
delayed or reordered, to produce an unauthorized effect
Active Attacks (Cont.)
The denial of service prevents or inhibits the normal use or
management of communications facilities
Security attack
• Passive attacks are difficult to detect, measures are
available to prevent their success.
• Active attacks is quite difficult to prevent, because of
wide variety of potential, software and network
vulnerabilities.
• The goal is detect active attacks and to recover from
any disruption or delays caused by them.
Security Service
– enhance security of data processing systems and
information transfers of an organization
– intended to counter security attacks
– using one or more security mechanisms
– often replicates functions normally associated
with physical documents
• which, for example, have signatures, dates; need
protection from disclosure, tampering, or destruction;
be notarized or witnessed; be recorded or licensed
Security Services
• X.800:
“a service provided by a protocol layer of
communicating open systems, which ensures
adequate security of the systems or of data
transfers”
• RFC 2828:
“a processing or communication service provided by
a system to give a specific kind of protection to
system resources”
Security Services (X.800)
• Authentication - assurance that the communicating
entity is the one claimed
• Access Control - prevention of the unauthorized use of
a resource
• Data Confidentiality –protection of data from
unauthorized disclosure
• Data Integrity - assurance that data received is as sent
by an authorized entity
• Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by one of
the parties in a communication
Security Mechanism
• feature designed to detect, prevent, or
recover from a security attack
• no single mechanism that will support all
services required
• however one particular element underlies
many of the security mechanisms in use:
– cryptographic techniques
• hence our focus on this topic
Security Mechanisms (X.800)
• specific security mechanisms:
– encipherment, digital signatures, access controls,
data integrity, authentication exchange, traffic
padding, routing control, notarization
• pervasive security mechanisms:
– trusted functionality, security labels, event
detection, security audit trails, security recovery
Model for Network Security
Model for Network Security
• using this model requires us to:
1. design a suitable algorithm for the security
transformation
2. generate the secret information (keys) used by
the algorithm
3. develop methods to distribute and share the
secret information
4. specify a protocol enabling the principals to use
the transformation and secret information for a
security service
Model for Network Access Security
Model for Network Access Security
• using this model requires us to:
1. select appropriate gatekeeper functions to
identify users
2. implement security controls to ensure only
authorised users access designated information
or resources
• trusted computer systems may be useful to
help implement this model
Summary
• have considered:
– definitions for:
• computer, network, internet security
• X.800 standard
• security attacks, services, mechanisms
• models for network (access) security
Chapter 2 – Classical Encryption
Techniques
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 = EK(X)
X = DK(Y)
• assume encryption algorithm is known
• implies a secure channel to distribute key
If P is the plaintext, C is the ciphertext, and K is the key,
We assume that Bob creates P1; we prove that P1 = P:
Cryptography
• characterize cryptographic system by:
• substitution / transposition / product
• The type of operations used for transforming plaintext to ciphertext. All
encryption algorithms are based on two general
– principles: substitution, in which each element in the plaintext (bit, letter,
group of bits or letters) is mapped into another element, and transposition, in
which elements in the plaintext are rearranged. The fundamental requirement
is that no information be lost (that is, that all operations are reversible). Most
systems, referred to as product systems, involve multiple stages of substitutions
and transpositions.
– The number of keys used
• single-key or private / two-key or public
– The way in which plaintext is processed
• block / stream
Cryptanalysis
• objective to recover key not just message
• general approaches:
– cryptanalytic attack
– Cryptanalytic attacks rely on the nature of the algorithm plus perhaps
some knowledge of the general characteristics of the plaintext or even
some sample plaintext-ciphertext pairs. This type of attack exploits the
characteristics of the algorithm to attempt to deduce a specific
plaintext or to deduce the key being used.
– brute-force attack
– The attacker tries every possible key on a piece of ciphertext until an
intelligible translation into plaintext is obtained. On average, half of all
possible keys must be tried to achieve success.
Kerckhoff’s Principle
Based on Kerckhoff’s principle, one should always
assume that the adversary, Eve, knows the
encryption/decryption algorithm. The resistance of the
cipher to attack must be based only on the secrecy of the
key.
Cryptanalysis
As cryptography is the science and art of creating secret
codes, cryptanalysis is the science and art of breaking
those codes.
Cryptanalysis attacks
Chosen-text
Continued
Ciphertext-Only Attack
Ciphertext-only attack
Known information:
• Encryption algorithm
• Cipher text
Continued
Known-Plaintext Attack
Known-plaintext attack
Known information:
• Encryption algorithm
• Cipher text
• One or more plaintext-cipher text pairs formed with the secret key
Continued
Chosen-Plaintext Attack
Chosen-plaintext attack
Known information:
• Encryption algorithm
• Cipher text
• Plaintext message chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its
corresponding ciphertext generated with the secret key
Continued
Chosen-Ciphertext Attack
Chosen-ciphertext attack
Known information:
• Encryption algorithm
• Cipher text
• Purported ciphertext chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its corresponding
decrypted plaintext generated with the secret key
Chosen text
Known information:
• Encryption algorithm
• Ciphertext
• Plaintext message chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its
corresponding ciphertext generated with the secret key
• Purported ciphertext chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its
corresponding decrypted plaintext generated with the secret key
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
cipher text 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 Time required at 1 Time required at
Alternative decryption/µs 106 decryptions/µs
Keys
32 232 = 4.3 109 231 µs = 35.8 2.15 milliseconds
minutes
56 256 = 7.2 255 µs = 1142 years 10.01 hours
1016
128 2128 = 3.4 2127 µs = 5.4 1024 5.4 1018 years
1038 years
168 2168 = 3.7 2167 µs = 5.9 1036 5.9 1030 years
1050 years
26 characters 26! = 4 1026 2 1026 µs = 6.4 6.4 106 years
(permutation) 1012 years
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:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC
• mathematically give each letter a number
abcdefghij 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(p) = (p + k) mod (26)
p = D(c) = (c – k) mod (26)
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"
Continued
Use the additive cipher with key = 15 to encrypt the message
“hello”.
Solution
We apply the encryption algorithm to the plaintext, character by
character:
Continued
Use the additive cipher with key = 15 to decrypt the message
“WTAAD”.
Solution
We apply the decryption algorithm to the plaintext character by
character:
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
3.2.1 Continued
Table 3.1 Frequency of characters in English
Table 3.2 Frequency of diagrams and trigrams
English Letter Frequencies
Continued
Eve has intercepted the following ciphertext. Using a statistical
attack, find the plaintext.
Solution
When Eve tabulates the frequency of letters in this ciphertext, she
gets: I =14, V =13, S =12, and so on. The most common character
is I with 14 occurrences.
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
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
Encrypting and Decrypting
• plaintext is encrypted two letters at a time
1. if a pair is a repeated letter, insert filler like 'X’ E.G balloon -
> ba lx lo on
2. if both letters fall in the same row, replace each with letter
to right(wrapping back to start from end) E.G. ar -> RM
3. if both letters fall in the same column, replace each with
the letter below it (again wrapping to top from bottom)
E.G. mu -> CM
4. otherwise each letter is replaced by the letter in the same
row and in the column of the other letter of the pair. E.G.
ea -> IM
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
• Another interesting multiletter cipher is the Hill cipher, developed by the
mathematician Lester Hill in 1929. The encryption algorithm takes m
successive plaintext letters and substitutes for them m ciphertext letters. The
substitution is determined by m linear equations in which each character is
assigned a numerical value (a = 0, b = 1 ... z = 25). For m = 3, the system can
be described as follows:
• c1 = (k11P1 + k12P2 + k13P3) mod 26
• c2 = (k21P1 + k22P2 + k23P3) mod 26
• c3 = (k31P1 + k32P2 + k33P3) mod 26
• This can be expressed in term of column vectors and matrices:
• or
• C = KP mod 26
• where C and P are column vectors of length 3, representing the plaintext
and ciphertext, and K is a 3 x 3 matrix, representing the encryption key.
Operations are performed mod 26.
• For example, consider the plaintext "paymoremoney"
and use the encryption key
• The first three letters of the plaintext are represented
by the vector
• the ciphertext for the entire plaintext is
LNSHDLEWMTRW.
• Decryption requires using the inverse of the matrix K. The
inverse K-1 of a matrix K is defined by the equation
KK-1 = K-1K = I, where I is the matrix that is all zeros except for
ones along the main diagonal from upper left to lower right. The
inverse of a matrix does not always exist,
• but when it does, it satisfies the preceding equation. In this
case, the inverse is:
• K-1 = Adj k / |k|
It is easily seen that if the matrix K-1 is applied to the ciphertext,
then the plaintext is recovered.
Polyalphabetic Ciphers
• polyalphabetic substitution ciphers
• improve security using multiple cipher
alphabets
• make cryptanalysis harder with more
alphabets to guess
• use a key to select which alphabet is used for
each letter of the message
repeat from start after end of key is reached
Vigenère Cipher
• simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher
• key is multiple letters long K = k1 k2 ... kd
• ith letter specifies ith alphabet to use
• repeat from start after d letters in message
• decryption simply works in reverse
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
Security of Vigenère Ciphers
• have multiple ciphertext letters for each
plaintext letter
• hence letter frequencies are obscured
• but not totally lost
• start with letter frequencies
– see if look monoalphabetic or not
• if not, then need to determine number of
alphabets
Using Example, we can say that the additive cipher is a special
case of Vigenere cipher in which m = 1.
Table A Vigenere Tableau
Autokey Cipher
• ideally want a key as long as the message
• Vigenère proposed the autokey cipher
• with keyword is prefixed to message as key
• knowing keyword can recover the first few letters
• but still have frequency characteristics to attack
• eg. given key deceptive
key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext: ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA
Vernam Cipher
• The ultimate defense against such a cryptanalysis is to
choose a keyword that is as long as the plaintext and
has no statistical relationship to it.
• Such a system was introduced by an AT&T engineer
named Gilbert Vernam in 1918. His system works on
binary data rather than letters.
Vernam Cipher
• The system can be expressed as follows:
ci = pi ex-or ki
where
pi = ith binary digit of plaintext
ki = ith binary digit of key
ci = ith binary digit of ciphertext
exclusive-or (XOR) operation
• Thus, the ciphertext is generated by performing the bitwise
XOR of the plaintext and the key. Because of the properties
of the XOR,
• decryption simply involves the same bitwise operation:
pi = ci ex-or ki
One-Time Pad
• if a truly random key as long as the message is used, the cipher
will be secure called a One-Time pad
• is unbreakable since ciphertext bears no statistical relationship
to the plaintext
• since for any plaintext & any ciphertext there exists a key
mapping one to other can only use the key once though
problems in generation & safe distribution of key
• ciphertext: ANKYODKYUREPFJBYOJDSPLREYIUNOFDOIUERFPLUYTS
key: pxlmvmsydofuyrvzwc tnlebnecvgdupahfzzlmnyih
plaintext: mr mustard with the candlestick in the hall
• ciphertext: ANKYODKYUREPFJBYOJDSPLREYIUNOFDOIUERFPLUYTS
key: mfugpmiydgaxgoufhklllmhsqdqogtewbqfgyovuhwt
plaintext: miss scarlet with the knife in the library
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
(Columnar)
• a 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
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
o st pone
d unt il t
wo amxyz
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
Combining Two Approaches
Figure
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
Steganography
• Character marking: Selected letters of printed or
typewritten text are overwritten in pencil. The marks
are ordinarily not visible unless the paper is held at
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.
Steganography
• Pin punctures: Small pin punctures on
selected letters are ordinarily not visible
unless the paper is held up in front of a light.
• Typewriter correction ribbon: Used between
lines typed with a black ribbon, the results of
typing with the correction tape are visible only
under a strong light.
Summary
• have considered:
– classical cipher techniques and terminology
– monoalphabetic substitution ciphers
– cryptanalysis using letter frequencies
– Playfair cipher
– polyalphabetic ciphers
– transposition ciphers
– product ciphers and rotor machines
– stenography
