Classical Encryption

Techniques
Symmetric Encryption
Also called conventional / private-
key / single-key encryption
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
 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
tworequirements 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
 Cryptography
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
objective to recover key not just
message
general approaches:
◦ cryptanalytic attack
◦ brute-force attack
 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
alwayspossible 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
letters of plaintext are replaced
by other letters or by numbers or
symbols
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(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"
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
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
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’
2. if both letters fall in the same row, replace
each with letter to right (wrapping back to
start from end)
3. if both letters fall in the same column,
replace each with the letter below it (again
wrapping to top from bottom)
4. otherwise each letter is replaced by the
letter in the same row and in the column of
the other letter of the pair
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
itcan be broken, given a few hundred
letters
since still has much of plaintext structure
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
key is multiple letters long K = k1 k2 ...
kd
ith
letter specifies ith alphabet to use
use each alphabet in turn
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
Aids
simple aids can assist with
en/decryption
a Saint-Cyr Slide is a simple manual
aid
◦ a slide with repeated alphabet
◦ line up plaintext 'A' with key letter, eg 'C'
◦ then read off any mapping for key letter
can bend round into a cipher disk
or expand into a Vigenère Tableau
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
ifnot, then need to determine
number of alphabets, since then can
attach each
Kasiski Method
method developed by Babbage / Kasiski
repetitions in ciphertext give clues to
period
so find same plaintext an exact period
apart
which results in the same ciphertext
of course, could also be random fluke
eg repeated “VTW” in previous example
suggests size of 3 or 9
then attack each monoalphabetic cipher
individually using same techniques as
before
 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
use these in turn on the rest of the message
but still have frequency characteristics to
attack
eg. given key deceptive
key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA
One-Time Pad
ifa 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
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
a more complex transposition
write letters of message out inrows
over a specified number of columns
then reorder the columns according
to some key before reading off the
rows
Key: 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
ciphersusing 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
thisis bridge from classical to modern
ciphers
Rotor Machines
before modern ciphers, rotor machines
were most common complex ciphers in
use
widely used in WW2
◦ German Enigma, Allied Hagelin, Japanese
Purple
implemented a very complex, varying
substitution cipher
used a series of cylinders, each giving
one substitution, which rotated and
changed after each letter was encrypted
with 3 cylinders have 263=17576
alphabets
Hagelin Rotor Machine
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
 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