1. Modern Symmetric-Key Ciphers
Chapter 8
Encipherment Using
Modern Symmetric-Key Ciphers

2. 8-1 USE OF MODERN BLOCK CIPHERS
Symmetric-key encipherment can be done using modern block ciphers. Modes of operation have been devised to encipher text of any size employing either DES or AES.

3. 8-1 Continued
Figure 8.1 Modes of operation

4. 8.1.1 Electronic Codebook (ECB) Mode
The simplest mode of operation is called the electronic codebook (ECB) mode.
Figure 8.2 Electronic codebook (ECB) mode

5. Continued
Example 8.1
It can be proved that each plaintext block at Alice’s site is exactly recovered at Bob’s site. Because encryption and decryption are inverses of each other,
Example 8.2
This mode is called electronic codebook because one can precompile 2K codebooks (one for each key) in which each codebook has 2n entries in two columns. Each entry can list the plaintext and the corresponding ciphertext blocks. However, if K and n are large, the codebook would be far too large to precompile and maintain.

6. Continued
Example 8.3
Assume that Eve works in a company a few hours per month (her monthly payment is very low). She knows that the company uses several blocks of information for each employee in which the seventh block is the amount of money to be deposited in the employee’s account. Eve can intercept the ciphertext sent to the bank at the end of the month, replace the block with the information about her payment with a copy of the block with the information about the payment of a full-time colleague. Each month Eve can receive more money than she deserves.

7. 8.1.1 Continued Security Issues
1- Patterns at the block level are preserved
2- The block independency creates opportunities for Eve to exchange some ciphertext blocks without knowing the key.
Error Propagation
A single bit error in transmission can create errors in several in the corresponding block. However, the error does not have any effect on the other blocks.

8. 8.1.1 Continued Ciphertext Stealing
A technique called ciphertext stealing (CTS) can make it possible to use ECB mode without padding. In this technique the last two plaintext blocks, PN−1 and PN , are encrypted differently and out of order, as shown below, assuming that PN−1 has n bits and PN has m bits, where m ≤ n .

9. 8.1.1 Continued Applications
The ECB mode is not recommended for encryption of messages more than one block.
One area where the independency of the ciphertext block is useful is where records need to be encrypted before they are stored in a database or decrypted before they are retrieved….Access to the database can be random.
Another advantage of this mode is that we can use parallel processing if we need to create a very huge encrypted database.

10. 8.1.2 Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) Mode
In CBC mode, each plaintext block is exclusive-ored with the previous ciphertext block before being encrypted.
Figure 8.3 Cipher block chaining (CBC) mode

11. Continued
Figure 8.3 Cipher block chaining (CBC) mode

12. 8.1.2 Continued Initialization Vector (IV)
Example 8.4
It can be proved that each plaintext block at Alice’s site is recovered exactly at Bob’s site. Because encryption and decryption are inverses of each other,
Initialization Vector (IV)
The initialization vector (IV) should be known by the sender and the receiver.

13. 8.1.2 Continued Security Issues
Patterns at the block level are not preserved. However, if the first M blocks in two different messages are equal, they are enciphered into equal blocks unless different Ivs are used. Hence, recommend the use of timestamp as an IV.
Eve can add some ciphertext blocks to the end of the ciphertext stream.
Error Propagation
In CBC mode, a single bit error in ciphertext block Cj during transmission may create error in most bits in plaintext block Pj during decryption.

14. 8.1.2 Continued Applications Parallel processing is not possible.
CBC mode is not used to encrypt and decrypt random-access files records because of the need to access the previous records.
CBC mode is used for authentication.

15. 8.1.2 Continued Ciphertext Stealing
The ciphertext stealing technique described for ECB mode can also be applied to CBC mode, as shown below.
The head function is the same as described in ECB mode; the pad function inserts 0’s.

16. 8.1.3 Cipher Feedback (CFB) Mode
In some situations, we need to use DES or AES as secure ciphers, but the plaintext or ciphertext block sizes are to be smaller.
Figure 8.4 Encryption in cipher feedback (CFB) mode

17. Continued
Note
In CFB mode, encipherment and decipherment use the encryption function of the underlying block cipher.
The relation between plaintext and ciphertext blocks is shown below:

18. 8.1.3 Continued Advantages This mode does not need padding because the
size of the block r, is normally chosen to fit the
data unit to be encrypted ( a character for example).
The system does not have to wait until It has
received a large block of data (64 or 128 bits)
before starting the encryption.
Disadvantages
CFB is less efficient than CBC and ECB because
it needs to apply the encryption function for each
small block of size r.

19. 8.1.3 Continued CFB as a Stream Cipher
Figure 8.5 Cipher feedback (CFB) mode as a stream cipher

20. 8.1.3 Continued Security Issues The patterns are not preserved.
The IV should be changed for each message
Eve can add some ciphertext block to the end
of the ciphertext stream.
Error Propagation
A single bit error in ciphertext block Ci during
transmission creates a single bit eror in plaintext
block Pi. However most of the bits in the following
plaintext blocks are in error.
Application
This mode can be used to encipher blocks of
small size such as characters or bit at a time.

21. 18.1.4 Output Feedback (OFB) Mode
In this mode each bit in the ciphertext is independent of the previous bit or bits. This avoids error propagation.
Figure 8.6 Encryption in output feedback (OFB) mode

22. 8.1.4 Continued OFB as a Stream Cipher
Figure 8.7 Output feedback (OFB) mode as a stream cipher

23. Continued
Security Issues
The patterns are not preserved.
Error Propagation
A single bit error in the ciphertext affects only the corresponding bit in the plaintext.

24. Counter (CTR) Mode
In the counter (CTR) mode, there is no feedback. The pseudorandomness in the key stream is achieved using a counter.
Figure 8.8 Encryption in counter (CTR) mode

25. Continued
Figure 8.9 Counter (CTR) mode as a stream cipher

26. 8.1.5 Continued Notes CTR creates n-bit blocks that are independent
from each other; they depend only on the value
of the counter.
CTR, like ECB mode, cannot be used for real-
time processing.
CTR, like ECB mode, can be used to encrypt
and decrypt random access files as long as the
value of the counter can be related to the record
number in the file.

27. Continued
Comparison of Different Modes

28. Topics discussed in this section:
8-2 USE OF STREAM CIPHERS
Although the five modes of operations enable the use of block ciphers for encipherment of messages or files in large units and small units, sometimes pure stream are needed for enciphering small units of data such as characters or bits.
Topics discussed in this section:
8.2.1 RC A5/1

29. RC4
Developed by RSA Labs, RC4 is a symmetric, byte-oriented stream cipher with a variable length key size, in which a byte (8 bits) of a plaintext is exclusive-ored with a byte of key to produce a byte of a ciphertext KEY
RC4 HAS two main parts:
KSA (Key Scheduling Algorithm)
PRGA (Pseudo Random Generation Algorithm)
ksa
PRGA K
State
RC4 is based on the concept of a state. P C +

30. Continued
Figure The idea of RC4 stream cipher
KSA
PRGA

31. RC4 Key Schedule KSA Starts with an array S of numbers: 0..255
􀁺 Use key to truly shuffle S
􀁺 S forms internal state of the cipher
􀁺 Given a key k of length L bytes
Scrambling Pseudocode :
for i = 0 to 255 do
S[i] = i
j = 0
j = (j + S[i] + k[i ]) (mod 256)
swap (S[i], S[j])

32. RC4 PRGA and Encryption
Encryption involves XORing data bytes with output of the
PRGA
􀁺 The PRGA initializes i and j to 0 and then loops over 4 basic
operations: increase j, increase j using s[i], swap and output
s[i]+s[j]
􀁺PRGA Pseudocode is:
i = j = 0
for each message byte Mi
i = (i + 1) (mod 256)
j = (j + S[i]) (mod 256)
swap(S[i], S[j])
t = (S[i] + S[j]) (mod 256) ; Ki = S[t]
Encryption : Ci = Mi XOR S[t]

33. RC4 Encryption Example
Lets consider the stream cipher RC4, but instead of the full 256 bytes, we will use 8 x 3-bits.
That is, the state vector S is 8 x 3-bits.
We will operate on 3-bits of plaintext at a time since S can take the values 0 to 7, which can be represented as 3 bits.
Assume we use a 4 x 3-bit key of K = [ ]. And a plaintext P = [ ]

34. RC4 PRGA and Encryption The first step is to generate the stream.
Initialise the state vector S and temporary vector T. S is initialised so the S[i] = i, and T is initialised so it is the key K (repeated as necessary).
S = [ ]
T = [ ]
Now perform the initial permutation on S.
j = 0;
for i = 0 to 7 do
j = (j + S[i] + T[i]) mod 8
Swap(S[i],S[j]);
end
For i = 0:
j = ( ) mod 8 = 1
Swap(S[0],S[1]);
S = [ ]

35. RC4 PRGA and Encryption For i = 1: j = 3 Swap(S[1],S[3])

36. RC4 PRGA and Encryption For i = 4: j = 3 Swap(S[4],S[3])
Hence, our initial permutation of S = [ ];

37. RC4 PRGA and Encryption
Now we generate 3-bits at a time, k, that we XOR with each 3-bits of plaintext to produce the ciphertext. The 3-bits k is generated by:
i, j = 0;
while (true) {
i = (i + 1) mod 8;
j = (j + S[i]) mod 8;
Swap (S[i], S[j]);
t = (S[i] + S[j]) mod 8;
k = S[t]; }
The first iteration:
S = [ ]
i = (0 + 1) mod 8 = 1
j = (0 + S[1]) mod 8 = 3
Swap(S[1],S[3])
S = [ ]
t = (S[1] + S[3]) mod 8 = 7
k = S[7] = 5
Remember, P = [ ]

38. RC4 PRGA and Encryption Remember, P = [1 2 2 2]
So our first 3-bits of ciphertext is obtained by: k XOR P
5 XOR 1 = 101 XOR 001 = 100 = 4
The second iteration:
S = [ ]
i = (1 + 1 ) mod 8 = 2
j = (2 + S[2]) mod 8 = 1
Swap(S[2],S[1])
S = [ ]
t = (S[2] + S[1]) mod 8 = 3
k = S[3] = 3
Second 3-bits of ciphertext are:
3 XOR 2 = 011 XOR 010 = 001 = 1

39. RC4 PRGA and Encryption
After 4 iterations:
To encrypt the plaintext stream P = [ ] with key K = [ ] using our simplified RC4 stream cipher we get C = [ ].
(or in binary: P = , K = and C = )
Simplified

40. A5/1
A5/1 (a member of the A5 family of ciphers) is used in the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), a network for mobile telephone communication..
Figure General outline of A5/1

41. 8.2.2 Continued Key Generator
A5/1 uses three LFSRs with 19, 22, and 23 bits.
Figure Three LFSR’s in A5/1

42. Continued
Example 8.7
At a point of time the clocking bits are 1, 0, and 1. Which LFSR is clocked (shifted)?
Solution
The result of Majority (1, 0, 1) = 1. LFSR1 and LAFS3 are shifted, but LFSR2 is not.

43. 8.2.2 Continued Encryption/Decryption
The bit streams created from the key generator are buffered to form a 228-bit key that is exclusive-ored with the plaintext frame to create the ciphertext frame. Encryption/decryption is done one frame at a time.

44. Topics discussed in this section:
8-3 OTHER ISSUES
Encipherment using symmetric-key block or stream ciphers requires discussion of other issues.
Topics discussed in this section:
8.3.1 Key Management Key Generation

45. Key management is discussed in Chapter 15.
Alice and Bob need to share a secret key between themselves to securely communicate using a symmetric-key cipher. If there are n entities in the community, n(n − 1)/2 keys are needed.
Note
Key management is discussed in Chapter 15.

46. Random number generators are discussed in Appendix K.
Key Generation
Different symmetric-key ciphers need keys of different sizes. The selection of the key must be based on a systematic approach to avoid a security leak. The keys need to be chosen randomly. This implies that there is a need for random (or pseudorandom) number generator.
Note
Random number generators are discussed in Appendix K.