TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction.1
Question 1.1.2
Question 2.5.2
Question 2.9.3
Question 2.17...4
Importance of studying the Feistel cipher...............................................................................4
Differences between confusion and diffusion.5
Three broad categories of applications of public-key cryptosystems..5
Requirements that a public key cryptosystems must fulfill to be a secure algorithm.5
Characteristics needed in a secure hash function6
Difference between weak and strong collision resistance in a hash function.6
Summary.7
Bibliography...8

Introduction
Information Security is simply the process of keeping information secure: protecting its
availability, integrity, and privacy. Information has been valuable since the dawn of mankind:
e.g. where to find food, how to build shelter, etc. As access to computer stored data has
increased, Information Security has become correspondingly important. In the past, most
corporate assets were hard or physical: factories, buildings, land, raw materials, etc. Today
far more assets are computer-stored information such as customer lists, proprietary formulas,
marketing and sales information, and financial data. Some financial assets only exist as bits
stored in various computers. Many businesses are solely based on information the DATA is
the business.

1. PROBLEM 1.1 Consider an automated teller machine (ATM) in which users provide
a personal identification number (PIN) and a card for account access. Give examples
of confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements associated with the system
and, in each case, indicate the degree of importance of the requirement.
1.1

Release of Traffic
message
analysis
contents

Masquerade

Peer entity
authentication

Data origin
authentication

Access control

Confidentiality

Replay

Modification
of messages

Denial
of
service

Traffic flow
confidentiality

Y
Y

Data integrity

Non-repudiation

Availability

2. PROBLEM 2.5 One way to solve the key distribution problem is to use a line from a
book that both the sender and the receiver possess. Typically, at least in spy novels,
the first sentence of a book serves as the key. The particular scheme discussed in this
problem is from one of the best suspense novels involving secret codes, Talking to
Strange Men, by Ruth Rendell. Work this problem without consulting that book!
Consider the following message:
SIDKHKDM AF HCRKIABIE SHIMC KD LFEAILA
This ciphertext was produced using the first sentence of The Other Side of Silence (a book
about the spy Kim Philby):
The snow lay thick on the steps and the snowflakes driven by the wind looked black in the
headlights of the cars.
A simple substitution cipher was used.
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a. What is the encryption algorithm?

ANS: The first letter t corresponds to A, the second letter h corresponds to B, e is C, s
is D, and so on. Second and subsequent occurrences of a letter in the key sentence are
ignored. The result
Ciphertext: SIDKHKDM AF HCRKIABIE SHIMC KD LFEAILA
Plaintext: basilisk to leviathan blake is contact
b. How secure is it?
ANS: It is a monalphabetic cipher and so easily breakable.
c. To make the key distribution problem simple, both parties can agree to use the first or
last sentence of a book as the key. To change the key, they simply need to agree on a
new book. The use of the first sentence would be preferable to the use of the last.
Why?
ANS: The last sentence may not contain all the letters of the alphabet. If the first
sentence is used, the second and subsequent sentences may also be used until all 26
letters are encountered.

3. PROBLEM 2.9 When the PT-109 American patrol boat, under the command of
Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was sunk by a Japanese destroyer, a message was
received at an Australian wireless station in Playfair code:
KXJEY UREBE ZWEHE WRYTU HEYFS
KREHE GOYFI WTTTU OLKSY CAJPO
BOTEI ZONTX BYBNT GONEY CUZWR
GDSON SXBOU YWRHE BAAHY USEDQ
The key used was royal new zealand navy. Decrypt the message. Translate TT into tt.
ANS: PT BOAT ONE OWE NINE LOST IN ACTION IN BLACKETT STRAIT TWO
MILES SW MERESU COVE X CREW OF TWELVE X REQUEST ANY INFORMATION

4. PROBLEM 2.17 Using the Vigenre cipher, encrypt the word explanation using
the key leg.
The Vigenre cipher, was invented by a Frenchman, Blaise de Vigenre in the 16th century.
It is a polyalphabetic cipher because it uses two or more cipher alphabets to encrypt the data.
In other words, the letters in the Vigenre cipher are shifted by different amounts, normally
done using a word or phrase as the encryption key (counton).
A

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

KEY

PLAINTEXT

CIPHERTEXT

5. IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING THE FEISTEL CIPHER

Feistel cipher is a special class of iterated block cipher where the ciphertext is calculated
from the plaintext by repeated application of the same transformation or round function.
Feistel cipher is sometimes called DES-like cipher.
Most symmetric block encryption algorithms in current use are based on the Feistel block
cipher structure. Therefore, a study of the Feistel structure reveals the principles behind these
more recent ciphers.
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6. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONFUSION AND DIFFUSION?

In diffusion, the statistical structure of the plaintext is dissipated into long-range statistics of
the ciphertext. This is achieved by having each plaintext digit affect the value of many
ciphertext digits, which is equivalent to saying that each ciphertext digit is affected by many
plaintext digits. Confusion seeks to make the relationship between the statistics of the
ciphertext and the value of the encryption key as complex as possible, again to thwart
attempts to discover the key. Thus, even if the attacker can get some handle on the statistics
of the ciphertext, the way in which the key was used to produce that ciphertext is so complex
as to make it difficult to deduce the key. This is achieved by the use of a complex substitution
algorithm.
7. WHAT ARE THREE BROAD CATEGORIES OF APPLICATIONS OF
PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOSYSTEMS?
According to stalling (2011), the following are the application categories;
a) Encryption /decryption: The sender encrypts a message with the recipients public
key.
b) Digital signature: The sender signs a message with its private key. Signing is
achieved by a cryptographic algorithm applied to the message or to a small block of
data that is a function of the message.
c) Key exchange: Two sides cooperate to exchange a session key. Several different
approaches are possible, involving the private key(s) of one or both parties.

8. WHAT REQUIREMENTS MUST A PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOSYSTEMS

FULFILL TO BE A SECURE ALGORITHM?
According to stalling (p275-276):
a) It is computationally easy for a party B to generate a pair (public key (Pub), private
key (PRb)).
b) It is computationally easy for a sender A, knowing the public key and the message to
be encrypted (M), to generate the corresponding ciphertext: C = E(PUb, M)
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c) It is computationally easy for the receiver B to decrypt the resulting ciphertext using
the private key to recover the original message: M = D(PRb, C) = D[PRb, E(PUb, M)]
d) It is computationally infeasible for an adversary, knowing the public key (Pub), to
determine the private key (PRb).
e) It is computationally infeasible for an adversary, knowing the public key (Pub), and a
ciphertext (C), to recover the original message, M.

9. WHAT CHARACTERISTICS ARE NEEDED IN A SECURE HASH

FUNCTION?
According to Stalling (p336), the following are the requirements:
a) Variable input size: H can be applied to a block of data of any size.
b) Fixed output size: H produces a fixed-length output.
c) Efficiency: H(x) is relatively easy to compute for any given x, making both hardware
and software implementations practical.
d) One-way property: For any given value h, it is computationally infeasible to find x
such that H(x) = h. This is sometimes referred to in the literature as the one-way
property.
e) Weak collision resistant: For any given block x, it is computationally infeasible to
find y x with H(y) = H(x).
f) It is computationally infeasible to find any pair (x, y) such that H(x) = H(y).
10. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEAK AND STRONG
COLLISION RESISTANCE IN A HASH FUNCTION?
Weak collision resistance states that for any given value h, it is computationally infeasible to
find y = x with H(y) = H(x). It is a one-way property. It is easy to generate a code given the
message, but almost impossible to do the reverse while Strong collision resistance states that
it is computationally infeasible to find any pair (x, y) such that H(x) = H(y). This guarantees
that an alternative message hashing to the same value as a given message cannot be found.
This prevents forgery (Stalling, p336).
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SUMMARY
Information Security is simply the process of keeping information secure: protecting its
availability, integrity, and privacy.
Confidentiality - the assurance that information is not disclosed to individuals or systems that
are not authorized to receive it
Integrity - the assurance that information cant be modified by those who are not authorized
to modify it, or that any such modifications will not pass undetected
Availability - the assurance that information is available when its needed, and that mishap or
malice cannot affect the ability of systems to provide information when requested.
To ensure that data is securely protected, different algorithms have been devised such as the
playfair cipher, the Vigenre Cipher etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
COUNTON (2006) The Vigenre Cipher. [Online] available from:
http://www.counton.org/explorer/codebreaking/vigenere-cipher.php [Accessed: 08 October
2014]
STALLING, W. (2011) Cryptography and Network Security Principles and Practice. (5th
ED), New York: Pearson Prentice hall.