Block Ciphers and the Data

Encryption Standard (DES)

◆ A block cipher is an encryption/decryption scheme in which a block of
plaintext is treated as a whole and used to produce a ciphertext block of
equal length.

◆ Many block ciphers have a Feistel structure. Such a structure consists

of a number of identical rounds of processing. In each round, a
substitution is
performed on one half of the data being processed, followed by a
permutation that interchanges the two halves. The original key is
expanded so that a different key is used for each round.

◆ The Data Encryption Standard (DES) has been the most widely used
encryption algorithm until recently. It exhibits the classic Feistel structure.
DES uses a 64-bit block and a 56-bit key.
 Block Ciphers and the Data
Encryption Standard

1. Block Cipher Principles

 Stream Ciphers and Block Ciphers
 Motivation for the Feistel Cipher
Structure
 The Feistel Cipher
2. The Data Encryption Standard
 DES Encryption
 DES Decryption
(i) Stream Ciphers and Block Ciphers
(ii) Motivation for the Feistel Cipher Structure
A block cipher operates on a plaintext block of n bits to
produce a ciphertext block of n bits. There are possible
different plaintext blocks and, for the encryption to be
reversible (i.e., for decryption to be possible), each must
produce a unique ciphertext block. Such a transformation is
called reversible, or nonsingular. The following examples
illustrate nonsingular and singular transformations for n = 2.
Ideal Block Cipher
 Confusion and Diffusion

 diffusion – makes the statistical relationship

between plaintext and ciphertext as complex
as possible.
 confusion – makes the statistical
relationship between ciphertext and the
value of encryption key as complex as
possible.
Feistel Cipher Structure
FEISTEL
ENCRYPTION
ALGORITHM

FEISTEL
DECRYPTION
ALGORITHM
Feistel Cipher Design Features
 block size
 key size
 number of rounds
 subkey generation algorithm
 round function
 fast software encryption/decryption
 ease of analysis
2. The Data Encryption Standard
DES Encryption
 The Data Encryption Standard (DES) has
been the most widely used encryption
algorithm until recently. It exhibits the
classic Feistel structure.
 DES uses a 64-bit block and a 56-bit key.
DES Encryption Overview
DETAILS OF SINGLE ROUND
DES Round Structure
(Calculation of F(R,K)
 Avalanche Effect
 A desirable property of any encryption algorithm is
that a small change in either the plaintext or the
key should produce a significant change in the
ciphertext.
 In particular, a change in one bit of the plaintext or
one bit of the key should produce a change in
many bits of the ciphertext. This is referred to as
the avalanche effect.
 If the change were small, this might provide a way
to reduce the size of the plaintext or key space to
be searched.
The End