1 Passlib 1.8.0.Dev0 Documentation3 1.1 Welcome

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

1 Passlib 1.8.0.Dev0 Documentation3 1.1 Welcome Passlib Documentation Release 1.8.0.dev0 Assurance Technologies, LLC Oct 08, 2020 Contents 1 Passlib 1.8.0.dev0 documentation3 1.1 Welcome.................................................3 1.2 Getting Started..............................................4 1.3 Online Resources.............................................4 1.4 Hosting..................................................4 2 Walkthrough & Tutorials 5 2.1 Installation................................................5 2.1.1 Supported Platforms......................................5 2.1.2 Optional Libraries........................................5 2.1.3 Installation Instructions.....................................6 2.1.4 Testing.............................................6 2.1.5 Building the Documentation..................................7 2.2 Library Overview............................................7 2.2.1 Password Hashes........................................7 2.2.2 Password Contexts.......................................8 2.2.3 Two-Factor Authentication...................................8 2.2.4 Application Helpers.......................................8 2.3 New Application Quickstart Guide...................................9 2.3.1 Choosing a Hash........................................9 2.3.1.1 The Options......................................9 2.3.1.2 Detailed Comparison of Choices...........................9 2.3.1.3 Making a Decision................................... 11 2.3.2 Creating and Using a CryptContext.............................. 11 2.4 PasswordHash Tutorial........................................ 12 2.4.1 Overview............................................ 12 2.4.2 Hashing & Verifying...................................... 13 2.4.2.1 Hashing........................................ 13 2.4.2.2 Verifying........................................ 14 2.4.2.3 Unicode & non-ASCII Characters........................... 14 2.4.3 Customizing the Configuration................................. 14 2.4.3.1 The using() Method.................................. 14 2.4.3.2 Usage Example.................................... 14 2.4.3.3 Other Keywords.................................... 15 2.4.4 Context Keywords....................................... 15 2.4.5 Identifying Hashes....................................... 16 i 2.4.6 Choosing the right rounds value................................ 17 2.5 CryptContext Tutorial........................................ 17 2.5.1 Overview............................................ 17 2.5.2 Walkthrough Outline...................................... 18 2.5.3 Basic Usage........................................... 18 2.5.4 Using Default Settings..................................... 19 2.5.5 Loading & Saving a CryptContext............................... 20 2.5.6 Deprecation & Hash Migration................................. 21 2.5.6.1 Deprecating Algorithms................................ 21 2.5.6.2 Integrating Hash Migration.............................. 22 2.5.6.3 Settings Rounds Limitations.............................. 22 2.5.7 Undocumented Features.................................... 23 2.5.8 Full Integration Example.................................... 23 2.5.8.1 Policy Configuration File............................... 23 2.5.8.2 Initializing the CryptContext............................. 24 2.5.8.3 Encrypting New Passwords.............................. 25 2.5.8.4 Verifying & Migrating Existing Passwords...................... 26 2.6 TOTP Tutorial.............................................. 26 2.6.1 Overview............................................ 26 2.6.2 Walkthrough.......................................... 27 2.6.2.1 1. Generate an Application Secret........................... 27 2.6.2.2 2. TOTP Factory Initialization............................ 27 2.6.2.3 3. Rate-Limiting & Cache Initialization........................ 28 2.6.2.4 4. Setting up TOTP for a User............................. 28 2.6.2.5 5. Storing the TOTP object.............................. 28 2.6.2.6 6. Verifying a Token.................................. 29 2.6.2.7 7. Reserializing Existing Objects........................... 30 2.6.3 Creating TOTP Instances.................................... 31 2.6.3.1 Direct Creation.................................... 31 2.6.3.2 Using a Factory.................................... 32 2.6.4 Configuring Clients....................................... 32 2.6.4.1 Rendering URIs.................................... 33 2.6.4.2 Rendering QR Codes................................. 33 2.6.4.3 Parsing URIs...................................... 33 2.6.5 Storing TOTP instances..................................... 34 2.6.5.1 JSON Serialization.................................. 34 2.6.5.2 Application Secrets.................................. 34 2.6.5.3 Encrypting Keys.................................... 35 2.6.6 Generating Tokens (Client-Side Only)............................. 36 2.6.7 Verifying Tokens........................................ 36 2.6.7.1 Match & Verify.................................... 36 2.6.7.2 Preventing Token Reuse................................ 37 2.6.7.3 Why Rate-Limiting is Critical............................. 38 3 API Reference 39 3.1 passlib.apache - Apache Password Files............................. 40 3.1.1 Htpasswd Files......................................... 40 3.1.1.1 Loading & Saving................................... 42 3.1.1.2 Inspection....................................... 42 3.1.1.3 Modification...................................... 43 3.1.1.4 Alternate Constructors................................. 43 3.1.1.5 Attributes....................................... 43 3.1.1.6 Errors......................................... 43 3.1.2 Htdigest Files.......................................... 44 ii 3.1.2.1 Loading & Saving................................... 44 3.1.2.2 Inspection....................................... 45 3.1.2.3 Modification...................................... 45 3.1.2.4 Alternate Constructors................................. 46 3.1.2.5 Attributes....................................... 46 3.1.2.6 Errors......................................... 46 3.2 passlib.apps - Helpers for various applications.......................... 46 3.2.1 Usage Example......................................... 47 3.2.2 Django............................................. 47 3.2.3 LDAP.............................................. 48 3.2.4 MySQL............................................. 48 3.2.5 PHPass............................................. 48 3.2.6 PostgreSQL........................................... 49 3.2.7 Roundup............................................ 49 3.2.8 Custom Applications...................................... 49 3.3 passlib.context - CryptContext Hash Manager.......................... 50 3.3.1 The CryptContext Class.................................... 50 3.3.1.1 Constructor Keywords................................. 50 3.3.1.2 Primary Methods................................... 55 3.3.1.3 Hash Migration.................................... 57 3.3.1.4 Disabled Hash Managment.............................. 59 3.3.1.5 Alternate Constructors................................. 59 3.3.1.6 Changing the Configuration.............................. 60 3.3.1.7 Examining the Configuration............................. 62 3.3.1.8 Saving the Configuration............................... 63 3.3.1.9 Configuration Errors.................................. 64 3.3.2 Other Helpers.......................................... 64 3.4 passlib.crypto - Cryptographic Helper Functions........................ 65 3.4.1 passlib.crypto.digest - Hash & Related Helpers.................. 65 3.4.1.1 Hash Functions.................................... 65 3.4.1.2 PKCS#5 Key Derivation Functions.......................... 66 3.4.2 passlib.crypto.des - DES routines........................... 67 3.5 passlib.exc - Exceptions and warnings............................... 68 3.5.1 Exceptions........................................... 69 3.5.1.1 TOTP Exceptions................................... 70 3.5.2 Warnings............................................ 70 3.5.2.1 Minor Warnings.................................... 70 3.5.2.2 Critical Warnings................................... 71 3.6 passlib.ext.django - Django Password Hashing Plugin..................... 71 3.6.1 Installation........................................... 72 3.6.2 Configuration.......................................... 72 3.6.3 Module Contents........................................ 73 3.7 passlib.hash - Password Hashing Schemes............................ 74 3.7.1 Overview............................................ 74 3.7.2 Unix Hashes........................................... 74 3.7.2.1 Active Unix Hashes.................................. 75 3.7.2.2 Deprecated Unix Hashes............................... 83 3.7.2.3 Archaic Unix Hashes................................. 92 3.7.3 Other “Modular Crypt” Hashes................................. 101 3.7.3.1 Active Hashes..................................... 101 3.7.3.2 Deprecated Hashes.................................. 115 3.7.4 LDAP / RFC2307 Hashes.................................... 119 3.7.4.1 Standard LDAP Schemes............................... 119 3.7.4.2 Non-Standard LDAP Schemes............................ 124 iii 3.7.5 SQL Database Hashes..................................... 128 3.7.5.1 passlib.hash.mssql2000 - MS SQL 2000 password hash.......... 129 3.7.5.2 passlib.hash.mssql2005 - MS SQL 2005 password hash.......... 130 3.7.5.3 passlib.hash.mysql323
Recommended publications
  • GPU-Based Password Cracking on the Security of Password Hashing Schemes Regarding Advances in Graphics Processing Units
    Radboud University Nijmegen Faculty of Science Kerckhoffs Institute Master of Science Thesis GPU-based Password Cracking On the Security of Password Hashing Schemes regarding Advances in Graphics Processing Units by Martijn Sprengers [email protected] Supervisors: Dr. L. Batina (Radboud University Nijmegen) Ir. S. Hegt (KPMG IT Advisory) Ir. P. Ceelen (KPMG IT Advisory) Thesis number: 646 Final Version Abstract Since users rely on passwords to authenticate themselves to computer systems, ad- versaries attempt to recover those passwords. To prevent such a recovery, various password hashing schemes can be used to store passwords securely. However, recent advances in the graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware challenge the way we have to look at secure password storage. GPU's have proven to be suitable for crypto- graphic operations and provide a significant speedup in performance compared to traditional central processing units (CPU's). This research focuses on the security requirements and properties of prevalent pass- word hashing schemes. Moreover, we present a proof of concept that launches an exhaustive search attack on the MD5-crypt password hashing scheme using modern GPU's. We show that it is possible to achieve a performance of 880 000 hashes per second, using different optimization techniques. Therefore our implementation, executed on a typical GPU, is more than 30 times faster than equally priced CPU hardware. With this performance increase, `complex' passwords with a length of 8 characters are now becoming feasible to crack. In addition, we show that between 50% and 80% of the passwords in a leaked database could be recovered within 2 months of computation time on one Nvidia GeForce 295 GTX.
    [Show full text]
  • Implementation and Performance Analysis of PBKDF2, Bcrypt, Scrypt Algorithms
    Implementation and Performance Analysis of PBKDF2, Bcrypt, Scrypt Algorithms Levent Ertaul, Manpreet Kaur, Venkata Arun Kumar R Gudise CSU East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract- With the increase in mobile wireless or data lookup. Whereas, Cryptographic hash functions are technologies, security breaches are also increasing. It has used for building blocks for HMACs which provides become critical to safeguard our sensitive information message authentication. They ensure integrity of the data from the wrongdoers. So, having strong password is that is transmitted. Collision free hash function is the one pivotal. As almost every website needs you to login and which can never have same hashes of different output. If a create a password, it’s tempting to use same password and b are inputs such that H (a) =H (b), and a ≠ b. for numerous websites like banks, shopping and social User chosen passwords shall not be used directly as networking websites. This way we are making our cryptographic keys as they have low entropy and information easily accessible to hackers. Hence, we need randomness properties [2].Password is the secret value from a strong application for password security and which the cryptographic key can be generated. Figure 1 management. In this paper, we are going to compare the shows the statics of increasing cybercrime every year. Hence performance of 3 key derivation algorithms, namely, there is a need for strong key generation algorithms which PBKDF2 (Password Based Key Derivation Function), can generate the keys which are nearly impossible for the Bcrypt and Scrypt.
    [Show full text]
  • Speeding up Linux Disk Encryption Ignat Korchagin @Ignatkn $ Whoami
    Speeding Up Linux Disk Encryption Ignat Korchagin @ignatkn $ whoami ● Performance and security at Cloudflare ● Passionate about security and crypto ● Enjoy low level programming @ignatkn Encrypting data at rest The storage stack applications @ignatkn The storage stack applications filesystems @ignatkn The storage stack applications filesystems block subsystem @ignatkn The storage stack applications filesystems block subsystem storage hardware @ignatkn Encryption at rest layers applications filesystems block subsystem SED, OPAL storage hardware @ignatkn Encryption at rest layers applications filesystems LUKS/dm-crypt, BitLocker, FileVault block subsystem SED, OPAL storage hardware @ignatkn Encryption at rest layers applications ecryptfs, ext4 encryption or fscrypt filesystems LUKS/dm-crypt, BitLocker, FileVault block subsystem SED, OPAL storage hardware @ignatkn Encryption at rest layers DBMS, PGP, OpenSSL, Themis applications ecryptfs, ext4 encryption or fscrypt filesystems LUKS/dm-crypt, BitLocker, FileVault block subsystem SED, OPAL storage hardware @ignatkn Storage hardware encryption Pros: ● it’s there ● little configuration needed ● fully transparent to applications ● usually faster than other layers @ignatkn Storage hardware encryption Pros: ● it’s there ● little configuration needed ● fully transparent to applications ● usually faster than other layers Cons: ● no visibility into the implementation ● no auditability ● sometimes poor security https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4516071/windows-10-update-kb4516071 @ignatkn Block
    [Show full text]
  • Forgery and Key Recovery Attacks for Calico
    Forgery and Key Recovery Attacks for Calico Christoph Dobraunig, Maria Eichlseder, Florian Mendel, Martin Schl¨affer Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communications Graz University of Technology Inffeldgasse 16a, A-8010 Graz, Austria April 1, 2014 1 Calico v8 Calico [3] is an authenticated encryption design submitted to the CAESAR competition by Christopher Taylor. In Calico v8 in reference mode, ChaCha-14 and SipHash-2-4 work together in an Encrypt-then-MAC scheme. For this purpose, the key is split into a Cipher Key KC and a MAC Key KM . The plaintext is encrypted with ChaCha under the Cipher Key to a ciphertext with the same length as the plaintext. Then, the tag is calculated as the SipHash MAC of the concatenated ciphertext and associated data. The key used for SipHash is generated by xoring the nonce to the (lower, least significant part of the) MAC Key: (C; T ) = EncCalico(KC k KM ; N; A; P ); where k is concatenation, and with ⊕ denoting xor, the ciphertext and tag are calculated vi C = EncChaCha-14(KC ; N; P ) T = MACSipHash-2-4(KM ⊕ N; C k A): Here, A; P; C denote associated data, plaintext and ciphertext, respectively, all of arbitrary length. T is the 64-bit tag, N the 64-bit nonce, and the 384-bit key K is split into a 256-bit encryption and 128-bit authentication part, K = KC k KM . 2 Missing Domain Separation As shown above, the tag is calculated over the concatenation C k A of ciphertext and asso- ciated data. Due to the missing domain separation between ciphertext and associated data in the generation of the tag, the following attack is feasible.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Handle Rainbow Tables with External Memory
    How to Handle Rainbow Tables with External Memory Gildas Avoine1;2;5, Xavier Carpent3, Barbara Kordy1;5, and Florent Tardif4;5 1 INSA Rennes, France 2 Institut Universitaire de France, France 3 University of California, Irvine, USA 4 University of Rennes 1, France 5 IRISA, UMR 6074, France [email protected] Abstract. A cryptanalytic time-memory trade-off is a technique that aims to reduce the time needed to perform an exhaustive search. Such a technique requires large-scale precomputation that is performed once for all and whose result is stored in a fast-access internal memory. When the considered cryptographic problem is overwhelmingly-sized, using an ex- ternal memory is eventually needed, though. In this paper, we consider the rainbow tables { the most widely spread version of time-memory trade-offs. The objective of our work is to analyze the relevance of storing the precomputed data on an external memory (SSD and HDD) possibly mingled with an internal one (RAM). We provide an analytical evalua- tion of the performance, followed by an experimental validation, and we state that using SSD or HDD is fully suited to practical cases, which are identified. Keywords: time memory trade-off, rainbow tables, external memory 1 Introduction A cryptanalytic time-memory trade-off (TMTO) is a technique introduced by Martin Hellman in 1980 [14] to reduce the time needed to perform an exhaustive search. The key-point of the technique resides in the precomputation of tables that are then used to speed up the attack itself. Given that the precomputation phase is much more expensive than an exhaustive search, a TMTO makes sense in a few scenarios, e.g., when the adversary has plenty of time for preparing the attack while she has a very little time to perform it, the adversary must repeat the attack many times, or the adversary is not powerful enough to carry out an exhaustive search but she can download precomputed tables.
    [Show full text]
  • Securing Audio Using AES-Based Authenticated Encryption with Python
    Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 9 August 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202108.0185.v1 Article Securing Audio Using AES-based Authenticated Encryption with Python Jessy Ayala 1 1 New York University, Tandon School of Engineering; [email protected] Featured Application: Securing communication of audio files utilizing symmetric authenticated encryption. Abstract: The focus of this research is to analyze the results of encrypting audio using various au- thenticated encryption algorithms implemented in the Python cryptography library for ensuring authenticity and confidentiality of the original contents. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is used as the underlying cryptographic primitive in conjunction with various modes including Gal- ois Counter Mode (GCM), Counter with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code (CCM), and Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) with Keyed-Hashing for encrypting a relatively small audio file. The resulting encrypted audio shows similarity in the variance when encrypting using AES-GCM and AES-CCM. There is a noticeable reduction in variance of the performed encodings and an increase in the amount of time it takes to encrypt and decrypt the same audio file using AES- CBC with Keyed-Hashing. In addition, the corresponding encrypted using this mode audio spans a longer duration. As a result, AES should either have GCM or CCM for an efficient and reliable authenticated encryption integration within a workflow. Keywords: AES; Audio analysis; Authenticated encryption; Cryptography; Python 1. Introduction Cryptography is used worldwide for adhering to the security CIA triad: confidenti- ality, integrity, and availability. In an environment where mobile devices have become ubiquitous, voice messages are more common than one may think.
    [Show full text]
  • Implementation and Performance Analysis of PBKDF2, Bcrypt, Scrypt Algorithms
    66 Int'l Conf. Wireless Networks | ICWN'16 | Implementation and Performance Analysis of PBKDF2, Bcrypt, Scrypt Algorithms Levent Ertaul, Manpreet Kaur, Venkata Arun Kumar R Gudise CSU East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract- With the increase in mobile wireless or data lookup. Whereas, Cryptographic hash functions are technologies, security breaches are also increasing. It has used for building blocks for HMACs which provides become critical to safeguard our sensitive information message authentication. They ensure integrity of the data from the wrongdoers. So, having strong password is that is transmitted. Collision free hash function is the one pivotal. As almost every website needs you to login and which can never have same hashes of different output. If a create a password, it’s tempting to use same password and b are inputs such that H (a) =H (b), and a b. for numerous websites like banks, shopping and social User chosen passwords shall not be used directly as networking websites. This way we are making our cryptographic keys as they have low entropy and information easily accessible to hackers. Hence, we need randomness properties [2].Password is the secret value from a strong application for password security and which the cryptographic key can be generated. Figure 1 management. In this paper, we are going to compare the shows the statics of increasing cybercrime every year. Hence performance of 3 key derivation algorithms, namely, there is a need for strong key generation algorithms which PBKDF2 (Password Based Key Derivation Function), can generate the keys which are nearly impossible for the Bcrypt and Scrypt.
    [Show full text]
  • Optimizing Authenticated Encryption Algorithms
    Masaryk University Faculty of Informatics Optimizing authenticated encryption algorithms Master’s Thesis Ondrej Mosnáček Brno, Fall 2017 Masaryk University Faculty of Informatics Optimizing authenticated encryption algorithms Master’s Thesis Ondrej Mosnáček Brno, Fall 2017 This is where a copy of the official signed thesis assignment and a copy ofthe Statement of an Author is located in the printed version of the document. Declaration Hereby I declare that this paper is my original authorial work, which I have worked out on my own. All sources, references, and literature used or excerpted during elaboration of this work are properly cited and listed in complete reference to the due source. Ondrej Mosnáček Advisor: Ing. Milan Brož i Acknowledgement I would like to thank my advisor, Milan Brož, for his guidance, pa- tience, and helpful feedback and advice. Also, I would like to thank my girlfriend Ludmila, my family, and my friends for their support and kind words of encouragement. If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. — Blaise Pascal iii Abstract In this thesis, we look at authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD), which is a cryptographic scheme that provides both confidentiality and integrity of messages within a single operation. We look at various existing and proposed AEAD algorithms and compare them both in terms of security and performance. We take a closer look at three selected candidate families of algorithms from the CAESAR competition. Then we discuss common facilities provided by the two most com- mon CPU architectures – x86 and ARM – that can be used to implement cryptographic algorithms efficiently.
    [Show full text]
  • Optimizing Dm-Crypt for XTS-AES: Getting the Best of Atmel Cryptographic Co-Processors
    Optimizing dm-crypt for XTS-AES: Getting the Best of Atmel Cryptographic Co-processors Levent Demir1;2, Mathieu Thiery1;2, Vincent Roca1, Jean-Michel Tenkes2 and Jean-Louis Roch3 1Incas ITSec, France 2Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Inria, France 3Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble INP, LIG, France Keywords: Full Disk Encryption, XTS-AES, Linux dm-crypt Module, Cryptographic Co-processor, Atmel Board. Abstract: Linux implementation of Full Disk Encryption (FDE) relies on the dm-crypt kernel module, and is based on the XTS-AES encryption mode. However, XTS-AES is complex and can quickly become a performance bot- tleneck. Therefore we explore the use of cryptographic co-processors to efficiently implement the XTS-AES mode in Linux. We consider two Atmel boards that feature different cryptographic co-processors: the XTS- AES mode is completely integrated on the recent SAMA5D2 board but not on the SAMA5D3 board. We first analyze three XTS-AES implementations: a pure software implementation, an implementation that leverages the XTS-AES co-processor, and an intermediate solution. This work leads us to propose an optimization of dm-crypt, the extended request mode, that enables to encrypt/decrypt a full 4kB page at once instead of issu- ing eight consecutive 512 bytes requests as in the current implementation. We show that major performance gains are possible with this optimization, a SAMA5D3 board reaching the performance of a SAMA5D2 board where XTS-AES operations are totally offloaded to the dedicated cryptographic co-processor, while remaining fully compatible with the standard. Finally, we explain why bad design choices prevent this optimization to be applied to the new SAMA5D2 board and derive recommendations for future co-processor designs.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking the Crypt
    2012 Breaking the Crypt Sudeep Singh 5/21/2012 Table of Contents Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Advanced Hash Cracking ............................................................................................................................... 4 Cryptographic Hash Properties ..................................................................................................................... 5 Hash to the Stash .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Oclhashcat – An insight ............................................................................................................................... 13 The need for Stronger Hashes .................................................................................................................... 19 Fast vs Slow Hashes .................................................................................................................................... 20 How much Salt? .......................................................................................................................................... 21 How Many Iterations?................................................................................................................................. 25 John The Ripper (JTR) – Tweak That Attack! ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Just in Time Hashing
    Just in Time Hashing Benjamin Harsha Jeremiah Blocki Purdue University Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette, Indiana Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Abstract—In the past few years billions of user passwords prove and as many users continue to select low-entropy have been exposed to the threat of offline cracking attempts. passwords, finding it too difficult to memorize multiple Such brute-force cracking attempts are increasingly dangerous strong passwords for each of their accounts. Key stretching as password cracking hardware continues to improve and as serves as a last line of defense for users after a password users continue to select low entropy passwords. Key-stretching breach. The basic idea is to increase guessing costs for the techniques such as hash iteration and memory hard functions attacker by performing hash iteration (e.g., BCRYPT[75] can help to mitigate the risk, but increased key-stretching effort or PBKDF2 [59]) or by intentionally using a password necessarily increases authentication delay so this defense is hash function that is memory hard (e.g., SCRYPT [74, 74], fundamentally constrained by usability concerns. We intro- Argon2 [12]). duce Just in Time Hashing (JIT), a client side key-stretching Unfortunately, there is an inherent security/usability algorithm to protect user passwords against offline brute-force trade-off when adopting traditional key-stretching algo- cracking attempts without increasing delay for the user. The rithms such as PBKDF2, SCRYPT or Argon2. If the key- basic idea is to exploit idle time while the user is typing in stretching algorithm cannot be computed quickly then we their password to perform extra key-stretching.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mathematics of Cryptology
    The mathematics of cryptology Paul E. Gunnells Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Massachusetts, Amherst Amherst, MA 01003 www.math.umass.edu/∼gunnells April 27, 2004 What is Cryptology? • Cryptography is the process of writing using various methods (“ciphers”) to keep messages secret. • Cryptanalysis is the science of attacking ciphers, finding weaknesses, or even proving that a cipher is secure. • Cryptology covers both; it’s the complete science of secure communication. 1 Basic terminology/notation • P is the plaintext. This is the original readable message (written in some standard language, like English, French, Cantonese, Hindi, Icelandic, . ). • C is the ciphertext. This is the output of some encryption scheme, and is not readable by humans. • E is the encryption function. We write, for example, E(P ) = C to mean that applying the encryption process E to the plaintext P produces the ciphertext C. • D is the decryption function, i.e. D(C) = P. Note D(E(P )) = P and E(D(C)) = C. 2 Basic terminology/notation (cont’d.) • The encryption key is piece of data that allows the computation of E. Similarly we have the decryption key. These may or may not be the same. They also may not be secret, as we’ll see later on. • To attack a cipher is to attempt unauthorized reading of plaintext, or to attempt unauthorized transmission of ciphertext. 3 Shift (aka Cæsar) cipher • Encode letters by numbers: A 7→ 0,B 7→ 1,C 7→ 2,...,Z 7→ 25. • Choose a key t, which is a number between 0 and 25 (for Cæsar, t was always 3).
    [Show full text]