A comparison of stream Cipher and Block Cipher

By: Abdul Haleem (L1F09MSCS0017)

Introduction
Encryption is the process of converting a plaintext message into ciphertext which can be decoded back
into the original message. An encryption algorithm along with a key is used in the encryption and
decryption of data.

Definition
Stream cipher and block cipher are two types of symetric cryptography in which encryption and
decryption is done with same key.
Stream cipher encrypt bits individually and block ciphers encrypt an entire block of bits at a time. The
output of block cipher is always of fixed length. This is elaborated in following figure:

Key

x1,x2,x3,....,xn y1,y2,y3,....,yn
Stream Cipher

Key

x1 y1
x2 y2
x3 y3
. . Block Cipher . .
. . . .
. . . .
xn ym

Working
Stream ciphers achieve bit by bit encryption by adding a bit from key stream to plain text bit. There are
synchronous stream ciphers where the key stream depends only on the key and asynchronous ciphers
where key stream also depends on the cipher text. If the dotted line in following figure is present then
the stream cipher is an asynchronous one.
Key

Key Stream
Generator

xi yi
cipher
Block ciphers can be applied to plain text of arbitrary length. They use fixed bit-length input blocks so
some times padding is required to make length of plain text multiple of cipher block size. There are
multiple methods of padding. Zero or any random data can be used to fill the remaining bytes.

Usage
1. In practise, for encrypting computer communication over the internet, block ciphers are more
often used than stream ciphers.
2. Stream ciphers tend to be small and fast so they are used in applications with little
computational resources e.g. mobile phones and other embedded devices.

Examples
Examples of of block ciphers include: DES, Tripple DES, AES and Rijndael
Examples of stream cipher include: RC4, SEAL and ORYX.

References:
1. Understanding Cryptography: A Textbook for Students and Practitioners By Christof Paar, Jan Pelzl, Bart Preneel
2. http://gpwiki.org/index.php/Block_cipher
3. http://www.networksorcery.com/enp/data/encryption.htm
4. http://www.kremlinencrypt.com/algorithms.htm