NAME MANAS TUDU

REG. NO. CUJ/I/2010/IAM/02

SEMESTER - 6th
ROLL NO. - 02
TOPIC SHIFT CIPHER

ABSTRACT
In cryptography, shift cipher is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. The
method is based on modular arithmetic and is named after Julius Caesar. Shift cipher belongs to the
class of secret key system in which the key is known only to the sender and receiver. Knowledge of key
allows the decipherment of the encrypted text. Since the key is known only to sender and receiver, the
exchange of key should be done secretly. This method has been used to conceal military strategies and
sensitive diplomatic secrets.

INTRODUCTION
Shift cipher also known as Caesar's method is an encryption scheme involving shifting an alphabet. It is
one of the most basic encryption methods, and is a specialized form of a substitution cipher. Because
the alphabet is rotated, the shift is consistent. The shift cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who used it
with a shift of three to protect messages of military significance. This method is a very weak encryption
scheme. As there are only 26 Caesar alphabets it is trivial to solve a shift cipher by exhaustive search.
The cipher can also be broken using the techniques such as frequency analysis or pattern words.

MAIN RESULT
Review of some basic definitions:
Definition 1- Suppose a and b are integer, and m is a positive integer. Then we write ab (mod m) if m
divides a-b. The phrase ab (mod m) is called a congruence, and it is read as a is congruent to b
modulo m. The integer m is called modulus.
Definition 2- Cryptography is the science of keeping communication secure. Its goal is to secure
communication in the form of a cipher between legitimate users, the sender and the receiver.
Definition 3- Plaintext is a massage or information to be secured.
Definition 4- Encipherment or encryption is the process of converting plain text into cipher text.
Definition 5- Decryption is the process of converting cipher text into plain text.
Definition 6- Mathematically cryptosystem can be defined as follows,
A cryptosystem is a five tuple (P, C, K, and E, D) where the following conditions are
satisfied1.
2.
3.
4.

P is a finite set of possible plain texts.

C is a finite set of possible cipher texts.
K, the keyspace is a finite set of possible keys.
For each k K, there is an encryption rule E and a corresponding decryption rule
D. Each :PC and
:CP are func ons such that ( (x)) =x for evey plain
text element x P.

In cryptography, shift cipher is also known as Caesars cipher as Julius Caesar seems to be the
first to have used it. This method belongs to the class of secret key system in which key is only known
to sender and receiver. Knowledge of the key allows the decipherment of the cipher text, hence the
need for secrecy. It is type substitution cipher in which each letter in the plain text is replaced by a
letter some fixed number of position down the alphabet. The encryption step performed by a shift
cipher is often incorporated as a part of more complex scheme such as the Vigenere cipher, and still
has the modern application in the ROT13 system. Shift cipher is easily broken and in modern practice
offers no communication security.
During the whole discussion we denote the encryption algorithm by and the decryption
algorithm by
where k represents the key. For simplicity we assume that the plain text is composed
of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. All punctuation and spaces are removed from the plain text
before converting it into cipher text.
We use integer 0 through 25 to represent the letters A through Z, by letting A=0, B=1,, Z=25.
These are given the table
Letter A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
Value 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Letter N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Value

13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Suppose P represents the plain text composed of the letter , ,., and C represents
the cipher text composed of the letter , ,, . Then the encryption and decryption algorithm
can be define as
For 0 k25, where k denotes key
( ) = +k (mod 26)
and
( ) = -k (mod 26)
( C and P).
Example 1 suppose the key for shift cipher is k=11 and the plain text is
wewillmeetatmidnight
We first convert the plain text to a sequence of integer using the given table. We get 22 4 22 8 11 11 12
4 4 19 0 19 12 8 3 13 8 6 7 19. Next, we add 11 to each value and reducing each sum modulo 26, we get
7 15 7 19 22 22 23 15 15 4 11 4 23 19 14 24 19 17 18 4. Finally, we convert the sequence of integer to
alphabet characters, obtaining the cipher text
HPHTWWXPPELEXTOYTRSE
To decrypt the cipher text we will first convert the cipher text to a sequence of integer, then subtract
11 from each value reducing modulo 26, and finally convert the sequence of integer to alphabetic
character.
If a cryptosystem is to be of practical use, it should satisfy certain properties such as
1. Each encryption algorithm and decryption algorithm
must be efficiently computable.
2. An opponent upon seeing the cipher text string y should be unable to determine the key k that
was used, or the plain text string x.
Because of these two reason shift cipher is not secure. As it can be easily cryptanalyzed by the obvious
method of exhaustive key search. Since there are 26 possible keys, it is to try every possible decryption
algorithm
untill a meaningful plain text string is obtained.
RECENT USES
In April 2006, fugitive Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was captured in Sicily partly because some of
his messages, written in a variation of the Caesar cipher, were broken. Provenzano's cipher used
numbers, so that "A" would be written as "4", "B" as "5", and so on.
In 2011, Rajib Karim was convicted in the United Kingdom of "terrorism offences" after using the
Caesar cipher to communicate with Bangladeshi Islamic activists discussing plots to blow up British
Airways planes or disrupt their IT networks. Although the parties had access to far better encryption
techniques (Karim himself used PGP for data storage on computer disks), they chose to use their own

scheme(implemented in Microsoft Excel), rejecting a more sophisticated code program called

Mujhaddin Secrets "because 'kaffirs', or non-believers, know about it, so it must be less secure.
REFERENCES
1. Cryptography Theory and Practice by Douglas R. Stinson
2. Number Theory with Computer Application by Ramanujachary Kumanduri and
Cristina Romero
3. Weisstein, Eric W., "Caesar's Method" from MathWorld