Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

"Chapter "2

Cryptography and digital signature mechanisms

Introduction 2.1

Cryptography is a branch of applied mathematics concerned with transformations of

data for security. In cryptography, a sender transforms unprotected information
(plaintext) into coded text (cipher text). A receiver uses cryptography to either
(a) Transform the cipher text back into plaintext.
(b) Verify the sender’s identity.
(c) Verify the data’s integrity, or some combination.
In many cases, the sender and receiver will use keys as an additional input to the
cryptographic algorithm.
One of the principal problems associated with cryptography is getting secret keys to
authorized users without disclosing them to an attacker. This is known as secret key
distribution.

This document will examine three commonly used classes of cryptographic

mechanisms:
,Symmetric algorithms, secure hash algorithms, and asymmetric algorithms. For each class

we will discuss which of the four security services can be supported. In addition, we will

.discuss whether the algorithm can be used for secret key distribution

cipher system 2.2

Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

Encryption equipment has been widely used due to the rising need for security.
Nowadays, encryption systems are used to protect information transmitted through
personal computers, local area networks, packet radio, satellite teleconferencing, electronic
mail, banking, and electronic commerce. Cryptography can provide protection against
eavesdropping, and also protects against message modification and against injection of
false message by making it infeasible for an opponent to create cipher text that will be
deciphered into accepted meaningful plaintext.

In computer systems, cryptography protects against browsing by making the data

unintelligible, so, cryptography can supplement access controls, and it is especially
useful in protecting data on tapes and

disks which, if stolen, can no longer be protected by the system

: cipher system components 2.2.1

A cipher system mainly has five components:-
1- The set of all possible messages (or plaintext), it is called “message space", and it is

denoted by (M).
2- The set of all cryptograms (or cipher text) and it is called "cryptogram space," and it is

denoted by (C).
3- The set of all possible keys, called "key space," and denoted by (K.)

4- A Family of enciphering transformation denoted by (E).

C = Ek (M)

5- A family of deciphering transformation denoted by (D).

M = Dk (C)

Figure 2.3 illustrates the cipher system components. Note that, the interceptor is not a part
of the system, he is included in the diagram merely to show where is the interception is
most likely to take that place.

Cryptanalyst
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

Secret key K
Cipher text C

Message Encipher Decipher Destinatio

Source Transformati Transformati n
(Plaintext on on (Plaintext
Cipher text (C)

k k
Secure channel
Key source

Figure 2.3 Cipher System Components

:Any Crypto systems must satisfy three general requirements

1. The enciphering and deciphering transformation must be efficient for all sets of keys.

2. The cipher system must be easy to use.

3. The security of the system should depend only on the secrecy of the keys and not on the
secrecy of algorithms (E) or (D).
Most of cryptanalysts consider that the cipher algorithm is known and their main task is
to determine the secret key or the plaintext from the intercepted cipher text using
different cryptanalysis tools.

2.3 Types of cipher system key

Cipher system

Symmetric system Asymmetric system

Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

a) Symmetric key cryptography is a class of algorithms where Alice and Bob

share a secret key.
These algorithms are primarily used to achieve confidentiality, but may also be used for
authentication, integrity and limited non-repudiation.

Symmetric algorithms are ideally suited for confidentiality. Modern symmetric

algorithms, such as AES, are very fast and very strong. To use a symmetric algorithm
for confidentiality, Alice transforms a plaintext message to ciphertext using a symmetric
algorithm and a key. Alice transmits the ciphertext to Bob. Bob uses the same key to
transform the ciphertext back into the plaintext.

Symmetric algorithms can also be used to authenticate the integrity and origin of
data. Alice uses her key to generate ciphertext for the entire plaintext, as above. She
sends the plaintext and a portion of the ciphertext to Bob. This portion of the ciphertext
is known as a message authentication code, or MAC. Bob uses his copy of the key to
generate the ciphertext, selects the same portion of the ciphertext and compares it to the
MAC he received .
If they match, Bob knows that Alice sent him the message. This does not provide
non-repudiation, though. Alice can deny sending the message, since Bob could have
generated it himself.

Alice and Bob need to share a symmetric key before Alice encrypts or generates a
MAC for a message. Establishing that shared key is called key management, and it is a
difficult problem.
Key management can be performed with symmetric key cryptography, but it is a
classic way To use symmetric cryptography, Alice and Bob need to share a secret. Once
Alice and Bob share a symmetric encryption key, the algorithm can be used to establish
additional shared secrets.
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

In general, that first shared key must be established through “out-of-band”

mechanisms. This is acceptable if Alice communicates only with Bob. If she
communicates with a larger community, the burden of establishing each relationship
becomes a serious impediment to obtaining security services.

However, this problem can become manageable through the introduction of a trusted
third party (TTP). If Alice and the party she wishes to communicate with trust the same
TTP, they can get a new key for this purpose from the TTP. Each party must establish a
secret out of band with the TTP as a starting point. However, the secure hash function
takes a stream of data and reduces it to a fixed size through a one-way mathematical
function. The result is called a message digest and can be thought of Alice will not need
to repeat this process for each new party with which she communicates.

b) Asymmetric key Asymmetric key cryptography, also known as public key

cryptography, uses a class of algorithms in which Alice has a private key, and Bob

(and others) have her public key.

The public and private keys are generated at the same time, and data encrypted with

one key can be decrypted with the other key. That is, a party can encrypt a message

using Alice’s public key, then only Alice, the owner of the matching private key,
can decrypt the message.

Asymmetric algorithms are poorly suited for encrypting large messages because they
are relatively slow. Instead, these algorithms are used to achieve authentication, integrity
and non-repudiation, and support confidentiality through key management. Asymmetric
algorithms are used to perform three operations explained below: digital signatures, key
transport, and key agreement in order to find the right one.

2.4 Hash function

 Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

A hash value is generated by a function H of the form:

h = H (M)
Where M is a variable length message and H (M) is the fixed length hash value [10]. The
hash value is appended to the message at the source at a time when the message is assumed
or known to be correct. The receiver authenticates that message by computing the hash
value. Because the hash function itself is not considered to be secret, some means is
required to protect the hash value. Many functions can take an arbitrary-length input and
return an output of fixed length, but one-way hash functions have additional characteristics
that make them one-way and to be useful for message authentication, a hash function H
must have the following properties :

a- H can be applied to a block of data of any size.

b- H produces a fixed length output.

c- H(M) is relatively easy to compute for any given M, making both hardware and

software implementations practical.

d- For any given h, it is computationally infeasible to find M such that :

H (M) = h.
e- For any given block M, it is computationally infeasible to find M' not equal M with H

(M) = H (M').
f- It is computationally infeasible to find any pair (M, M') such that :
H (M) = H (M').

2.4.1Types of hash function:

a) one way hash function :

A one-way hash function, also known as a message digest, fingerprint or compression

function, is a mathematical function which takes a variable-length input string and converts
it into a fixed-length binary sequence. Furthermore, a one-way hash function is designed in
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

such a way that it is hard to reverse the process, that is, to find a string that hashes to a
given value (hence the name one-way.) A good hash function also makes it hard to find
two strings that would produce the same hash value.

X h(x)
Hash

• given (X) it is easy to compute h(X)

• given h(X) dose not get (X)

b) trapdoor one-way hash function :

Informally, a function is a trapdoor one-way function if

1. It is a one-way function, and

2. For fixed public key , is viewed as a function of that

maps bits to bits. Then there is an efficient algorithm that, on input

produces such that , for some trapdoor key .

is a trapdoor one-way hash function if is also a one-way hash function, i.e., if

additionally

3. Given and , it is hard to find a message such that .

It is not known if a trapdoor one-way function can be constructed from any one-
way function.

An example of a trapdoor one-way function is factorization of a product

Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

of two large primes. While selecting and verifying two large primes and

multiplying them together is easy, factoring the resulting product is

(as far as is known) very difficult. This is the basis for RSA encryption,

which is conjectured to be trapdoor one-way.

X X
Hash h(x)

• If I get some information about (X) in h(x) I can get (X).

C) (MD5) hash function:

The MD5 algorithm takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces as
output a message of arbitrary length and produces as output a 128-bit "fingerprint" or
"message digest" of the input. The input is processes in 512-bit blocks. It is most widely
used secure hash algorithm as shown in figure
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

MD5 consists of 64 of these operations, grouped in four rounds of 16 operations. F is a

nonlinear function; one function is used in each round. Mi denotes a 32-bit block of the
.message input, and Ki denotes a 32-bit constant, different for each operation

Figure: One
operation of MD5

2.5 Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA) Cipher System :

2.5.1 Operation:

Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA) Cipher System lies in the difficulty of the problem of
factoring large integer . the RSA system described, as “A new kind of cipher that would
take millions of years to break”.

In the RSA system the Plaintext (M) is encrypted in blocks, each block having a binary
value less than some number n. Encryption and decryption are of the following forms:

C = M e mod n

M = C d mod n = (M e mod n) d mod n

M = M ed mod n
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

2.5.2 RSA keys

The RSA encryption system has two keys, the public key KU = {e, n} and a private key
2.5.2.1 public key :

One of the weaknesses some point out about symmetric key encryption is that two users

attempting to communicate with each other need a secure way to do so; otherwise, an

attacker can easily pluck the necessary data from the stream. In November 1976, a paper

published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, titled "New Directions

in Cryptography," addressed this problem and offered up a solution: public-key encryption.

Also known as asymmetric-key encryption, public-key encryption uses two different keys

at once -- a combination of a private key and a public key. The private key is known only

to your computer, while the public key is given by your computer to any computer that

wants to communicate securely with it. To decode an encrypted message, a computer must

use the public key, provided by the originating computer, and its own private key.

Although a message sent from one computer to another won't be secure since the public

key used for encryption is published and available to anyone, anyone who picks it up can't

read it without the private key. The key pair is based on prime numbers (numbers that only

have divisors of itself and one, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and so on) of long length. This makes

the system extremely secure, because there is essentially an infinite number of prime

numbers available, meaning there are nearly infinite possibilities for keys. One very

popular public-key encryption program is Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which allows you to
encrypt almost anything.

The sending computer encrypts the document with a symmetric key, then encrypts the

symmetric key with the public key of the receiving computer. The receiving computer uses
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

its private key to decode the symmetric key. It then uses the symmetric key to decode the
document.

To implement public-key encryption on a large scale, such as a secure Web server might

need, requires a different approach. This is where digital certificates come in. A digital

certificate is basically a unique piece of code or a large number that says that the Web

server is trusted by an independent source known as a certificate authority. The certificate

authority acts as a middleman that both computers trust. It confirms that each computer is

in fact who it says it is, and then provides the public keys of each computer to the other.

:Private Key 2.5.2.2

private keys are the set of information that are used to control the encryption and
decryption algorithms, and it must be kept secret from the reach of any party, but it
should be known only for the encipherer and decipherer.
This information may form a single part or it is combined of multiple parts. In the
latter case, each part has distinctive name such as internal key, external key, system key
or family key, etc. Fundamentally, it is assumed that the complexity of any cipher
system is measured by the difficulty to extract the used secret key from the intercepted
cipher message. So the secrecy of the cipher system must reside entirely in the secrecy
of the keys, assuming that the cryptanalyst has complete details of the cryptographic
algorithm and implementation. Secret keys are generated independent of any message

Stream. Good keys should be random-bit string generated by some automatic

process, either by using a reliably random source or by using a pseudo-random bit
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

generator. There are numerous statistical tests that can be applied to the secret keys to be
sure that they satisfy the randomness properties .
The security of cipher systems depends on several factors. First, the encryption
algorithm must be powerful enough so that it is impractical to decrypt a message on the
basis of cipher text alone. The security of conventional encryption depends on the
secrecy of the key, not on the secrecy of the algorithm. In other words, we don’t need to
keep the algorithm secret; we need to keep only the key secret. Even if the encryption
algorithm is computationally infeasible to break, the entire system can be vulnerable if

. the secret keys are not adequately protected

:RSA Algorisms 2.5.3

The RSA encryption system has two keys, the public key KU = {e, n} and a private
key
KR = {d, n}. The RSA parameters are computed as follows:
- Given two prime numbers, p and q, and two integers n and m, such that:
n = p ∗ q and 0< m < n, and arbitrary integer k, such that:
Φ
m k (n) +1 = m k(p-1)(q-1) +1 = m mod n

Where Φ (n) is the Euler totient function It is positive integer number less than n and
relatively prime to n [3].
If p is prime Φ (p) = (p-1)
Now suppose we have two prime number p, q , with p ≠ q then
Φ (n)= (p-1) * (q-1)
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

To see that Φ (n) = (p-1) * (q-1) consider that the set of residuals in Zn is {0, 1… (Pq-1)}.

The residues that are not relatively prime to n are the set:
{p, 2p,3p,…..,(q-1)p}, {q, 2q,3q,…..,(p-1)q}, and 0.
Then
Φ (n)= pq-[(q-1) + (p-1) +1]
= PQ - (p+q) +1
= (p-1) * (q-1)

- e and d are positive integers less than n that are relatively prime to n, and they are
multiplicative inverses mod Φ (n)
- d is chosen to be a prime satisfying the following equations
Max (p,q) < d < Φ (n)
Gcd (Φ (n), d) = 1
- e is computed as the inverse of the private key d
Ed mod Φ (n) =1
ed = k Φ (n)+1

e = d -1 mod Φ (n)
Suppose that a user A has published his own public key and that a user B wishes to send the

message M to A. User B calculates C = M eA (mod n) and transmits C. On the receipt, user A

decrypts by calculating:

M = C dA (mod n).
For this algorithm to be satisfactory for public-key encryption, the following requirements
must be met:

a- It is possible to find values of e, d, n such that M ed = M mod n for M <n.

b- It is relatively easy to compute (M e) and (C d) for all values of M < n.

c- It is infeasible to determine d given e and n.
 Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

Figure 2.4 summarizes the RSA encryption algorithm. describe in details the RSA
technique.
Example: given p= 11 and q=17
N= pq = 11*17= 187
Φ (n)= (p-1) * (q-1) = 10 *16= 160

- d is chosen to be a prime satisfying the following equations

Max (p, q) < d < Φ (n), and gcd (Φ (n), d) = 1
Let d = 7
- e is computed as the inverse of the private key d
e X 7 mod 160 =1
7e = k (160)+1

e = 7 -1 mod 160
e = (k *160) +1)/ 7 if k=1 (+ve integer number) = 23

Key Generation Process

P and q are prime numbers
Gcd (Φ (n), d) = 1; 1< d< (Φ (n))
e = d -1 mod Φ (n)

Select p and q

Calculate n = p x q

Select integer (d)

Calculate (e)

Public key KU = {e, n}

Private Key KR = {d, n}

Encryption
Given Plaintext M < n
Ciphertext C = M e mod (n)
 Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

Decryption
Given ciphertext C
Plaintext M = C d mod (n)
Figure: RSA Encryption Algorithm

2.6 Digital signature:

2.6.1 Introduction:
Message authentication protects two parties who exchange messages from any third party.
It does not protect the two parties against each other. Suppose that John sends an
authenticated message to Mary, the following disputes could be arise:
a- Mary may forge a different message and claim that it comes from John. Mary would
simply have to create a message and append an authentication code using the key that
John and Mary share.
b- John can deny sending the message. Because it is possible for Mary to forge a
message, there is no way to prove that John did in fact send the message.
There is no complete trust between sender and receiver, something more than
authentication is needed. The most attractive solution to this problem is the digital
signature. It must have the following properties :
a- It must be able to verify the author and the data and time of the signature.
b- It must be able to authenticate the contents at the time of the signature.
The signature must be verifiable by the third parties, to resolve disputes.

2.6.2 definition of digital signature :

Digital signature Encrypted connection is a method that will document the transactions
are made through various communication networks.
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

The idea of digital signatures as in the written signature as it is used to authenticate or to

document the fact that you promised something you can not undo it later. A digital
signature does not include the signing to do something using pen and paper and then
send it via the Internet, but such as the signing of the paper sticks to the identity of the
location on the transaction.

2.6.3 digital signature Requirements :

The digital signature function includes the authentication function; there are some
requirements for a digital signature :
a- The signature must be a bit pattern that depends on the message being signed.
b- The signature must use some information unique to the sender, to prevent both forgery
and denial.
c- It must be relatively easy to produce the digital signature.
d- It must be relatively easy to recognize and verify the digital signature.
e- It must be computationally infeasible to forge a digital signature, either by
constructing a new message for an existing digital signature or by constructing a false
digital signature for a given message.
f- It must be practical to retain a copy of the digital signature in storage.

2.6.4 uses of digital signature :

A - Documentation Site:
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

If there is a pair of keys, one public and one private and were associated
with a particular person or third party and specifically, the digital
signature attributes the message attributed to the entity or person. Can
not be rigging the digital signature is not lost or the person controlling
the private key if the Bifshaih or the center or the means held therein.

B - Document the message:

Also, the digital signature serves to identify the identity of the signed
message with confidence and accuracy and more certainty of signatures
on paper. The process of verification of health reveal any tampering
with the results of the comparison of the hash (one to be prepared when
the signature and the other at the validation of Health) indicate whether
the message is the same when it was signed.

C - An affirmative action:

The creation of a digital signature requires the entity or person that uses
the private key of this work can be completed formal or ritual function in
alerting the person or to the fact that the entity or person is to complete
her treatment and the outcome of legal consequences.

D - Effectiveness:

The creation of the digital signature and verification of health requires a

high level of assurance that the digital signature is a special department

or the same person without cost or hypocrisy. Compared with methods

such as paper cards form the signature and which methods are tedious

and takes a lot of effort and time so that it is rarely used

digital signatures and give the breed to ensure the highest degree,

without adding much to the resources required for processing.

2.6.5 Digital signature Algorithms :

Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

A secure hash function embedded in a scheme such as of Figure (a) and Figure (b )
satisfies these requirements.
In Figure (a), the hash code; H(M) is encrypted, using public key encryption and
using the sender's private key (KRa), the result is, EK [H(M)] is a function of a variable-
length message M and the secret key (k) that produces a fixed-size output that is secure
against an opponent that does not know the secret key. This is provides authentication, it
also provides a digital signature because only the sender could have produced the
encrypted hash code. If confidentiality as well as a digital signature is desired, as shown in
Figure (b), the message plus the public key encrypted hash code can be encrypted using a
conventional secret key.

(a)
Source Destination
M
M H H
KRa KUa Compare

H E
D
EKRa (H(M))

(b)
Source Destination
M H
M H E D
KRa K K KUa Compare

H E EK [M EKRa (H(M))] D

EKRa (H(M))
KRa private key KUa public key
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

2.6.6 Signing with Public-key Cryptography :

Public-key algorithms can be used for digital signature. Digital Signature algorithm
(DSA) is an example; there is a separate algorithm for digital signature that cannot be used
for encryption. Diffie and Hellman invented this idea contain further expanded and
elaborated of many protocols explained how public key cryptography used for signing
documents. The basic protocol is simple:
 Mary encrypts the document with her private key, thereby signing the document.
 Mary sends the signed document to John.
• John decrypts the document with Mary's public key, thereby verifying the signature.
In practical implementations, public-key algorithms are often too inefficient to
sign long documents. Digital signature protocols are often implemented with one-way
hash function [30]. Instead of signing a document, Mary signs the hash of the
document. In this protocol, both the one-way hash function and the digital signature
algorithm are agreed upon beforehand.
• Mary produces a one-way hash of a document.
• Mary encrypts the hash with her private key, thereby signing the document.
• Mary sends the document and the signed hash to John.
• John produces a one-way hash of the document that Mary sent. He then, using the
digital signature algorithm, decrypts the signed hash with Mary's public key. If the
signed hash matches the hash he generated, the signature is valid.
There are many digital signature algorithms. All of them are public-key algorithm
with secret information to sign documents and public information to verify signatures.
Different algorithms have different implementation. For example, one-way hash functions
and timestamps sometimes add extra steps to the process of signing and verifying.
By combining digital signatures with public-key cryptography, a protocol was
developed, by Schneir that combines the security of encryption with the authenticity of
digital signatures.
(1) Mary signs the message with her private key. S A (M).
Dr\Tarek Abdel Mageed

(2) Mary encrypts the signed message with John's public-key and sends it to John. EB (S
A (M)).
(3) John decrypts the message with his private key.
DB ( EB (S A (M))) = S A (M)
(4) John verifies with Mary's public-key and recovers the message.
VA ( S A (M)) = M

2.7 Summary :
At that chapter we have talked about the attacks that threat our network and work
against that threats to prevent it through some mechanisms that is more helpful to achieve
more security for our network to implement security services. We have talked about the
Encryption Systems and how it divided to Stream Cipher System and Block Cipher
System. We talked about the encryption algorithm that we used at our project which is
considering block cipher system. We talked about Revist, Shamir and Adelman (RSA). We
have talked about the key management. We talked about hash function, and it's used in
digital signature. How to generate it and how to distribute it. The previous steps achieve
security of our data.