Chapter 9: Cryptography and Symmetric Key Algorithms Flashcards
What are the goals of cryptography?
Confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and nonrepudiation.
What is the purpose of confidentiality?
It insures that data remains private while at rest or in transit.
What is the purpose of integrity?
It ensures that data is not altered without authorization.
What is the purpose of authentication?
It verifies that the claimed identity of system users is accurate.
What is the purpose of nonrepudiation?
It provides assurance t the recipient that a message was actually originated by the sender and not by someone masquerading as them.
What is “key space”?
The range of values that are valid as a key for a specific algorithm.
What is the Kerchoff Principle?
The principle that a cryptographic system should be secure even if everything is known about the system except the key.
What is a private key cryptosystem?
One in which all participants use a shared secret key.
What is a public key cryptosystem?
Each participant has their own pair of keys.
What is a cryptovariable?
Another name for a key.
What is cryptography?
The art and practice of implementing secret codes and cyphers.
What does FIPS 140-2 define?
Hardware and software requirements for cryptographic modules that the government uses.
What defines hardware and software requirements for cryptographic modules for government use?
FIPS 140-2
What is boolean mathematics?
The definition of rules for bits and bytes that form the nervous system of a computer. AND, OR, NOT, XOR, etc.
What is a one way function?
A mathematical operation that easily produces output values for each possible combination of inputs, but makes it impossible to retrieve the input values.
What kind of function are all public key cryptosystems based on?
A one way function.
What is a nonce?
A random number that acts as a placeholder in mathematical functions. A “number used once”.
What is a zero-knowledge proof?
A proof that shows that a party has a particular piece of information without revealing that piece of information.
What is split knowledge?
Separation of duties over two or more persons, such as giving n parts of a key to n people and requiring a certain number of them to work together to access an object.
What is a work function or work factor?
A measure of the effort or time required to circumvent a cryptographic system. It should be greater than the value of the asset to be effective.
What is a code?
A cryptographic system of symbols that represents words or phrases. Not usually intended to provide confidentiality. Example: the 10-system used by law enforcement.
What is a cipher?
Always intended to hide the meaning of a message. Generally alter or rearrange the bits of a message.
What is a transposition cipher?
An encryption algorithm that rearranges the leters of a plaintext message.
What is a substitution cipher?
An encryption algorithm that replaces each character of the plaintext with a different character.
What is a one-time pad?
A substitution cipher that uses a different substitution alphabet for each letter of the message.
What are the requirements for a one time pad?
It must be randomly generated
It must be physically protected against disclosure.
It must be used only once.
The key must be at least as long as the message.
What is a running key cipher?
An encryption key is chosen from something like a book beginning at a certain place in the text.
What is a block cipher?
A cipher that operates on a message in chunks, applying the algorithm to the entire chunk at once.
What is a stream cipher?
A cipher that operates on one character or bit of a message at a time.
Describe confusion and diffusion in cryptographic terms
Confusion occurs when the relationship betwen the plaintext and the key is so complicated that the attacker can’t merely continue altering the plaintext and analyzing the resulting ciphertext to determine the key.
Diffusion occurs when a change in the plain text results in multiple changes spread throughout the ciphertext.
How do modern cryptosystems work?
they use computationally complex algorithms and long cryptanalytic keys.
How should you select key length?
With consideration to the procesing power available to your adversaries now and in the future. If you want something to stay secret for 20 years, it has to be proof against the computing power that could be brought to bear agsint it over the next 20 years.
What is a symmetric key algorithm?
One that relies on a shared secret encryption key that all members of the communication must have.