Cryptanalysis is the study of analyzing information systems in order to “discover” or “crack” the hidden or secret aspects of those systems. More specifically, cryptanalysis is the study of breaching cryptographic security systems in order to obtain access to the information contained within encrypted messages without necessarily knowing the cryptographic key used to encrypt the …
In cryptography, the known plaintext attack, or KPA, is an attack based on having samples of both the plaintext and corresponding encrypted or ciphertext for that information available. This information is used to conduct an analysis of the data in order to determine the secret key used to encrypt and decrypt the information. Historical ciphers …
TrueCrypt is a free, open source disk encryption software that is available for the Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac, Linux, and Unix operating systems. TrueCrypt provides users with real time encryption/decryption, parallelization and pipelining to read/write to partitions as fast as non-encrypted partitions, and plausible deniability through hidden volumes and hidden operating systems …
In a symmetric cipher, both parties must use the same key for encryption and decryption. This means that the encryption key must be shared between the two parties before any messages can be decrypted. Symmetric systems are also known as shared secret systems or private key systems. Symmetric ciphers are significantly faster than asymmetric ciphers, …
X.509 is an ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) standard for PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) in cryptography, which, amongst many other things, defines specific formats for PKC (Public Key Certificates) and the algorithm that verifies a given certificate path is valid under a give PKI (called the certification path validation algorithm). X.509 History X.509 began in …
The field of cryptology includes both the study of and practice of securing information in the presence of untrusted third parties or adversaries. Specifically, it is focused on creating and analyzing the protocols used to subvert attempts by adversaries to gain access to or interrupt the flow of information between trusted parties. Specific focus areas …
Certificate Authority or Certification Authority (CA) is an entity, which is core to many PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) schemes, whose purpose is to issue digital certificates to use by other parties. It exemplifies a trusted third party. Some certification authorities may charge a fee for their service while some other CAs are free. It is …
The two most common types of encryption algorithm used in modern cryptography are the block and stream ciphers. The block cipher uses a deterministic algorithm that conducts operations on fixed-length groupings of bits, or blocks. By using a transformation specified by a symmetric key, a block cipher is able to encrypt bulk data, and is …
In the study of cryptography the terms plaintext and ciphertext are used to describe the plain language message or information and the resulting encrypted message or data that results from the use of a cipher or encryption algorithm. The resulting ciphertext is not readable by either a human or computer without the correct cipher to …
RC4 is one of the most used software-based stream ciphers in the world. The cipher is included in popular Internet protocols such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and WEP (for wireless network security). The cipher is fairly simplistic when compared to competing algorithms of the same strength and boasts one of the fastest speeds of …