The XOR encryption is a simple symmetric cipher that is used in many applications where security is not a defined requirement. The XOR Operator XOR (Exclusive OR) is a bitwise operator from binary mathematics. The six bitwise operators, as defined in the C programming language, are: Operation Symbol AND & Inclusive OR | Exclusive OR …
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 …
DES (Data Encryption Standard) is a commonly used method for encrypting data using a secret or private key. The strength of the DES encryption standard was previously considered to be strong enough that the United States government placed restrictions on the export of the technology to other countries. Conceptually, there are more than 72 quadrillion …
Steganography has gained a significant amount of press over the past several years when the technique hit the press as a possible method that many of the terrorists involved with the 9/11 attacks used to plan the operation. Similar to the use of encryption, steganography techniques have become one of the basic methods that organizations …
SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithm. It consists of five hash functions designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The five algorithms are SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512. SHA-1 is the most commonly used of the SHA series. Hash algorithms are called secure …
A wordlist is a text file containing a collection of words for use in a dictionary attack. Wordlist Usage A dictionary attack using a wordlist relies on the fact that most users choose weak passwords. Very common passwords include password, computer, work, and most of the popular female names. Common Dictionary Attacks Using A Wordlist …
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 …
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 …
A chosen plaintext attack is an attack where the cryptanalyst is able to define his own plaintext, feed it into the cipher, and analyze the resulting ciphertext. Mounting a chosen plaintext attack requires the cryptanalyst to be able to send data of his choice into the device which is doing the encryption, and it requires …