SE-3rd Year May 2023

Fundamental of
Software Security
Chapter 3.2
Cryptography and Encryption Techniques
 Cryptography and Encryption Techniques

❖ Cryptography is the science of protecting information and communications

using secret codes through encryption and related processes.
❖ It is a process to change the form of any message in order to protect it from
reading by anyone / change in to meaning less form.
❖ Encryption is a technique to achieve cryptography that makes data
incomprehensible to ensure its confidentiality.
❖ Encryption is required for confidentiality and authentication (to assure that a
message comes from the alleged source).
 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques

❖ Terminology
▪ Cryptography: Schemes for encryption and decryption; It comes from the Greek words for
secret writing.

▪ Encryption: The process by which plaintext is converted into ciphertext.

▪ Decryption: Recovering plaintext from the ciphertext.

▪ Secret key: Used by the encryption algorithm.

▪ Cryptanalysis: The study of “breaking the code”. Cryptanalysts!

▪ Cryptology: field of both Cryptography and cryptanalysis (Cryptography + cryptanalysis).

 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques
❖ Cryptography has five ingredients
▪ Plaintext: the original message that is fed into the algorithm as input.

▪ Encryption algorithm: performs various substitutions and transformations on the

plaintext

▪ Secret Key: is also input to the algorithm; the exact substitutions and transformations
performed by the algorithm depend on the key; larger key size means greater security but
may decrease encryption/decryption speed.

▪ Ciphertext: the scrambled message produced as output. It depends on the plaintext and
the secret key. (the coded message).

▪ Decryption algorithm: the encryption algorithm run in reverse / the translation of

encrypted data in to original text.
 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques

The need for cryptography

If you have the best firewall, very tight security policies, hardened operating systems,
virus scanners, intrusion-detection software, antispyware, and every other computer
security angle covered but send your data in raw, plain text, then you simply are not
secure.
Simplified Symmetric Encryption Model
 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques

▪ Description

• A sender S wants to transmit message M to a receiver R

• To protect the message M, the sender first encrypts it into an unintelligible

message M’

• After receipt of M’, R decrypts the message to obtain M

• M is called the plaintext: what we want to encrypt

• M’ is called the ciphertext: the encrypted output

▪Alternatively, the terms encode and decode or encipher and decipher are used instead
of encrypt and decrypt.
 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques

▪A system for encryption and decryption is called a cryptosystem

o For convenience, we denote a plaintext message P as a sequence of
individual characters P = <p1, p2, …, pn>. Similarly, ciphertext is written as
C = <c1, c2, …, cm>.

o For instance, the plaintext message "I want cookies" can be denoted as the
message string <I, ,w,a,n,t, , c,o,o,k,i,e,s>.
o It can be transformed into ciphertext <c1, c2, …, c14>, and the encryption
algorithm tells us how the transformation is done.
 Cont. Cryptography and Encryption Techniques
❖ Notation

▪ Given

• P = Plaintext

• C = Ciphertext

▪ C = EK(P) Encryption

▪ P = DK(C) Decryption

 P = DK(EK(P))

 C = EK(DK(C))
▪ Note : The two basic building blocks of all encryption techniques are substitution and
transposition.
 SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS
❖ To substitute a character or symbol for each character of the original message.
❖ This technique is called a monoalphabetic cipher or simple substitution.
❖ Caesar Cipher - Early Example of a Substitution Cipher by Julius Caesar. Named after the man who
used it.
The Caesar Cipher (the simplest and widely used)
▪ Each letter is translated to the letter a fixed number of places after it in the alphabet.
▪ Caesar used a shift of 3, so plaintext letter pi was enciphered as ciphertext letter ci by the rule
ci = E(pi) = pi + 3
▪ A full translation chart of the Caesar cipher is shown here.

❖ Using this encryption, the message TREATY IMPOSSIBLE would be encoded as

▪ T R E A T Y I M P O S S I B LE
▪ wuh d w b l p s r v vl e o h
 Cont.
Advantage and disadvantages of Caesar Cipher

Advantage:
▪ Simple

Disadvantage:
▪ Algorithm has to be secret, Once Algorithm is known all messages can
be decrypted
 Cont.

1. Encrypt the message UNIVERSISTY with the Caesar cipher with 4 as the key.
2. The message FUBSWRJUDSKB was encrypted using the Caesar cipher with 3 as the
key. Decrypt the message.
 TRANSPOSITIONS (PERMUTATIONS)
▪ A Transposition is an encryption in which the letters of the message are rearranged.
▪ With transposition, the cryptography aims for diffusion, widely spreading the information from the
message or the key across the ciphertext.
▪Transposition is a rearrangement of the symbols of a message, it is also known as a permutation.
Columnar Transpositions (the popular type)
 The columnar transposition is a rearrangement of the characters of the plaintext into columns.
 The following set of characters is a five-column transposition.
 The plaintext characters are written in rows of five and arranged one row after another, as shown
here.
THIS IS A MESSAGE TO SHOW HOW A COLUMNAR TRANSPOSITION WORKS
 Cont.

1. Encipher WE ARE DISCOVERED AND FLEE AT ONCE using a simple 6 column transposition
cipher.
2. Decrypt the message ITYBA WOFAM APOLE NLOL TATG that was encrypted using a simple 5
column transposition
 Cryptography Categories

▪ With traditional approaches, we have categorized cryptography ciphers into

substitution and transposition ciphers.

▪ In Modern approaches ,There are two forms of encryption systems

1) Symmetric (also called Secret-key) cryptosystem
2) Asymmetric (also called Public key) cryptosystem

Symmetric ciphers categorized into: Stream and Block Ciphers.

▪ Stream cipher: encrypts plaintext one byte at a time, although a stream cipher
designed to operate on one bit at a time or on units larger than a byte at a time.

▪ Block cipher: splits the plaintext into fixed sized blocks and generates fixed sized
blocks of ciphertext.
 Cont.
▪ Symmetric Key Cryptography also known as Symmetric Encryption is when a secret key
is leveraged for both encryption and decryption functions.

▪ This method is the opposite of asymmetric encryption where one key is used to encrypt
and another is used to decrypt.

▪ During this process, data is converted to a format that cannot be read or inspected by
anyone who does not have the secret key that was used to encrypt it.
 Cont.
▪ In Symmetric-key encryption the message is encrypted by using a key and the same
key is used to decrypt the message which makes it easy to use but less secure. It also
requires a safe method to transfer the key from one party to another.

▪ The same key is used to encrypt and decrypt a message

• C = EK(P)
• P = DK(C)
 P = DK[EK(P)]
• Has been used for centuries in a variety of forms.
▪ The key has to be kept secret
▪ The key has to be communicated using a secure channel; major problem
 Stream Cipher
In stream cipher, one byte is encrypted at a time while in block cipher ~128 bits are encrypted at a
time.
Initially, a key(k) will be supplied as input to pseudorandom bit generator and then it produces a random
8-bit output which is treated as keystream.

The resulted keystream will be of size 1 byte, i.e., 8 bits.

▪ Stream Cipher follows the sequence of pseudorandom number stream.
▪ One of the benefits of following stream cipher is to make cryptanalysis more difficult, so the number of
bits chosen in the Keystream must be long in order to make cryptanalysis more difficult.

▪ By making the key more longer it is also safe against brute force attacks.
▪ The longer the key the stronger security is achieved, preventing any attack.
▪ Keystream can be designed more efficiently by including more number of 1s and 0s, for making
cryptanalysis more difficult.

▪ Considerable benefit of a stream cipher is, it requires few lines of code compared to block cipher.
Cont.
 Cont.
For Encryption,
▪ Plain Text and Keystream produces Cipher Text ▪
(Same keystream will be used for decryption.).
▪ The Plaintext will undergo XOR operation with ▪
keystream bit-by-bit and produces the Cipher
Text.
For Decryption,
Cipher Text and Keystream gives the original Plain
Text (Same keystream will be used for encryption.).
The Ciphertext will undergo XOR operation with
keystream bit-by-bit and produces the actual Plain
Text.

Example – Example –

Popular stream ciphers: A5/1 and Rc-4: Read about these for further understanding
 Block Cipher
▪ Block cipher splits the plaintext into fixed sized blocks and generates fixed sized
blocks of ciphertext.

▪ The ciphertext is obtained from the plaintext by iterating a function F over some
number of rounds.

▪ The function F, which depends on the output of the previous round

andthe key K, is known as a round function, not because of its shape, but
because it is applied at eachround.
▪ The design goals for block ciphers are security and efficiency.
▪ A block cipher operates on a plaintext block of n bits to produce a ciphertext
block of n bits.
 Cont.

▪ Block cipher splits the plaintext into fixed sized blocks and generates fixed sized blocks of
ciphertext.
 Cont.
Feistel Structure for Block Ciphers
In cryptography, a Feistel cipher is a symmetric structure used in the construction of block ciphers, named
after the German IBM cryptographer Horst Feistel ;

▪ It is also commonly known as a Feistel network.

▪ Most of the block cipher technique follow common structure: Feistelstructure.

▪ Feistel cipher alternates: substitutions, transpositions (permutations)

▪ Applies concepts of diffusion and confusion
▪ Applied in many ciphers today
▪ Approach:
▪ Plaintext split into halves

▪ Subkeys (or round keys) generated from key

▪ Round function, F , applied to right half
▪ Apply substitution on left half using XOR
▪ Apply permutation: interchange to halves
 Cont.
Diffusion

▪ Statistical nature of plaintext is reduced in ciphertext

▪ E.g. A plaintext letter affects the value of many ciphertext letters
▪ How: repeatedly apply permutation (transposition) to data, and then apply function

Confusion

▪ Make relationship between ciphertext and key as complex as possible

▪ Even if attacker can find some statistical characteristics of ciphertext, still hard to
find key
▪ How: apply complex (non-linear) substitution algorithm.
 Cont.
Feistel Structure is shown in
the following illustration
 Cont.
▪ Popular and common types of Block ciphers:
1. DES
2. Triple DES
3. AES
4. IDEA
5. Blowfish
 Data Encryption Standards (DES)
▪ In 1973, the NBS (National Bureau of Standards, now called NIST- National Institute of Standards
and Technology) published a request for an encryption algorithm that would meet the following
criteria:

• Have a high security level

• Be easily understood
• Be adaptable and economical
• Be efficient
▪ In late 1974, IBM proposed "Lucifer", which was then modified by NSA (National Security Agency)
in 1976 to become the DES (Data Encryption Standard)

▪ DES - A Popular Example of Symmetric Cryptosystem

• DES was then approved by NBS in 1978 and was standardized by ANSI under the
name of ANSI X3.92, also known as DEA (Data Encryption Algorithm)
 Cont.
▪ DES utilizes block cipher, which means that during the encryption process, the plaintext is broken
into fixed length blocks of 64 bits

• A block cipher processes the input one block of elements at a time, producing an output
block for each input block; larger block sizes mean greater security but reduced
encryption/ decryption speed; a block size of 128 bits is a reasonable tradeoff and is
nearly universal among recent block cipher designs.

• A stream cipher processes the input elements continuously, producing output one
element at a time, as it goes along.

▪ The key in DES is 56 bits; 8-bit out of the total 64-bit block key is used for parity check (for
example, if odd parity is used, each byte has an odd number of bits)

▪
 Cont.
DES Encryption
▪ Data is divided into 64-bit blocks; the key is 56 bits
▪ The processing has three phases
▪ Phase 1
• The 64-bit plaintext passes through an initial permutation (IP) that rearranges the bits to produce the permuted
input; no elements are added or deleted or replaced, rather the order in which the elements appear in the sequence
is changed
▪ Phase 2
• The 64 bits are then divided into two 32-bit halves called L and R.
• The encryption then proceeds through 16 rounds of the same function, each using the L and R parts, and a
subkey.

• In each round, the new L part is simply a copy of the incoming R part
• The R and Subkeys are processed in the so called
✓ f-function, and exclusive-or of the output of the f-function with the existing L part to create the new R
part
▪ Phase 3
• The pre output is passed through a permutation that is the inverse of the initial permutation (IP-1), to produce the 64-
bit ciphertext
 Cont.
DES uses the Feistel cipher structure with 16 rounds of processing

Block diagram of DES

 Cont.
DES Decryption
▪ It uses the same algorithm as encryption, except that the application of the subkeys is
reversed.
▪ Also, the initial and final permutations are reversed.
 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
▪ The AES Encryption algorithm (also known as the Rijndael algorithm) is a symmetric block cipher
algorithm with a block/chunk size of 128 bits.
▪ It converts these individual blocks using keys of 128, 192, and 256 bits. Once it encrypts these blocks,
it joins them together to form the ciphertext.
▪ It is based on a substitution-permutation network, also known as an SP network.
▪ It consists of a series of linked operations, including replacing inputs with specific outputs
(substitutions) and others involving bit shuffling (permutations).

▪ In AES the number of rounds to be carried out depends on the length of the key being used to encrypt
data. The 128-bit key size has ten rounds, the 192-bit key size has 12 rounds, and the 256-bit key size
has 14 rounds.

✓ 10 round of repetition for 128-bit keys.

✓ 12 round of repetition for 192-bit keys.
✓ 14 round of repetition for 256-bit keys.
 Cont.
▪ To understand the way AES works, you first need to learn how it transmits information between
multiple steps.
▪ Since a single block is 16 bytes, a 4x4 matrix holds the data in a single block, with each cell holding
a single byte of information.

▪ The matrix shown in the image above is known as a state array.

 Cont.
▪The steps to be followed in AES are in the below image.

▪The mentioned steps are to be followed for every block sequentially..

 Cont.
The steps are as follows:
1.Add Round Key: You pass the block data stored in the state array through an XOR function with the
first key generated (K0).
▪ It passes the resultant state array on as input to the next step.
2.Sub-Bytes: In this step, it converts each byte of the state array into hexadecimal, divided into two
equal parts.
▪ These parts are the rows and columns, mapped with a substitution box to generate new values
for the final state array.
3. Shift Rows: It swaps the row elements among each other.
▪ First row is not shifted, Second row is shifted one (byte) position to the left.
▪ Third row is shifted two positions to the left, and Fourth row is shifted three positions to the
left.
▪ The result is a new matrix consisting of the same 16 bytes but shifted with respect to each
other.
3. Mix Columns: Each column of four bytes is now transformed using a special mathematical function.
▪This function takes as input the four bytes of one column and outputs four completely new bytes, which
replace the original column.
▪The result is another new matrix consisting of 16 new bytes. It should be noted that this step is not
performed in the last round.
 Cont.
Steps:
▪ Key Expansions round keys are derived from the cipher key using Rijndael's key schedule.
▪ AES requires a separate 128-bit round key block for each round plus one more.
1) Initial round
✓ Add Round-Key each byte of the state is combined with a block of the round key using
bitwise XOR.
2) Next rounds
i. Sub-Bytes: a non-linear substitution step where each byte is replaced with another
according to a lookup table.
ii. Shift-Rows: a transposition step where the last three rows of the state are shifted
cyclically a certain number of steps.
iii. Mix-Columns: a mixing operation which operates on the columns of the state,
combining the four bytes in each column.
iv. Add Round-Key
3) Final round
i. Sub-Bytes
ii. Shift-Rows
iii. Add
Round-Key
 Cont.
▪For 16 byte key AES encryption and decryption
 Asymmetric (Public-key )Cryptosystem
▪ Asymmetric Key Encryption is based on public and private key encryption
technique. It uses two different key to encrypt and decrypt the message. It is more
secure than symmetric key encryption technique but is much slower.

▪ It is a form of cryptosystem in which encryption and decryption are performed using

different keys - one public key (KE) and one private key (KD) - that form a unique pair

▪ C = EKE(P)

▪ P = DKD(C)

 P = DKD[EKE(P)]
▪ The two keys have the property that deriving the private key from the public key
is computationally infeasible
 Cont.
▪ Proposed by Diffie and Hellman in 1976

▪ It is a revolutionary concept since it avoids the need of using a secure channel to communicate the
key

▪ It has made cryptography available for the general public and made many of today’s online
applications feasible

▪ It provides a radical departure from the past

• Public-key algorithms are based on mathematical functions rather than on substitution and
permutation.

• Public-key cryptography is asymmetric, involving the use of two separate keys, in contrast to
symmetric encryption, which uses only one key.

• The use of two keys has profound consequences in the areas of confidentiality, key
distribution, and authentication
 Cont.
▪ Properties of Public Key Cryptosystem
• If you have the private key, you can easily decrypt what is encrypted by the public key.
• Otherwise, it is computationally infeasible to decrypt what has been encrypted by the public
key.

Steps in Asymmetric Cryptosystems

1. Each user generates a pair of keys to be used for the encryption and decryption of messages
2. Each user places one of the two keys in a public register or other accessible file. This is the
public key. The companion key is kept private

3. If Bob wishes to send a confidential message to Alice, Bob encrypts the message using
Alice’s public key
4. When Alice receives the message, she decrypts it using her private key. No other recipient can
decrypt the message because only Alice knows Alice’s private key
At any time, a user can change its private key and publish the companion public key to replace its
old public key.
 Cont.
Applications of Public-Key Cryptosystems
▪ RSA - Rivest-Shamir-Adleman
▪ DSS - Digital Signature Standard
▪ Diffie-Hellman
▪ Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms

▪ You can read about Diffie-Hellman and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms
 RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman)
▪ The most widely used public-key cryptosystem is RSA

▪ RSA is from Rivest, Shamir and Adlerman

▪ Principle: No mathematical method is yet known to efficiently find the prime factors of large
numbers

▪ In RSA, the private and public keys are constructed from very large prime numbers
(consisting of hundred of decimal digits)

▪ Breaking RSA is equivalent to finding the prime factors: this is known to be computationally
infeasible, i.e., security is based on the difficulty of factoring large integers

▪ It is only the person who has produced the keys from the prime number who can decrypt
messages
 Cont.
▪ RSA - Key Generating Algorithm
1. Choose two large prime numbers, p and q
2. Compute n = pq and (phi) φ = (p-1)(q-1)
3. Choose an integer e, 1 < e < φ, such that GCD(e, φ) = 1
▪ (Note: The Greatest Common Divisor of two integers is the largest positive integer that
exactly divides both integers) or e and φ are relatively prime (two integers are relatively
prime if their only common positive integer factor is 1)

4. Determine the secret exponent d, 1 < d < φ, such that φ divides (ed-1)
5. The public key is the pair of integers (e, n) and the private key is (d, n), i.e., both sender and
receiver must know the value of n.
o The sender knows the value of e, and only the receiver knows the value of d
▪ Keep all the values d, p, q and φ secret
▪ n is known as the modulus
▪ e is known as the public exponent or encryption exponent
▪ d is known as the secret exponent or decryption exponent
 Cont.
▪ RSA- Encryption
▪ Sender A does the following
▪ Obtains the recipient B's public key (e, n)
▪ Represents the plaintext message as a positive integer M
▪ Computes the ciphertext C = Me mod n
▪ Sends the ciphertext C to B

▪ RSA- Decryption
▪ Recipient B does the following
▪ Uses his/her private key (d, n) to compute M = Cd mod n
▪ Extracts the plaintext from the message representative M

▪ Compared to DES, RSA is computationally more complex; encryption is 100-1000 times

slower than DES
▪ Hence encryption systems use RSA to exchange only shared keys in a secure way
 Cont.
▪ RSA Simple Example - Key Generation

1.Choose two prime numbers: p=11, q=3

2. n = pq = 11*3 = 33

φ = (p-1)(q-1) = 10*2 = 20

3. Choose e, 1 < e < φ; we choose e=3

Check GCD(e, φ) = GCD(3, 20) = 1

4. Determine d, 1<d<φ, such that φ divides ed-1 (or 20 divides 3d-1)

Simple testing (d = 2, 3 ...) gives d = 7

Check: ed-1 = 3*7 - 1 = 20, which is divisible by φ (20)

5. Public key = (e, n) = (3, 33)

Private key = (d, n) = (7,33)

 Cont.
▪Given
Public key = (e, n) = (3, 33)
Private key = (d, n) = (7, 33)

▪ RSA- Encryption Example

▪ Now say we want to encrypt the message M = 7

▪ C = Me mod n = 73 mod 33 = 343 mod 33 = 13

▪ Hence the ciphertext C = 13

▪ RSA- Decryption Example

▪ To check decryption we compute

▪ M = Cd mod n = 137 mod 33 = 7

 Digital Signature
▪ Digital signatures are the public-key primitives of message authentication.
▪ In the physical world, it is common to use handwritten signatures on handwritten or typed
messages.
They are used to bind signatory to the message.
▪ Similarly, a digital signature is a technique that binds a person/entity to the
digital data. This binding can be independently verified by receiver as well as
any third party.
▪ It is a cryptographic value that is calculated from the data and a secret key known only by the
signer.
▪ In real world, the receiver of message needs assurance that the message belongs to the sender
and he should not be able to repudiate the origination of that message.
▪ This requirement is very crucial in business applications, since likelihood of a dispute over
exchanged data is very high.
 Cont.

▪ Block diagram of DSA

▪ Where, M – Plaintext, H - Hash function, h - Hash digest , ‘+’ - Bundle both plaintext and digest, E–

Encryption, D – Decryption
 Cont.
▪ The image in the pervious slide shows the entire process, from the signing of the key to its
verification. So, go through each step to understand the procedure thoroughly.
Step 1: M, the original message is first passed to a hash function denoted by H# to create a
digest.

Step 2: Next, it bundles the message together with the hash digest h and encrypts it using the
sender’s private key.
Step 3: It sends the encrypted bundle to the receiver, who can decrypt it using the sender’s public
key.
Step 4: Once it decrypts the message, it is passed through the same hash function (H#), to
generate a similar digest.
Step 5: It compares the newly generated hash with the bundled hash value received along with
the message. If they match, it verifies data integrity.
How Digital signature works
 Cont.
▪ So the Steps in Digital signature algorithm in general
1) Key Generation
2) Signature Generation
3) Signature Verification
▪ For digital signatures, however, is the reverse of asymmetric encryption is true.
✓The signature is encrypted using the private key and decrypted with the public key.
✓Because the keys are linked, decoding it with the public key verifies that the proper private
key was used to sign the document, thereby verifying the signature's provenance.
▪ Having understood the functionality of the DSA Algorithm, you must know the advantages this
algorithm offers over alternative standards like the RSA algorithm.
 Cont.
❖ Out of all cryptographic primitives, the digital signature using public key cryptography is considered as
very important and useful tool to achieve information security.
❖ Let us briefly see how this is achieved by the digital signature −
▪Message authentication − When the verifier validates the digital signature using public key of a
sender, he is assured that signature has been created only by sender who possess the corresponding
secret private key and no one else.

▪ Data Integrity − In case an attacker has access to the data and modifies it, the digital
signature verification at receiver end fails.
✓ The hash of modified data and the output provided by the verification algorithm will not match.
Hence, receiver can safely deny the message assuming that data integrity has been breached.
▪Non-repudiation − Since it is assumed that only the signer has the knowledge of the signature key,
he can only create unique signature on a given data.
✓ Thus the receiver can present data and the digital signature to a third party as evidence if any
dispute arises.
 Hash Functions
▪ Hash functions are extremely useful and appear in almost all information security
applications.
▪ It is a mathematical function that converts a numerical input value into another
compressed numerical value. The input to the hash function is of arbitrary length but
output is always of fixed length.
▪ Values returned by a hash function are called message digest (is a fixed size numeric
representation of the contents of a message, computed by a hash function) or
simply hash values.

▪ A hash function H takes a message m of arbitrary length and produces a bit string h, h=
H(m)
▪ When the hash value h is sent with the message m, it enables to determine whether m
has been modified or not; the principal objective of a hash function is data integrity.
 Cont.
▪ When a hash function is used to provide message authentication (integrity), the hash
function value is often referred to as a message digest.
▪ The two most common hashing algorithms are MD5 (Message Digest version 5) and
Secure Hash Algorithm or SHA (SHA-1 and later versions like SHA-256).
 Key Management in Cryptography
In cryptography, it is a very tedious task to distribute the public and private keys
between sender and receiver. If the key is known to the third party (forger/eavesdropper)
then the whole security mechanism becomes worthless. So, there comes the need to secure
the exchange of keys.
There are two aspects for Key Management:
1.Distribution of public keys.

2.Use of public-key encryption to distribute secrets.

Distribution of Public Key:
The public key can be distributed in four ways:
1.Public announcement

2.Publicly available directory

3.Public-key authority
4.Public-key certificates.
 Cont.
These are explained as following below:
1. Public Announcement: Here the public key is broadcasted to everyone. The major weakness of this
method is a forgery.
▪ Anyone can create a key claiming to be someone else and broadcast it. Until forgery is discovered can
masquerade as claimed user.
2. Publicly Available Directory: In this type, the public key is stored in a public directory. Directories are
trusted here, with properties like Participant Registration, access and allow to modify values at any time,
contains entries like {name, public-key}.

▪ Directories can be accessed electronically still vulnerable to forgery or tampering.

3. Public Key Authority: It is similar to the directory but, improves security by tightening control over
the distribution of keys from the directory.

▪ It requires users to know the public key for the directory. Whenever the keys are needed, real-time
access to the directory is made by the user to obtain any desired public key securely.
 Cont.
4. Public Certification: This time authority provides a certificate (which binds an identity to the public

key) to allow key exchange without real-time access to the public authority each time.

▪ The certificate is accompanied by some other info such as period of validity, rights of use, etc.

▪ All of this content is signed by the private key of the certificate authority and it can be verified by

anyone possessing the authority’s public key.

▪ First sender and receiver both request CA for a certificate which contains a public key and

other information and then they can exchange these certificates and can start

communication.
End