Classical Techniques: Substitution

 Substitute a character, digit or symbol for each

character in the plaintext
 Discussed:
 The Caesar cipher
 Monoalphabetic cipher
 Playfair cipher
 Polyalphabetic cipher

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Caesar Cipher

 2000 years ago, by Julius Caesar

 A simple substitution cipher, known as Caesar cipher
 Replace each letter with the letter standing 3 places further
down the alphabet
 Plain: meet me after the toga party
 Cipher: PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
 No key, just one mapping (translation)
0123456...
Plain: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cipher: DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC
3456789...
 ci=E(3,pi)=(pi+3) mod 26;
pi=D(3,ci)=(ci-3) mod 26
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Generalized Caesar Cipher

 Can use any shift from 1 to 25, i.e., replace each letter by a
letter a fixed distance away
ci=E(k,pi)=(pi+k) mod 26;
pi=D(k,ci)=(ci-k) mod 26
 Shift cipher
 Key = k
 Key letter: the letter a plaintext A maps to
 e.g. a key letter of F means A maps to F, B to G, …, Y to D, Z
to E
 Hence have 26 (25 useful) ciphers
 Key space = 26

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Brute-Force Cryptanalysis of Caesar Cipher

 Ciphertext only attack

 Charateristics for
success
1. The encryption and
decryption algorithms are
known
2. There are only 25 keys to
try
3. The language of the
plaintext is known and
easily recongnizable

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Monoalphabetic Cipher

 Increased key space compared to Caesar

cipher
 Alphabet sequence is not required
 What is the key space?
 26! > 4 x 1026

 Monoalphabetic ciphers are easier to break

because they reflect frequency of alphabet
 E = 12.75, T = 9.25, R = 8.50, N = 7.75, etc.

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Relative Frequency of Letters in English Text

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 Substitution Techniques

Frequency Statistics of Language

 In addition to the frequency info of single letters,
the frequency info of two-letter (digram) or three-
letter (trigram) combinations can be used for the
cryptanalysis

 Most frequent digrams

 TH, HE, IN, ER, AN, RE, ED, ON, ES, ST, EN, AT, TO, NT,
HA, ND, OU, EA, NG, AS, OR, TI, IS, ET, IT, AR, TE, SE,
HI, OF

 Most frequent trigrams

 THE, ING, AND, HER, ERE, ENT, THA, NTH, WAS, ETH,
FOR, DTH
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 Playfair Cipher
 Best-known multiple-letter substitution cipher
 Digram cipher (digram to digram, i.e., E(pipi+1) =
cici+1 through keyword-based 5x5 transformation
table)
Keyword = monarchy
M O N A R
C H Y B D Plaintext: H S E A A R M U
E F G I/J K
Ciphertext: B P I M R M C M
L P Q S T
U V W X Z

 Great advance over simple monoalphabetic cipher

(26 letters  26x26=676 digrams)
 Can be generalized to polygram cipher
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Playfair Cipher - Rules
 Repeating plaintext letters are separated with a filler
letter, such as X.
 Plaintext letters that fall in the same row of the matrix
are each replaced by the letter to the right, with the first
element of the row circularly following the last.
 Plaintext letters that fall in the same column are each
replaced by the letter beneath, with the top element of
the row circularly following the last.
 Otherwise, each plaintext letter is replaced by the letter
that lies in its own row and the column occupied by the
other plaintext letter.

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Polyalphabetic Cipher

 Typically a set of monoalphabetic substitution rules is

used
 Key determines which rule to use

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Vigenère cipher
 Best-known polyalphabetic ciphers
 Each key letter determines one of 26 Caesar (shift) ciphers
 ci = E(pi) = pi + ki mod(key length) mod 26
 Example:

Key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
Plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
Cipheretxt: ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ

 Keyword is repeated to make a key as long as the plaintext

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Vigenère cipher - 2

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Example:
 Encryption

 Decryption

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Vigenère cipher - 3

 Vigenère autokey system: after key is exhausted,

use plaintext for running key (to eliminate the
periodic nature)

Key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
Plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
Cipheretxt: ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA

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Transposition (Permutation) Techniques
 Hide the message by rearranging the letter order without
altering the actual letters used
 Rail Fence Cipher
 Write message on alternate rows, and read off cipher row by row
 Example:
M e m a t r h t g p r y MEMATRHTGPRYETEFETEOAAT
e t e f e t e o a a t
 Block (Columnar) Transposition Ciphers
 Message is written in rectangle, row by row, but read off column by
column; The order of columns read off is the key
 Example:
Key: 4 3 1 2 5 6 7
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
o s t p o n e
d u n t i l t
w o a m x y z
Ciphertext:TTNAAPTMTSUOAODWCOIXKNLYPETZ

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Steganography
 “The art of covered writing”
 “Security by obscurity”
 Hide messages in other messages
 Conceal the existence of message
 Conceal what you are communicating (Sending encrypted
messages would make you a spy)
 Character marking. Overwrite with a pencil
 Invisible ink, - Pin punctures, - First letter of each word
 Letter position on page, - Drawings, - Codes
 Typewriter correction ribbon
 Microdots

 Digital steganography

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 Steganography

Steganography - Example
News Eight Weather: Tonight increasing snow. Unexpected precipitation
Smothers Eastern towns. Be extremely cautious and use snowtires especially
heading east. The highways are knowingly slippery. Highway evacuation is
suspected. Police report emergency situations in downtown ending near
Tuesday

First letter of each word yields: Newt is upset because he thinks he is

President
This example was created by Neil F. Johnson, and was published in
Steganography,Technical Report TR_95_11_nfj, 1995.
URL:  http://www.jjtc.com/pub/tr_95_11_nfj/

From WWII German spy (Kahn):

Apparently neutral’s protest is thoroughly discounted and ignored. Isman
hard hit. Blockade issue affects pretext for embargo on by products, ejecting
suets and vegetable Oils.

Second letter of each word yields: Pershing sails from NY June 1.

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