Symmetrical Key Cryptography

Symmetrical Key Cryptography also known as conventional or single-key encryption was the primary
method of encryption before the introduction of public key cryptography in the 1970s. In symmetric-
key algorithms, the same keys are used for data encryption and decryption. This type of cryptography
plays a crucial role in securing data because the same key is used for both encryption and decryption.

In this article, we will cover the techniques used in symmetric key cryptography, its applications,
principles on which it works, its types and limitations as well as what type of attacks in the digital
world it gets to face.

Techniques Used in Symmetric Key Cryptography

Substitution and Transposition are two principal techniques used in symmetric-key cryptography.

Substitution Techniques

The symmetric key cryptographic method employs one secret key for the operations of encryption
and decryption. Substitution techniques provide two significant approaches, wherein elements
(letters, characters) from the plaintext message are replaced with new elements according to the
rules based on the secret key.

 Caesar Cipher: Caesar cipher has since their predictability is so complete and no complexity
is invested.

 Monoalphabetic Ciphers: This is where the ciphers use one rule of substitution throughout
the message. This may involve replacing letters with numbers, symbols, or another set of
letters in another order.

 Playfair Cipher: Implementation of repeated letters or letter pairs can expose patterns, and
cryptanalysis techniques exist to exploit them.

 Hill Cipher: This cipher operates on blocks of letters (typically bigrams or trigrams) using a
matrix multiplication approach. The Hill ciphers have a limitation on key size and
susceptibility towards cryptanalysis for larger key sizes.

 Polyalphabetic Ciphers: This is the type of cipher where any one of the letters in the
plaintext is substituted by a different letter to keep frequency analysis challenging. For
example, the Vigenère cipher operates with a keyword that would determine the shift value
for each letter in the plaintext.

 One-Time Pad (OTP): It is a theoretically impossible cipher where the key is a random string
of characters that is exactly as long as the message itself. The key is used for a single
encryption and then discarded.
 Diagram of
Symmetric Encryption

Transposition Techniques

Transposition techniques rearrange the order of elements in the plaintext message without changing
the elements themselves.

 Rail Fence Cipher: This is a simple cipher that rearranges the elements by writing the
plaintext message in a zigzag pattern, with the different components written in rows (rails) of
an imaginary fence and then reading through the columns in a standard order. The key to this
is the number of rails used.

 Columnar Transposition: In the case of a plaintext message written in columns and then the
columns rearranged according to a permutation determined by the key, this cipher is known
as columnar transposition. Although it is still vulnerable to cryptanalysis techniques that
exploit the statistical properties of the language.

Types of Symmetric Key Cryptography

1. Stream Ciphers

2. Block Ciphers

Stream Ciphers

The encryption process begins with the stream cipher's algorithm generating a pseudo-random
keystream made up of the encryption key and the unique randomly generated number known as the
nonce. The result is a random stream of bits corresponding to the length of the ordinary plaintext.
Then, the ordinary plaintext is also deciphered into single bits.

These bits are then joined one by one to the keystream bits, gradually converting the ordinary
plaintext into the ciphertext using the XOR bitwise operations. When the recipient wants to decrypt
the encrypted plaintext, they must generate a new keystream made during the encryption. The
encrypted plaintext is then deciphered one by one to derive the encrypted plaintext at the recipient's
end.

The most common stream cipher algorithms are

Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4)

  Strengths: The initial appeal of RC4 came from its efficient design and capability to handle
variable-length data streams.

 Current Status: Due to these identified weaknesses, RC4 is no longer considered secure for
most applications. Its use is strongly prohobited by cryptographic standards bodies.

Salsa20

 Strengths: It's fast and efficient, with a simple and elegant design. Most importantly, the
security it offers against known attacks is robust. Apart from that, Salsa20 serves as a
building block for other cryptographic protocols, exhibiting its versatility.

 Current Status: Salsa20 is a very widely used and well-respected stream cipher. It's used for
many applications where performance and security balance.

Grain-128

 Strengths of Grain-128 include efficiency, lightweight implementation, and the ability to

perform well with limited processing power and memory, making it ideal for radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags and sensor networks. Importantly, Grain-128 still provides strong
security with such simplicity.

 Current Status: Grain-128 is useful in some resource-limited situations where an application

needs to be run with huge restrictions in the amount of data that is available for use.

Block Cipher

The result of a block cipher is a sequence of blocks that are then encrypted with the key. The output
is a sequence of blocks of encrypted data in a specific order. When the ciphertext travels to its
endpoint, the receiver uses the same cryptographic key to decrypt the ciphertext blockchain to the
plaintext message.

The most common block cipher algorithms are

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

 It has support for three-length keys: 128 bits, 192 bits, or 256 bits, the most commonly used
one is a 128-bit key.

 It includes secure communication, data encryption in storage devices, digital rights

management (DRM), and so on.

Data Encryption Standard (DES)

 In DES, the 64-bit blocks of plaintext are encrypted using a 56-bit key.

 This weakness caused by the small key size led to the development of a more secure
algorithm, called AES.

Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (Triple DES)

 The development of the Triple DES, also called Triple-DES or TDEA, was triggered by the weak
security resulting from the small key size in the DES.

 Triple DES denotes a method of three times applying the DES algorithm sequentially
(encrypt-decrypt-encrypt) on every plaintext block.
Applications of Symmetric Key Cryptography

 Data encrypting/decrypting: SKC widely applies to protect sensitive data either statically
stored in some device or transmitted through the network. Some of these applications
include the authentication of users' credentials, encryption of email messages, and financial
transactions.

 Secure communication: The majority of the communication protocols commonly used

are SSL/TLS, which use the combination of symmetric and asymmetric key encryption to
ensure the confidentiality and integrity of exchanged information between two parties.
These messages will be encrypted and decrypted using symmetric key encryption using a
shared key.

 Authenticity verification: In some places, SKC is applied using techniques like message
authentication codes (MACs) and keyed-hash MACs (HMACs) to authenticate the messages
by verifying their authenticity and integrity, thus ensuring tamper-resistant communication.

 File and disk encryption: Full-disk encryption software and file encryption tools also apply
SKC to encrypt sensitive data stored in hard disks or portable storage devices.

 Virtual private networks: VPN technologies are technologies that aim to provide confidential
communication channels free from eavesdropping. Some of these may use symmetric or
asymmetric key encryption to connect remote users and corporate networks.

Principles of Symmetric Key Encryption

Basic principles which underpin the security of symmetric key encryption algorithms.

 Resistance to brute force attack: The most basic requirement for the security of an
encryption cipher is that the keyspace size—in other words, the number of possible distinct
keys from which someone using the algorithm could have chosen—is very large.

 Cryptographic attack resistance: The second fundamental requirement for symmetric or

non-symmetrical encryption is the ability to generate information-influenced (i.e., non-
random) encrypted messages. For this to happen, a critical but not sufficient requirement in
an informational sense is that the encrypted message has high entropy.

It would, in other words, be impossible for an attacker to infer any information about the plain text
or secret key from having tried to analyze the ciphertext by the use of frequency analysis or other
statistical techniques. Resistance to general forms of cryptanalytic attacks sufficient to ensure
semantic security is formalized via the notion of indistinguishability.

Advantages of Symmetric Key Cryptography

 Speed and efficiency: Symmetric key+ algorithms are better suited for encrypting large
volumes of data or for use in real-time communication scenarios as they are faster and less
resource-intensive than asymmetric cryptography. SKC algorithms do not involve
algebraically mathematical operations.

 Scalability: Because symmetric key algorithms have relatively low computational overhead,
they scale well with the number of users and the amount of data being encrypted.
  Simplicity: Symmetric encryption protocols are often more straightforward to implement
and understand than asymmetric key methods, and this would go a long way in attracting
developers and users.

Challenges and Limitations of Symmetric Key Cryptography

 Key management and distribution: Both the sender and the receiver in the SKC of a message
need to have the same key, and the key should not be seen by a third party. In case the key is
somehow captured or compromised by a third party, the security of the encrypted data is
also lost.

 Non-repudiation: Non-repudiation refers to the ability to prove that a specific party has sent
a message. In SKC, since the same key is used for encryption and decryption, it is impossible
to find out which party created a particular cipher text.

Because of these challenges, symmetric key cryptography is often used in conjunction

with asymmetric key cryptography.

Operation Modes in Symmetric Cryptography

Electronic Codebook (ECB)

 ECB is one of the simplest modes of operation for block ciphers.

 A major limitation of ECB is that the same plaintext block produces identical ciphertext
blocks that can be used for subsequent attacks, and patterns in the plaintext are visible in the
ciphertext.

Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)

 CBC mode links each plaintext block with the previous ciphertext block before encryption.

 Each plaintext block is XORed with the previous ciphertext block before encryption, adding
randomness and preventing patterns in the plaintext from being apparent in the ciphertext.

Cipher Feedback (CFB)

 CFB mode operates like a stream cipher, generating a keystream to XOR with the plaintext
block before encryption.

 One drawback of CFB mode is error propagation, if an error occurs in one ciphertext block, it
will affect subsequent blocks.

Output Feedback (OFB)

 It is a method for switching a block cipher to a stream cipher, creating enciphering through
interpolating the plaintext directly.

 It produces a separate keystream, which will be the XOR with the plaintext to derive the
ciphertext.

Counter (CTR) mode

 CTR mode transforms a block cipher into a stream cipher by using a counter value as the
input to the block cipher.
  CTR mode is highly parallelizable and efficient, making it suitable for scenarios where
performance is critical, such as disk and network encryption.

Attacks on Symmetric Key Cryptography

There are two general approaches to attacking a Symmetric Key Cryptography scheme:

Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalytic attacks depend on the ciphertext characteristics of the algorithm plus possibly some
knowledge of general characteristics of plaintext or perhaps even some sample plaintext–ciphertext
pairs. This type of attack attempts to deduce some specific plaintext or to deduce the key being used
through an examination of algorithmic characteristics.

Type of Attack Known to Cryptanalyst

Ciphertext  Encryption algorithm

Only  Ciphertext

 Encryption algorithm
Known
 Ciphertext
Plaintext
 One or more plaintext–ciphertext pairs formed with the secret key

 Encryption algorithm

Chosen  Ciphertext
Plaintext
 Plaintext message chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its
corresponding ciphertext generated with the secret key

 Encryption algorithm

Chosen  Ciphertext
Ciphertext
 Ciphertext chosen by the the cryptanalyst, together with its
corresponding decrypted plaintext generated with the secret key

Chosen Text  Encryption algorithm

 Ciphertext

 Plaintext message chosen by cryptanalyst, together with its

corresponding ciphertext generated with the secret key

 Ciphertext chosen by the cryptanalyst, together with its corresponding

Type of Attack Known to Cryptanalyst

decrypted plaintext generated with the secret key

Brute-Force Attack

The attacker attempts all the possible keys on the piece of encrypted data until they get a readable
translation into plain text. It takes on average 50% of all the possible keys to get this far. If either of
these attacks gets the key right, then all of the future and previous messages encrypted with this key
are lost. This is why a large key size offers protection from brute force attacks by making them
infeasible to compute. The below table lists the key space sizes of some well-known ciphers.

Symmetric Ciphers Key Length Keyspace Size

Caeser shift 1 alphabet-size

Vigenere N alphabet-size

One-time-pad plaintext-length alphabet-size plaintext−length

DES 56 256

AES-128 128 2128

AES-192 192 2192

AES-256 256 2256

ChaCha20 256 2256

Conclusion

Symmetric Key Cryptography (SKC) is a powerful and efficient solution for protecting digital
information. SKC is easy to use for both encrypting and decrypting data and is highly scalable. In
modern symmetric key systems, confusion, diffusion, and randomness are combined with
appropriate key sizes to provide semantic security. While secret key management is essential, it
cannot be achieved by SKC on its own.