Strength of Data Encryption
Standard (DES)
PRESENTED BY:- JAY TANWANI (IU1941090010)
SUBJECT:- CCS FACULTY:- MINESH SIR BRANCH:- EC
Strength of DES – Key Size
56-bit keys have 256 = 7.2 x 1016 values
Brute force search looks hard
Recent advances have shown is possible
In 1997 on Internet in a few months
In 1998 on dedicated h/w (EFF) in a few days
In 1999 above combined in 22hrs!
Still must be able to recognize plaintext
Must now consider alternatives to DES
There have been other demonstrated breaks of the DES using both large networks of computers & dedicated h/w,
including:
1997 on a large network of computers in a few months
1998 on dedicated h/w (EFF) in a few days
1999 above combined in 22hrs!
It is important to note that there is more to a key-search attack than simply running through all possible keys. Unless
known plaintext is provided, the analyst must be able to recognize plaintext as plaintext.
Clearly must now consider alternatives to DES, the most important of which are AES and triple DES.
DES Example
Avalanche in DES
Avalanche Effect
A desirable property of any encryption algorithm is that a small change in either the
plaintext or the key should produce a significant change in the ciphertext . In particular, a
change in one bit of the plaintext or one bit of the key should produce a change in many
bits of the ciphertext.
This is referred to as the avalanche effect.
Avalanche Effect
Key desirable property of encryption algorithm
Where a change of one input or key bit results in changing approx half output bits.
Making attempts to “home-in” by guessing keys impossible
DES exhibits strong avalanche
• A desirable property of any encryption algorithm is that a small change in either the
plaintext or the key should produce a significant change in the ciphertext.
• In particular, a change in one bit of the plaintext or one bit of the key should produce a
change in many bits of the ciphertext. If the change were small, this might provide a
way to reduce the size of the plaintext or key space to be searched. DES exhibits a
strong avalanche effect
Since its adoption as a federal standard, there have been lingering concerns about the level of security
provided by DES in two areas: key size and the nature of the algorithm.
With a key length of 56 bits, there are 256 possible keys, which is approximately 7.2*1016 keys. Thus a
brute-force attack appeared impractical.
However DES was finally and definitively proved insecure in July 1998, when the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) announced that it had broken a DES encryption using a special-purpose "DES cracker"
machine that was built for less than $250,000.
The attack took less than three days. The EFF has published a detailed description of the machine,
enabling others to build their own cracker [EFF98].
Strength of DES – Analytic Attacks
Now have several analytic attacks on DES
These utilise some deep structure of the cipher
By gathering information about encryptions
Can eventually recover some/all of the sub-key bits
If necessary then exhaustively search for the rest
Generally these are statistical attacks
• Differential cryptanalysis
• Linear cryptanalysis
• Related key attacks
Strength of DES – Timing Attacks
Attacks actual implementation of cipher
Use knowledge of consequences of implementation to derive information about some/all subkey
bits
Specifically use fact that calculations can take varying times depending on the value of the inputs
to it
Particularly problematic on smartcards
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