Notes for October 29, 1999

  1. Greetings and Felicitations!
  2. Puzzle of the Day
  3. Long key generation
    1. Running-key cipher: M=THETREASUREISBURIED; K=THESECONDCIPHERISAN; C=MOILVGOFXTMXZFLZAEQ; wedge is that (plaintext,key) letter pairs are not random (T/T, H/H, E/E, T/S, R/E, A/O, S/N, etc.)
    2. Enigma/rotor systems; wheels, 3 rotors and a reflecting one. Go through it; UNIX uses this for crypt(1) command.
    3. Perfect secrecy: when the probability of computing the plaintext message is the same whether or not you have the ciphertext
    4. Only cipher with perfect secrecy: one-time pads; C=AZPR; is that DOIT or DONT?
  4. DES
    1. Go through the algorithm
  5. Public-Key Cryptography
    1. Basic idea: 2 keys, one private, one public
    2. Cryptosystem must satisfy:
      1. given public key, CI to get private key;
      2. cipher withstands chosen plaintext attack;
      3. encryption, decryption computationally feasible [note: commutativity not required]
    3. Benefits: can give confidentiality or authentication or both


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Department of Computer Science
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616-8562



Page last modified on 11/1/99