INFORMATION
SECURITY
(CSD-410)
(Lecture 3)
ONE TIME PAD (VERNAM CIPHER)
▪ One-time pad cipher is a type of Vernam cipher which
includes the following features :
▪ It is an unbreakable cipher.
▪ The key is exactly same as the length of message which is
encrypted.
▪ The key is made up of random symbols.
▪ As the name suggests, key is used one time only and never used
again for any other message to be encrypted.
▪ The key used for a one-time pad cipher is called pad, as it is
printed on pads of paper.
ONE TIME PAD (VERNAM CIPHER)
WHY IS IT UNBREAKABLE?
▪ The key is unbreakable owing to the following features:
▪ The key is as long as the given message.
▪ The key is truly random and specially auto-generated.
▪ Each key should be used once and destroyed by both sender and
receiver.
▪ There should be two copies of key: one with the sender and other
with the receiver.
HISTORY
▪ First described by Frank Miller in 1882 the one-time pad was
re-invented in 1918 and patented a couple of years later. It is
derived from the Vernam cipher, named after Gilbert Vernam,
one of its inventors.
▪ Used by spies of the former USSR (Russia) during the 1960s.
▪ Used a stack of small very thin pages, each with a series of
random numbers on them. After use, a page would be
destroyed immediately.
CHALLENGES
▪ Distribution of the key was a challenge.
▪ Adding numbers to the plaintext manually, is a time
consuming task.
▪ It is therefore sometimes thought that OTPs are no longer
considered in practical use.
A 0
B 1
ENCRYPTION PROCESS
C
D
2
3
E 4
1. Assign the number to F
G
5
6
H 7
each alphabet I 8
J 9
according to the K 10
L 11
table. M 12
N 13
O 14
P 15
Q 16
R 17
S 18
T 19
U 20
V 21
W 22
X 23
Y 24
Z 25
ENCRYPTION PROCESS
2. Assign the number to each character of the plain text and
key.
ENCRYPTION PROCESS
3. Add both Plain text number and key character number.
ENCRYPTION PROCESS
4. Subtract the number from 26 if the number is equals to or
greater than 26. Otherwise left it. Assign alphabets to the
numbers.
DECRYPTION PROCESS
1. Assign the number to each character of the cipher text and
key.
DECRYPTION PROCESS
2. Subtract the cipher text alphabet number from key alphabet
number (Reverse of encryption process).
DECRYPTION PROCESS
3. If any number is less than zero then add 26 in that number
otherwise left it.
PRODUCT CIPHER
▪ In cryptography, a product cipher is a popular type of stream ciphers
that works by executing in sequence a number of simple
transformations such as substitution, permutation, and modular
arithmetic.
▪ Product ciphers usually consist of iterations of several rounds of the
same algorithm. Individual rounds themselves are not secure.
However, it is hoped that a sufficiently long chain of rounds loads the
cipher with sufficient confusion and diffusion properties to make it
resistant to cryptanalysis.
▪ A product cipher that uses only substitutions and permutations is
called a SP-network. Feistel ciphers are another important class of
product ciphers.