Public-key Cryptography
Dr. Amjad Ali
Department of Computer Science
COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus
What Is Cryptography?
Cryptography – Greek word meaning “secret writing” -- is the mathematical
“scrambling/encryption” of data so that only someone with the necessary key can
“unscramble/decrypt” it.
Cryptography allows secure transmission of private information over insecure
channels (for example packet-switched networks).
Cryptography also allows secure storage of sensitive data on any computer.
Classical Cryptography:
Secret-Key or Symmetric Cryptography
Alice and Bob agree on an encryption method and a shared key.
Alice uses the key and the encryption method to encrypt (or encipher) a message and
sends it to Bob.
Bob uses the same key and the related decryption method to decrypt (or decipher) the
message.
Advantages of Classical Cryptography
There are some very fast classical encryption (and decryption) algorithms
Since the speed of a method varies with the length of the key, faster algorithms allow
one to use longer key values.
Larger key values make it harder to guess the key value -- and break the code -- by
brute force.
Disadvantages of Classical Cryptography
Requires secure transmission of key value
Requires a separate key for each group of people that wishes
to exchange encrypted messages (readable by any group
member)
For example, to have a separate key for each pair of people,
100 people would need 4950 different keys.
Public-Key Cryptography: Asymmetric Cryptography
Alice generates a key value (usually a number or pair of
related numbers) which she makes public.
Alice uses her public key (and some additional information)
to determine a second key (her private key).
Alice keeps her private key (and the additional information
she used to construct it) secret.
Public-Key Cryptography (continued)
Bob can use Alice’s public key to encrypt a message for Alice.
Alice can use her private key to decrypt this message.
No-one without access to Alice’s private key (or the information
used to construct it) can easily decrypt the message.
An Example: Internet Commerce
Bob wants to use his credit card to buy some brownies from Alice
over the Internet.
Alice sends her public key to Bob.
Bob uses this key to encrypt his credit-card number and sends the
encrypted number to Alice.
Alice uses her private key to decrypt this message (and get Bob’s
credit-card number).
Hybrid Encryption Systems
All known public key encryption algorithms are much slower
than the fastest secret-key algorithms.
In a hybrid system, Alice uses Bob’s public key to send him a
secret shared session key.
Alice and Bob use the session key to exchange information.
Internet Commerce (continued)
Bob wants to order brownies from Alice and keep the entire
transaction private.
Bob sends Alice his public key.
Alice generates a session key, encrypts it using Bob’s public key,
and sends it to Bob.
Bob uses the session key (and an agreed-upon symmetric
encryption algorithm) to encrypt his order, and sends it to Alice.
Digital Signatures: Signing a Document
Alice applies a (publicly known) hash function to a document that
she wishes to “sign.” This function produces a digest of the
document (usually a number).
Alice then uses her private key to “encrypt” the digest.
She can then send, or even broadcast, the document with the
encrypted digest.
Digital Signature Verification
Bob uses Alice’s public key to “decrypt” the digest that Alice
“encrypted” with her private key.
Bob applies the hash function to the document to obtain the digest
directly.
Bob compares these two values for the digest. If they match, it
proves that Alice signed the document and that no one else has
altered it.
Digital Signature : Signer and Verifier
Secure Transmission of Digitally Signed Documents
Alice uses her private key to digitally sign a document. She
then uses Bob’s public key to encrypt this digitally signed
document.
Bob uses his private key to decrypt the document. The result is
Alice’s digitally signed document.
Bob uses Alice’s public key to verify Alice’s digital signature.
Historical Background
1976: W. Diffie and M.E. Hellman proposed the first public-key
encryption algorithms -- actually an algorithm for public
exchange of a secret key.
1978: L.M Adleman, R.L. Rivest and A. Shamir propose the RSA
encryption method
Currently the most widely used
Basis for the spreadsheet used in the lab
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman):
Public-Private Key Encryption
Algorithm
RSA
▪ Invented by Rivest, Schamir and Adleman in 1977
▪ The security of RSA depends on the problem of factoring large
numbers.
▪ The speed of RSA does not beat DES, because DES is about 100
times faster than RSA in software.
RSA
▪ Step 1: Select two large prime numbers p and q.
▪ Step 2: Compute n = pq \\n will be used in modular arithmetic
▪ Step 3: Compute totient function
ϕ (n) = (p-1)(q-1)
▪ Step 4: Select the value Public Key “e” such that 1< e < ϕ (n)
e and ϕ (n) are coprime means the gcd (e, ϕ (n) =1)
▪ Step 5: Compute the Private Key “d” by taking the multiplicative
inverse of e such that
d ≡ e-1 (mod ϕ (n)) or ed ≡ 1(mod ϕ (n))
RSA Encryption And Decryption
Message m
Encryption Public key (e, n)
C ≡ me (mod n)
Decryption
m ≡ cd (mod n)
It is proved that
cd ≡ (me)d ≡ med ≡ m (mod n)
Due to the fact that ed ≡1 (mod ϕ (n))
RSA Example
If p = 17 and q = 31 are chosen, then
n= pq = 17x31 = 527
ϕ (n) = (p-1)x (q-1) =16x30 = 480
If e = 7 is chosen, then compute
d ≡ e-1 (mod ϕ (n)) or ed ≡ 1(mod ϕ (n))
≡ 7-1 (mod 480) ≡ 343
This decryption key d is calculated using the extended euclidean algorithm
ed ≡ 7x 343 (mod 480) ≡ 2401 (mod 480 ) ≡ 1
Security Of RSA
Relies on the fact that prime factorization is computationally very
hard.
Let k be the number of bits in the binary representation of n.
No algorithm, polynomial in k, is known to find the prime factors of
n.
Try to find the factors of a 100-bit number.
Why RSA Works (2)
If one knows only M, finding P and Q is hard: in essence, the
number of operations depends on the value of M.
The simplest method for factoring a 768-bit number takes
about 2384 3.94 x10115 trial divisions.
A more sophisticated methods takes about 285 3.87 x 1025
trial divisions.
A still moresophisticated method takes about 241
219,000,000,000 trial divisions
Why RSA Works (3)
No-one has found a quick algorithm for factoring a large
number M.
No-one has proven that such a quick algorithm doesn’t exist
(or even that one is unlikely to exist).
Peter Shor has devised a very fast factoring algorithm for a
quantum computer, if anyone manages to build one.
