Information Security

(A8607)
• Course Pre/co-requisites
– A8519 – Computer Networks
 Module -1
Introduction to Security:
• Computer security concepts, OSI security
architecture, security attacks, security
services, security mechanisms, a model for
network security. Classical Encryption
Techniques: Symmetric Cipher Modes,
Substitute Techniques, Transposition
Techniques.
 Computer security concepts
• A Definition of Computer Security
• Examples
• The Challenges of Computer Security
 Computer Security
The protection afforded to an automated
information system in order to attain the
applicable objectives of preserving the
integrity, availability, and confidentiality of
information system resources (includes
hardware, software, firmware,
information/data, and telecommunications).
 Computer Security
Computer security refers to protecting and
securing computers and their related data,
networks, software, hardware from
unauthorized access, misuse, theft,
information loss, and other security issues.
 CIA Triad
Three security objectives
• Confidentiality: Preserves authorized access on information
– Data confidentiality: Assures that private or confidential information
1

is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals.

– Privacy: Assures that individuals control over what information
related to them may be collected, stored by whom and to whom that
information may be disclosed
• Integrity: Guarding against improper information modification
or destruction
– Data integrity: Assures that information (stored & transmitted) and
programs are changed only in an authorized manner.
– System integrity: Assures that a system performs its intended
function in an unimpaired manner, free from unauthorized
manipulation of the system.
• Availability: Ensures timely and reliable
access to information.
– Assures that systems work
promptly and service is not denied
to authorized users.
Additional two concepts are needed to
present a complete picture.
• Authenticity:
– verifying that users are who they CIA Triad
claim & that message came from a
trusted source.
• Accountability:
– Systems must keep records of the
activities to permit later to trace
security breaches or to aid in
transaction disputes.
Essential Network & Computer Security
Requirements
 Levels of Impact

3 levels of impact from a security breach

•Low
•Moderate
•High
 Low Impact
⮚ The loss could be expected to have a limited adverse effect on
organizational operations, organizational assets, or individuals.
⮚ A limited adverse effect means that, for example, the loss of
confidentiality, integrity, or availability might
● (i) cause a degradation in mission capability to an extent and
duration that the organization is able to perform its primary
functions, but the effectiveness of the functions is noticeably
reduced;
● (ii) result in minor damage to organizational assets;
● (iii) result in minor financial loss; or
● (iv) result in minor harm to individuals.
 Moderate Impact
⮚ The loss could be expected to have a serious adverse effect on
organizational operations, assets, or individuals.
⮚ A serious adverse effect means that, e.g., the loss might
● (i) cause a significant degradation in mission capability to an
extent and duration that the organization is able to perform its
primary functions, but the effectiveness of the functions is
significantly reduced;
● (ii) result in significant damage to organizational assets;
● (iii) result in significant financial loss; or
● (iv) result in significant harm to individuals that does not
involve loss of life or serious, life-threatening injuries.
 High Impact
⮚ The loss could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic
adverse effect on organizational operations, organizational
assets, or individuals.
⮚ A severe or catastrophic adverse effect means that, for
example, the loss might
● (i) cause a severe degradation in or loss of mission
capability to an extent and duration that the organization
is not able to perform one or more of its primary
functions;
● (ii) result in major damage to organizational assets;
● (iii) result in major financial loss; or
● (iv) result in severe or catastrophic harm to individuals
involving loss of life or serious life threatening injuries.
 Examples of Security
Requirements
⮚ confidentiality – student grades
⮚ integrity – patient information
⮚ availability – system provides authentication
service
⮚ authenticity – admission ticket
⮚ non-repudiation – stock sell order
Computer Security Challenges
1. not simple – easy to get it wrong
2. must consider potential attacks (often unexpected)
3. procedures used are often counter-intuitive
4. it is necessary to decide where to use which algorithm
5. require participants to have secret information, leading
to issues of creation, distribution, and protection of that
secret information.
6. battle of wits between attacker / admin
7. perceive little benefit from security investment until a
security failure occurs
8. requires regular monitoring process, not an event
9. Security is still too often an afterthought - incorporated
after the design is complete
10. Many users view strong security as an impediment to
efficient, user-friendly operation of the system.
 OSI Security Architecture
The X.800 OSI security architecture defines systematic
approach & focuses on security attacks, mechanisms,
and services.
• Security attack: Any action that compromises the
security of information owned by an organization.
• Security mechanism: A process that is designed to
detect, prevent, or recover from a security attack.
• Security service: It enhances the security of the data
processing systems and the information transfers of an
organization.
• The services are intended to counter security attacks,
and they make use of one or more security mechanisms
to provide the service.
 Aspects of Security
⮚ Threat - A potential for violation of security.
• That is, a threat is a possible danger that might exploit
a vulnerability.

⮚ Attack - An assault on system security that derives from

an intelligent threat;
• Intelligent act to evade security services and violate the
security policy of a system.

⮚ Attacks are classified into passive attacks and active

attacks
 Passive attack
Passive attack attempts to learn or make
use of information from the system but
does not affect system resources.
– nature of eavesdropping on, or monitoring of,
transmissions.
• Two types of passive attacks are:
▪ Release of message contents
▪ Traffic analysis
• They do not affect system but derives
information that may used later to launch an
active attack
Passive Attack: Release of message contents

▪ opponent (Darth) obtains information that is

being transmitted
 Passive Attack: Traffic Analysis

Observe traffic pattern

▪Monitor traffic flow to determine

▪ location and identity of communicating hosts
▪ could observe the frequency and length of messages being
exchanged
 Active Attack
• They attempt to alter system resources or
affect their operation
• Four categories:
– Masquerade,
– Replay,
– Modification of messages
– Denial of service
 Active Attack: Masquerade

Message from Darth

appears to be from Bob

•Unauthorized entity pretends to be authorized entity

•Here Darth has captured authentication sequences silently
and use them to obtain extra privileges
 Active Attack: Replay

•It involves passive capture of data and its subsequent

retransmission to produce an unauthorized effect
 Active Attack: Modification

Modify message

• (Part) Message is Altered (add/change/delete) or message is

delayed or reordered in transit to produce an unauthorized effect
•EX: Allow John to read confidential file A modified to
Allow Sam to read confidential file A
 Active Attack: Denial of Service

Darth disrupts service

provided by server
Block delivery of message

Server

•It makes a host or n/w resource services unavailable to its

intended users temporarily or indefinitely
 Handling Attacks

Passive attacks – focus on Prevention

• Hard to detect because they do not alter data.

• Easy to prevent Ex: using encryption

Active attacks – focus on Detection and Recovery

• Hard to prevent

• Easy to detect
 Security Services
(defined by X.800 )
⮚ Authentication - assurance that communicating
entity is the one claimed
● Peer-entity - Used in association with a logical
connection to provide confidence in the identity of the
entities connected.
● Data-Origin Authentication - In a connectionless
transfer, provides assurance that the source of received
data is as claimed.
⮚ Access Control - prevention of the unauthorized
use of a resource
⮚ who can have access to a resource,
⮚ under what conditions access can occur,
⮚ what those accessing the resource are allowed to do
 Security Services (X.800)
⮚ Data Confidentiality –protection of data from
unauthorized disclosure
• Connection Confidentiality: The protection of all
user data on a connection.
• Connectionless Confidentiality: The protection of
all user data in a single data block.
• Selective-Field Confidentiality: The confidentiality
of selected fields within the user data on a connection
or in a single data block.
• Traffic-Flow Confidentiality: The protection of the
information that might be derived from observation of
traffic flows.
 Security Services (X.800)
⮚ Data Integrity - assurance that data received is
as sent by an authorized entity ( contain no
modification, insertion, deletion, or replay)
• Connection Integrity with Recovery
• Connection Integrity without Recovery
• Selective-Field Connection Integrity
• Connectionless Integrity
• Selective-Field Connectionless Integrity
⮚ Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by
one of the parties in a communication
⮚ Non-repudiation, Origin
⮚ Non-repudiation, Destination
⮚ Availability – resource accessible/usable
 Security Mechanisms
(defined by X.800)
⮚ Specific security mechanisms
• May be incorporated into the appropriate protocol
layer in order to provide some of the OSI security
services
⮚ Pervasive security mechanisms
• Mechanisms that are not specific to any particular OSI
security service or protocol layer.
 SPECIFIC SECURITY MECHANISMS

Encipherment
• Mathematical algorithms to transform data into a
form that is not readily intelligible.
• It depends on an algorithm and 0 or more keys.
Digital Signature
• Data appended to, or a cryptographic
transformation of, a data unit that allows a
recipient to prove the source and integrity of the
data unit and protect against forgery (e.g., by the
recipient).
 SPECIFIC SECURITY MECHANISMS

Access Control
• A variety of mechanisms that enforce access
rights to resources.
Data Integrity
• A variety of mechanisms used to assure the
integrity of a data unit or stream of data units.
 SPECIFIC SECURITY MECHANISMS
• Authentication Exchange:
– A mechanism intended to ensure the identity of an
entity by means of information exchange.
• Traffic Padding:
– The insertion of bits into gaps in a data stream to
frustrate traffic analysis attempts.
• Routing Control:
– Enables selection of particular physically secure routes
for certain data and allows routing changes, especially
when a breach of security is suspected.
• Notarization:
– The use of a trusted third party to assure certain
properties of a data exchange.
 PERVASIVE SECURITY MECHANISMS
• Trusted Functionality
– That which is perceived to be correct with respect
to some criteria (e.g., as established by a security
policy).
• Security Label
– The marking bound to a resource (which may be a
data unit) that names or designates the security
attributes of that resource.
• Event Detection
– Detection of security-relevant events.
 PERVASIVE SECURITY MECHANISMS
• Security Audit Trail
– Data collected and potentially used to facilitate a
security audit, which is an independent review
and examination of system records and activities.
• Security Recovery
– Deals with requests from mechanisms, such as
event handling and management functions, and
takes recovery actions.
Model for Network Security
 Model for Network Security
⮚ using this model requires us to:
1. design a suitable algorithm for the security
transformation
2. generate the secret information (keys) used by
the algorithm
3. develop methods to distribute and share the
secret information
4. specify a protocol enabling the principals to use
the transformation and secret information for a
security service
 Model for Network Access Security

• Security mechanisms to restrict unwanted access

1. Gatekeeper Function –
• password-based login procedures that are designed to deny
access to all but authorized users
• screening logic that is designed to detect and reject worms,
viruses etc
2. Internal controls that monitor activity and analyze stored information
in an attempt to detect the presence of unwanted intruders
 Hacker Vs Intruder
• Hacker - can be someone who,
– with no malign intent,
– simply gets satisfaction from breaking and
entering a computer system.
• Intruder- can be a disgruntled employee who
wishes
– to do damage or
– a criminal who seeks to exploit computer assets
for financial gain
 Symmetric Cipher Modes of Operation
• Block ciphers encrypt fixed size blocks
• basically 4 modes of operation are defined by NIST,
they are
– Electronic Codebook Book (ECB)
– Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
– Cipher FeedBack (CFB)
– Output FeedBack (OFB)
 Electronic Codebook Book (ECB)
• Message is broken into independent blocks which are encrypted
• each block is a value which is substituted, like a codebook, hence the
name
• each block is encoded independently of the other blocks
Ci = EK(Pi)
• It is used for secure transmission of single values or an encryption key
• It is not secure for lengthy messages because cryptanalyst may exploit
regularities
EX: if P1 appears thrice then in all places of ciphertext it is substituted by
same C1
Electronic Codebook Book (ECB)
 Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
• It overcomes problem of ECB so that when plaintext block is
repeated, it produces different cipher text blocks
• each previous cipher blocks is chained with current plaintext
block, hence name
• use Initial Vector (IV) to start process
Ci = EK(Pi XOR Ci-1)
C-1 = IV

• IV is required by both sender and receiver

• IV is securely transmitted using ECB
• It is used for bulk data encryption, authentication
Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
 Cipher FeedBack (CFB)
• message is treated as a stream of bits
• cipher is given as feedback to the next block of encryption
• Plaintext is divided into segments of s bits
• Input to encryption is a b bit shift register that initially set to IV
• Leftmost s bits of encryption output are XORed with P1 to
produce C1
• Next shift register contents are shifted by s bits then c1 is placed
in rightmost s bits of shift register (feedback)
• It is used for stream data encryption and authentication
• In decryption same scheme is used except that received
ciphertext unit is XORed with encryption function o/p to produce
the plaintext unit.
Cipher FeedBack (CFB)
 Output FeedBack (OFB)
• It is similar to CFB except the output of encryption
function that is fed back to shift register
• Advantage is that bit errors in previous cipher text
are not propagated downstream
• It is used for stream encryption over noisy channels
Output FeedBack (OFB)
 Counter (CTR)

• Must have a different counter value for every plaintext

block (never reused)

• Same plain text can map to different ciphertext.

• It is used for high-speed network encryptions

– outputs from previous stages are not chained,

– Blocks can be processed parallelly

Counter (CTR)
 Substitution Techniques
• Basic building blocks of Encryption Techniques
– Substitution
– Transposition
• Substitution Technique
– Plain text letters are replaced by other
letters/numbers/symbols/bit patterns
– Caesar Cipher
 Substitution Techniques
• Substitution Techniques
– Caesar cipher
– Play fair cipher
– Hill cipher
– Vigenere cipher
– Monoalphabetic cipher
 Caesar Cipher
• Replace each letter with a letter standing 3
places down the alphabet Ex: B with E
• Wrapped around i.e. Z is replaced by A
• Numerical Equivalent
– A-0, B-1,….Z-25
• Encryption algorithm: C=E(K,P)=(P+K)mod 26
– Where K :1 to 25
• Decryption algorithm: P=D(K,C)=(C-K)mod26
 Example
Encryption
• Plaintext: Meet me after the toga party
• For Letter E - 4
C=(P+K) mod 26
= ( 4+3)mod26= 7 = H
• Cipher Text: PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
Decryption
• For Letter H - 7
P=(C-K) mod 26
= ( 7-3)mod26= 4 = E
 Caesar Cipher
• If it is known that, Cipher text obtained by
Caesar Cipher
– Brute force Cryptanalysis is done
• Try all 25 possible keys
• message is compressed (using ZIP Algo)
then encrypted using simple substitution cipher
– When uncovered using Brute force, plaintext may
not be recognized
 Mono alphabetic Substitution Cipher
• Every letter is replaced by any one letter from alphabet
– Single mapping element per message is used
• Permutation of S = {a, b, c}, are 6 :
abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba
– In general, it is n! since 1st element is chosen in n ways, 2nd
in n - 1, 3rd in n - 2 …
• If Caesar cipher line can be any permutation of 26
alphabetic chars,
– then Key space – 26! ~ >4X1026 possible keys
– Makes it tough for brute force cryptanalyst
 Mono alphabetic Substitution Cipher
• Cryptanalysis
– If Plaintext is not compressed
– Exploit regularities of the language
• EX: First, finds relative freq of letters & Compare with standard freq.
distribution for English
– From std freq tab, High freq letters Ex: {e, t} , {a, h, i, n, o, r, s}
– Low freq letters Ex: {b, j, k, q, v, x, z}
– Compare & deduce
– Analyse freq of 2-letter combinations (digrams) Ex: th
– Next, trigrams Ex: the
– Match, indicates right track of analysis, continue with trial & error process to
uncover plaintext
Relative frequencies of the letters in the ciphertext (in %) are as follows:
English Letter Frequencies
• Mono alphabetic ciphers are easy to break as
they reflect frequency of data
• Homophones: Multiple substitutes for single
letter
– Ex: e with different cipher symbols 16, 74, 35 & 21
– in rotation, randomly
– Problems:
• 1 element of plaintext affects 1 element of cipher
• Diagrams still survive
– Ex: et with {16,17}, {74,46}, {35,60), {21,40} same pattern is
repeated

• encrypt multiple letters of plaintext or use

multiple cipher alphabets.
Playfair Cipher – Multiple-Letter Cipher
⮚ not even the large number of keys in a
monoalphabetic cipher provides security
⮚ one approach to improving security was to
encrypt multiple letters
⮚ the Playfair Cipher is an example (2 letters of
plaintext are encrypted at a time)
⮚ invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854, but
named after his friend Baron Playfair
 Playfair Key Matrix
⮚ a 5X5 matrix of letters based on a keyword
⮚ fill in letters of keyword
⮚ fill rest of matrix with other letters
⮚ eg. using the keyword MONARCHY
⮚ I and J take same cell
M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
 Encrypting and Decrypting
⮚ plaintext is encrypted two letters at a time
1. if a pair is a repeated letter or only one letter left,
insert filler like 'X’
2. if both letters fall in the same row, replace each with
letter to right (wrapping back to start from end)
3. if both letters fall in the same column, replace each
with the letter below it (wrapping to top from bottom)
4. otherwise each letter is replaced by the letter in the
same row and in the column of the other letter of the
pair
 Playfair Example
⮚ Message = Move forward
⮚ Plaintext = mo ve fo rw ar dx
⮚ Here x is just a filler, message is padded and segmented
⮚ mo -> ON; ve -> UF; fo -> PH, etc.
⮚ Ciphertext = ON UF PH NZ RM BZ
M O N A R
C H Y B D
E F G I/J K
L P Q S T
U V W X Z
 Security of Playfair Cipher
⮚ security much improved over monoalphabetic
⮚ since have 26 x 26 = 676 digrams
⮚ would need a 676 entry frequency table to
analyse (versus 26 for a monoalphabetic)
⮚ was widely used for many years
● eg. by US & British military in WW1
⮚ it can be broken, given a few hundred letters
⮚ since still has much of plaintext structure
 Polyalphabetic Ciphers

⮚ polyalphabetic substitution ciphers

⮚Different monoalphabetic substitutions

⮚ improve security using multiple cipher alphabets

⮚ make cryptanalysis harder with more alphabets

⮚ use a key to select which alphabet for each letter

⮚ repeat from start after end of key is reached

 Vigenere Cipher
⮚ simplest polyalphabetic substitution cipher
⮚ effectively multiple caesar ciphers
⮚Ci=(Pi+Ki)mod26 K-varies
⮚ key is multiple letters long K = k1 k2 ... kd
⮚ 1st letter of key +1st letter of plaintext, 2nd letter of
key +2nd letter of plaintext…
⮚ repeat key from start after d letters in message
⮚ decryption simply works in reverse
 Example of Vigenere Cipher
⮚ write the plaintext out
⮚ write the keyword repeated above it
⮚ use each key letter as a caesar cipher key
⮚ encrypt the corresponding plaintext letter
⮚ EX: using keyword deceptive
key: deceptivedeceptivedeceptive
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGRZGVTWAVZHCQYGLMGJ
k 3 4 2 4 15 19 8 21 4
P 22 4 0 17 4 3 8 18 2
C 25 8 2 21 19 22 16 13 6

21+18=39mod26=13
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
 Security of Vigenere Ciphers
⮚ have multiple ciphertext letters for each plaintext
letter
⮚ Cryptanalyst finds key length
⮚ Analyzing repeated seq VTM at displacement of 9
⮚ Implies Keyword length= 3 or 9
⮚ Next analyze freq characteristics of plaintext to attack
each of the monoalphabetic ciphers
 Autokey system
• Periodic nature of keyword can be eliminated
– by using non-repeating keyword, long as message
• Vigenere proposed Autokey system
– Keyword is appended to plaintext
⮚ EX: using keyword deceptive
key: deceptivewearediscoveredsav
plaintext: wearediscoveredsaveyourself
ciphertext:ZICVTWQNGKZEIIGASXSTSLVVWLA
• It is also vulnerable, since both keyword & plaintext exhibit freq
distribution of letters
– Ex: mostly, e may be enciphered by e...

• Ultimate defense against cryptanalysis is to choose a keyword

that is as long as plaintext, has no Statistical relationship to it
 Vernam Cipher
• AT&T engineer named Gilbert Vernam in 1918
• It works on bits rather than letters.
• E: Ci = Pi Ki, D: Pi = Ci Ki
• Very long but repeating key
• Vulnerable
– Sufficient ciphertext, known plaintext seq
 One-Time Pad
• Army Signal Corp officer Joseph
• Improvement to Vernam Cipher
• Random Key as long as message, used only once
• Each message needs new key of message length
• Results in random output with no statistical relationship to plaintext
• Example: Vigenere Scheme, Key-27chars, one-time key of msg length
– For below Cipher, cryptanalyst may choose 2 keys, which may yield two
meaningful messages
– May get many meaningful messages
 One-Time Pad
• It is unbreakable because of its randomness
• Problems:
– Making large quantities of random keys
– Secure distribution of key
 Hill Cipher
• Multi-Letter Cipher by Lester Hill in 1929
• Encryption: C= E(K,P) =P*K mod 26
• Decryption: P=D(K,C)=C*K-1 mod 26
• Plaintext with even no. of chars use 2X2 else 3X3 key
matrix
• For 2X2 key matrix, take 2 plaintext letters at a time
• For 3X3 key matrix, take 3 plaintext letters at a time
• Ex: Plaintext: CSED
2 18 4 3

• Suppose K = 3 3
25
 Encryption
• C=KPmod26
33 2 3x2+3X18 60 8 I
2 5 18 = 2X2+5X18 = 94 mod 26 = 16 = Q
33 4 21 V
2 5 3 = 23 = X
C = IQVX
 Decryption
P=K-1 C mod 26
K-1 = 1 adj(K)
|K| ADD 26

= 1/ad-bc d -b = 1/9 5 -3 = 3 5 23
-c a -2 3 mod26 24 3 mod26
K-1= 15 17
20 9
CK-1 mod26= 15 17 8 2 C
20 9 16 = 18 = S
 Hill Cipher
15 17 21 15X21+17X23 706 4 E
20 9 23 = 20X21+9X23 =627 = 3 = D

P= CSED
Exercise 1: Plaintext: “pay more money”

2: Message: ATTACK IS TONIGHT

K= 3 10 20
20 9 17
9 4 17
 Transposition Techniques
• It involves some sort of permutation on the plaintext letters
(rearranging the letter order )
• Rail Fence
• write message letters out diagonally over a number of rows, use a
“W” pattern,
• Next read off cipher row by row
⮚ EX. Message: meet me after the toga party
⮚ InRail Fence depth=2, write message as “W” in 2 rows
mematrhtgpry
etefeteoaat
⮚ ciphertext
MEMATRHTGPRYETEFETEOAAT
Decryption
• Take Table size-2X23, where 2 - depth, 23 - #length
• fill cipher text letters row by row leaving a cell (“W” pattern)
• Read in “W” pattern
 Rail Fence
• Ex2: ATTACK IS TONIGHT
• Rail Fence depth=2
A T C I T N G T
T A K S O I H

• C=?
Decryption
Depth=2, # length=15
P=?
 Rail Fence depth 3
• Plaintext: HELLO WORLD
H O L
E L W R D
L O

• In depth=3, write letters in diagonal fashion in 3 rows

• Next write letters row by row to get ciphetext
C=HOLELWRDLO
• Decryption
• Table size =3X10, write 1st row in diagonal fashion then
2nd row, 3rd row…, Read “W” pattern
H O L
- - - - -
- -
 Columar Transposition Cipher
• Write message in rectangle row by row &
Read column by column but change the columns order
according to key.
Example: Key: 4312567, M=“attack postponed until two am”
fillers:xyz
Key: 4 3 1 2 5 6 7
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
ostpone
duntilt
woamxyz
Ciphertext: TTNAAPTMTSUOAODWCOIXKNLYPETZ
Decryption:
• Write down key elements,
• Next,write ciphertext letters column wise under the key
• No. of rows = No.of ciphertext letters/No.of key elements
• EX: = 28/7 =4
• Discard fillers
Ex2: Plaintext: attack postponed until two more days
Key: computer
• Cryptanalyst may play around with column position
– For better security, 1st round ciphertext is reencrypted
by 2nd transposition
– How many rounds of transposition is unknown
Ex: Key: 4312567, M=“attack postponed until two am” fillers:xyz
Key: 4 3 1 2 5 6 7
Plaintext: a t t a c k p
ostpone
duntilt
woamxyz
Round-1 Ciphertext: TTNAAPTMTSUOAODWCOIXKNLYPETZ

Round-2 Ciphertext: NSCYAUOPTTWLTMDNAOIEPAXTTOKZ