FW: Some questions on DES Encryption...

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Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 14:42:18 -0500
From: "DeMello, Christopher" <Christopher.DeMello@GDC4S.Com>
To: "'secprog@securityfocus.com'" <secprog@securityfocus.com>

To know why you require N number of plaintexts attacks, you would need to
know how DES works. (Based on XOR's and the Feistel Cipher) If you would
like to know, The DES algorithm is public record. You can go to the below
link to read about the algorithm. DES actually has 4 operating modes. You
can read about them online as well. (This publication has block diagrams and
all.)

http://www.csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips46-3/fips46-3.pdf

DES is actually a 64 bit block cipher.(Technically but a little shake and
bake here and there) DES uses 8 bits for error checking (Odd parity on each
byte) which is why people call it a 56 bit cipher.

People are using Triple Data Encryptions Algorithm (TDEA) or Triple DES
(3DES) because DES was broken using a brute force attack in 56 hours using
recycled PC boards. (July 15, 1998) The immediate fix was to go to TDEA.

Like Jeremy stated, 3DES is relatively computationally secure.
(Computationally secure means that if the best algorithm for breaking a
crypto system takes at least N operations where N is some specified, very
large number. Essentially too large to exhaustively search)

If your interested in this field of study Worcester Polytechnic Institute
has an Excellent graduate program in Cryptography and Info Security.

Chris

--------------------------------------------------------
Christopher DeMello
Component Engineering
General Dynamics C4 Systems
Taunton: 508.880.4468 (Th, F)
Needham: 781.455.5724 (M, T, W)
Christopher.DeMello@GDC4S.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Epstein [mailto:jeremy.epstein@webmethods.com]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 12:25 PM
To: Kryptik Logik; secprog@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: Some questions on DES Encryption...

Depends on why you're asking. If you're researching crypto,
sci.crypt.research is probably a better place to ask. If you're worried
about someone attacking our crypto, you're worried about the wrong thing.
Even 56 bit DES is strong enough that an attacker will almost always attack
something else before they attack the crypto.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kryptik Logik [mailto:kryptiklogik@hushmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 3:57 PM
> To: secprog@securityfocus.com
> Subject: Some questions on DES Encryption...
>
>
>
>
> I'm not too sure whether this is the right forum to ask this but I
>
> couldn't find a Crypto mailing list so here goes:
>
>
>
> I have a few questions on the DES Encryption algorithm:
>
>
>
> 1. In DES algorithm, given an encrypted text and the
> corresponding plain
>
> text for that is it possible to retrieve the key.
> Essentially, how secure
>
> is DES to known-plain text attack. I read some where that it is quite
>
> resistant requiring 2^55 plain texts to get the key but why
> is this so?
>
> What particular feature of the algorithm makes it this way?
>
>
>
> # klogik
>

• Previous message: Jack Lloyd: "Re: Some questions on DES Encryption..."
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