Electronic Code Book

ELECTRONIC CODE BOOK

A block cipher takes a fixed-length block of text of length b bits and a key as input and produces a b-bit block of ciphertext. If the amount of plaintext to be encrypted is greater than b bits, then the block cipher can still be used by breaking the plaintext up into b-bit blocks. When multiple blocks of plaintext are encrypted using the same key, a number of security issues arise. To apply a block cipher in a variety of applica- tions, five modes of operation have been defined by NIST (SP 800-38A). In essence, a mode of operation is a technique for enhancing the effect of a cryptographic algorithm or adapting the algorithm for an application, such as applying a block cipher to a sequence of data blocks or a data stream. The five modes are intended to cover a wide variety of applications of encryption for which a block cipher could be used. These modes are intended for use with any symmetric block cipher, including triple DES and AES. The modes are summarized in Table 6.1 and described in this and the following sections.

The simplest mode is the electronic codebook (ECB) mode, in which plaintext is handled one block at a time and each block of plaintext is encrypted using the same key (Figure 6.3). The term codebook is used because, for a given key, there is a unique ciphertext for every b-bit block of plaintext. Therefore, we can imagine  a gigantic codebook in which there is an entry for every possible b-bit plaintext pattern showing its corresponding ciphertext.

For a message longer than b bits, the procedure is simply to break the mes- sage into b-bit blocks, padding the last block if necessary. Decryption is per- formed one block at a time, always using the same key. In Figure 6.3, the plaintext (padded as necessary) consists of a sequence of b-bit blocks, P1, P2, Á , PN;  the

Table 6.1 Block Cipher Modes of Operation

corresponding sequence of ciphertext blocks is C1, C2, ......... , CN. We can define ECB mode as follows.

The ECB method is ideal for a short amount of data, such as an encryption key. Thus, if you want to transmit a DES or AES key securely, ECB is the appropri- ate mode to use.

The most significant characteristic of ECB is that if the same b-bit block of plaintext appears more than once in the message, it always produces the same ciphertext.

For lengthy messages, the ECB mode may not be secure. If the message is highly structured, it may be possible for a cryptanalyst to exploit these regularities. For exam- ple, if it is known that the message always starts out with certain predefined fields, then the cryptanalyst may have a number of known plaintext–ciphertext pairs to work with. If the message has repetitive elements with a period of repetition a multiple of b bits, then these elements can be identified by the analyst. This may help in the analysis or may provide an opportunity for substituting or rearranging blocks.