Computer Security

Technology And Principles

Professors Dr.sc.ing. Viktors Gopejenko

Department of Computer Technologies and Natural Sciences
ISMA University
Riga, Latvia
Modifying slides originally prepared by Clemens H. Cap, Michael Huth ,
William Stallings and Lawrie Brown

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 Practice
Modular Arithmetic
 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic
 Why do we need to study modular arithmetic?
 Important for asymmetric cryptography (RSA, elliptic curves,
etc.)

 Most cryptosystems are based on sets of numbers that are

 discrete (sets with integers are particularly useful)
 finite (i.e., if we only compute with a finely many numbers)

 It is crucial to have an operation which „keeps the numbers

within limits“, i.e., after addition and multiplication they
should never leave the set.

 Let’s have a look!

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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic
 Modulo Operation
 Let a, r, n be integers and n > 0. We write
a ≡ r mod n
 if (r-a) is divisible by n or if n divides a-r
 n is called the modulus and r is called the remainder
 It is always possible to write
a = q ·n + r for 0 ≤ r < n
with the quotient q and the remainder r.
 Examples:
 Let a = 11 and n = 9 11 ≡ 2 mod 9 (11 = 1·9 + 2)
 Let a = 19 and n = 9 19 ≡ 1 mod 9 (19 = 2·9 + 1)
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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic
 How do we perform modular division?
 First, note that rather than performing a division, we prefer to
multiply by the inverse.

 The inverse a-1 of a number a is defined such that:

a a-1 ≡ 1 mod n
 The inverse of 7 mod 9 is 4 since 7 x 4 ≡ 28 ≡ 1 mod 9.

 How is the inverse compute?

 The multiplicative inverse of a number a mod n only exists if and
only if: gcd (a, n) = 1 (gcd, greatest common divisor) (note that in
the example above gcd(7, 9) = 1, so that the inverse of 7 exists
modulo 9)

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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic
 Modular Arithmetic
 There is the neutral element 0 with respect to addition, i.e., for all a

a + 0 ≡ a mod n

 For all a , there is always an additive inverse element –a such that

a + (-a) ≡ 0 mod n

 There is the neutral element 1 with respect to multiplication, i.e., for

all a

a x 1 ≡ a mod n

 The multiplicative inverse a-1 is defined such that

a x a-1 ≡61 mod n

 Shift Cipher
 Replaces each plaintext letter by another one.
 Replacement rule: Take letter that follows after k positions in the
alphabet
 Needs mapping from letters → numbers:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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 Shift Cipher
 Example for k = 7
Plaintext = ATTACK = 0, 19, 19, 0, 2, 10
Ciphertext = HAAHJR = 7, 0, 0, 7, 9, 17
 Note that the letters ”wrap around” at the end of the alphabet, which
can mathematically be expressed as reduction modulo 26, e.g.,
19 + 7 = 26 ≡ 0 mod 26

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 Shift Cipher

 Mathematical description of the cipher

 Let k, x, y ε {0,1, …, 25}

 Encryption: y = ek(x) ≡ x + k mod 26
 Decryption: x = dk(x) ≡ y - k mod 26

 How secure is the shift cipher?

 Exhaustive key search (key space is only 26!)
 Letter frequency analysis, similar to attack against
substitution cipher

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 Affine Cipher

 Extension of the shift cipher: rather than just adding the

key to the plaintext, we also multiply by the key
 Key consists of two parts: k = (a, b)
Let k, x, y ε {0,1, …, 25}
Encryption: y = ek(x) ≡ a x + b mod 26
Decryption: x = dk(x) ≡ a-1(y – b) mod 26

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 Affine Cipher

 Since the inverse of a is needed for inversion, we can only

use values for a for which: gcd(a, 26) = 1. There are 12
values for a that fulfil this condition
a ε {1,3,5,7,9,11,15,17,19,21,23,25}
 Again, several attacks are possible, including:
Exhaustive key search and letter frequency analysis,
similar to the attack against the substitution cipher

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 Affine Cipher

 Example

 Let the key be k = (a,b) = (9,13)

-Plaintext = ATTACK =0,19,19,0,2,10

- Ciphertext = NCCNFZ = 13,2,2,13,5,25

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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic

 Modular Reduction

Example: We want to compute 37 mod 7 (note that

exponentiation is extremely important in public-key
cryptography).

 1st Approach: Exponentiation followed by modular

reduction

Example: 37 = 2187 ≡ 3 mod 7 the intermediate result is 2187

even though we know that the final result can’t be larger
than 6.
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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic

 2nd Approach: Exponentiation with intermediate modular

reduction
 Example: 37 = 33 · 34 = 27 x 81
At this point we reduce the intermediate results
27 modulo 7 and 81 mod 7
37 = 33 · 34 = 27 x 81 ≡ 6 x 4 mod 7
6 x 4 = 24 ≡ 3 mod 7

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 Short Introduction to Modular
Arithmetic

37 = 33 · 34 = 27 x 81 ≡ 6 x 4 mod 7
6 x 4 = 24 ≡ 3 mod 7
We can perform all these multiplications without a pocket
calculator, whereas mentally computing 37 = 2187 is a bit
challenging for most of us
 For most algorithms it is advantageous to reduce
intermediate results as soon as possible.

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 Euler's totient function

 Euler's totient function counts the positive integers up to

a given integer n that are relatively prime to n

 For example, the totatives of n = 9 are the six numbers 1,

2, 4, 5, 7 and 8. They are all relatively prime to 9, but the
other three numbers in this range, 3, 6, and 9 are not,
because gcd(9, 3) = gcd(9, 6) = 3 and gcd(9, 9) = 9.
Therefore φ(9) = 6.

 if a and n are relatively prime then

𝒂𝝋(𝒏) ≡ 𝟏 𝒎𝒐𝒅 𝒏
 Euler's totient function

 The RSA cryptosystem

 Setting up an RSA system involves choosing large prime

numbers p and q, computing n = pq and k = φ(n), and
finding two numbers e and d such that ed ≡ 1 (mod k). The
numbers n and e (the "encryption key") are released to the
public, and d (the "decryption key") is kept private

 Euler's totient function can be used to find inverse e-1

modulo n. (e-1=d)
𝒅 = 𝒆−𝟏 ≡ 𝒆𝝋 𝒏 −𝟏 𝒎𝒐𝒅 𝒏
 Some values of the function

φ(n) +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9
0+ 1 1 2 2 4 2 6 4 6
10+ 4 10 4 12 6 8 8 16 6 18
20+ 8 12 10 22 8 20 12 18 12 28
30+ 8 30 16 20 16 24 12 36 18 24
40+ 16 40 12 42 20 24 22 46 16 42
50+ 20 32 24 52 18 40 24 36 28 58
60+ 16 60 30 36 32 48 20 66 32 44
70+ 24 70 24 72 36 40 36 60 24 78
80+ 32 54 40 82 24 64 42 56 40 88
90+ 24 72 44 60 46 72 32 96 42 60
 24 hour clock
calculator by modulus 12