The traditional symmetric-key

ciphers are character-

oriented ciphers. The modern
symmetric-key ciphers are
bit-oriented ciphers.
A symmetric-key modern block cipher encrypts an n-bit block of plaintext
or decrypts an n-bit block of cipher text. The encryption or decryption
algorithm uses a k-bit key.

n-bit
plaintext
m-bit plaintext

A-bit key Decryption

Encryption vid
annrep
aAded
m-bit ciphertext mbitcipbertext

Fig 5.1 A modern block cipher

 4
substitution or Transposition

A modern block cipher can be designed to act as a substitution cipher or a transposition cipher

can be replaced by either a 0 or a 1 bit. This means

Ifthe cipher is designed as substitutioncipher, 1-bita or
a0-bit that the
plain text and the cipher text can have diterent number of 1's.

as transposition cipher, the bits are only reordered (transposed),there is same number of 1's in the
Ifthe cipheris designed
plaintext or ciphertext

N-bit possible plaintext or cipher text is 2" because each of the block can have one of the two values 0 or 1 b.
To be resistant to exhaustive-search attack,a modern block cipher needs to be designed as a substitutioncipher.

Example 5.2:
have a If 101's in the cipher text, how many trial-and-error tests does
Suppose thatwe block cipher where n= 64. there are
Eve need to do to recover the plaintext from the intercepted cipher text in each of the following cases?
a. The cipher is designed as a substitutioncipher.

b. The cipher is designed as a transpositioncipher.

 Continue...

Answer:
a. In the case, Eve has no idea how many 1's are in the plaintext. Eve needs
first to try all possible 264 64-
bit blocks to find one that makes sense. If eve could try billion blocks per second, it will take
hundreds of years, on average, before she could be successful.

b. In the second case, Eve knows that there are exactly 10 1's in the plaintext because transposition does
not change the number of 1's or 0's in the cipher text. Eve can launch an exhaustive-search attack
=
using only those 64-bit blocks that have exactly 10 1's. there are only (64!)/[(10)(54!)] 151, 473, 214
816 out of 264 64 bit words. Eve can test all of them in less than 3 minutes if she could do 1 billion tests
per second.