Block Cipher Operations

Block Cipher Operation
Nauman H. Ansari
Spring 2024 - MAJU
Block Cipher Operation
• There are a number of different ways to apply a block cipher to plaintext, each with its own
advantages and particular applications.
• A block cipher by itself is only suitable for the secure cryptographic transformation (encryption or
decryption) of one fixed-length group of bits called a block. A mode of operation describes how to
repeatedly apply a cipher's single-block operation to securely transform amounts of data larger
than a block.
• 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 applications, 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 block cipher modes ECB, CBC, OFB, CFB, CTR, and XTS provide confidentiality, but they do not
protect against accidental modification or malicious tampering. Modification or tampering can be
detected with a separate message authentication code such as CBC-MAC, or a digital signature.
Electronic CodeBook
• 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 7.3).
• For a message longer than b bits, the procedure is
simply to break the message into b-bit blocks, padding
the last block if necessary. Decryption is performed
one block at a time, always using the same key.
• The ECB mode should be used only to secure
messages shorter than a single block of underlying
cipher (i.e., 64 bits for 3DES and 128 bits for AES), such
as to encrypt a secret key. Because in most of the
cases messages are longer than the encryption block
mode, this mode has a minimum practical value.
• 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.
Cipher Block Chaining Mode
• To overcome the security deficiencies of ECB, we
would like a technique in which the same plaintext
block, if repeated, produces different ciphertext
blocks.
• A simple way to satisfy this requirement is the cipher
block chaining (CBC) mode (Figure 7.4).
• In CBC mode, the input to the encryption algorithm
is the XOR of the current plaintext block and the
preceding ciphertext block; the same key is used for
each block.
• As with the ECB mode, the CBC mode requires that
the last block be padded to a full b bits if it is a
partial block.
• To produce the first block of ciphertext, an
initialization vector (IV) is XORed with the first block
of plaintext.
Cipher Feedback Mode
• For AES, DES, or any block cipher, encryption is
performed on a block of b bits. In the case of DES, b
= 64 and in the case of AES, b = 128. However, it is
possible to convert a block cipher into a stream
cipher, using one of the three modes to be
discussed in this and the next two sections: cipher
feedback (CFB) mode, output feedback (OFB)
mode, and counter (CTR) mode.
• A stream cipher eliminates the need to pad a
message to be an integral number of blocks. It also
can operate in real time.
• In CFB encryption, like CBC encryption, the input
block to each forward cipher function (except the
first) depends on the result of the previous forward
cipher function; therefore, multiple forward cipher
operations cannot be performed in parallel.
Output Feedback Mode
• The output feedback (OFB) mode is
similar in structure to that of CFB.
• For OFB, the output of the encryption
function is fed back to become the input
for encrypting the next block of plaintext
(Figure 7.6).
• In CFB, the output of the XOR unit is fed
back to become input for encrypting the
next block.
• The other difference is that the OFB
mode operates on full blocks of plaintext
and ciphertext, whereas CFB operates on
an s-bit subset.
• As with CBC and CFB, the OFB mode
requires an initialization vector.
Counter Mode
• Although interest in the counter (CTR) mode was
increased with applications to ATM
(asynchronous transfer mode) network security
and IPsec (IP security), this mode was proposed
in 1979. Figure 7.7 depicts the CTR mode.
• A counter equal to the plaintext block size is
used. Typically, the counter is initialized to some
value and then incremented by 1 for each
subsequent block.
• For encryption, the counter is encrypted and
then XORed with the plaintext block to produce
the ciphertext block; there is no chaining.

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