ECCouncil 212-81 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 11

Avalanche

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_effect

In cryptography, the avalanche effect is the desirable property of cryptographic algorithms, typically block ciphers and cryptographic hash functions, wherein if an input is changed slightly (for example, flipping a single bit), the output changes significantly (e.g., half the output bits flip). In the case of high-quality block ciphers, such a small change in either the key or the plaintext should cause a drastic change in the ciphertext. The actual term was first used by Horst Feistel, although the concept dates back to at least Shannon's diffusion.

Incorrect answers:

Confusion - Confusion means that each binary digit (bit) of the ciphertext should depend on several parts of the key, obscuring the connections between the two.

The property of confusion hides the relationship between the ciphertext and the key.

This property makes it difficult to find the key from the ciphertext and if a single bit in a key is changed, the calculation of the values of most or all of the bits in the ciphertext will be affected.

Confusion increases the ambiguity of ciphertext and it is used by both block and stream ciphers.

Substitution - method of encrypting by which units of plaintext are replaced with ciphertext, according to a fixed system; the 'units' may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, triplets of letters, mixtures of the above, and so forth. The receiver deciphers the text by performing the inverse substitution.

Collision - occurs when a hash function generates the same output for different inputs.

Blowfish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowfish_(cipher)

Blowfish is a symmetric-key block cipher, designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier and included in many cipher suites and encryption products.

AES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric-key_algorithm

AES - symmetric cipher. Symmetric keys use the same key for both encryption and decryption. Both the sender and receiver of the data must know and share the secret key. For standard encrypt/decrypt functions, symmetric algorithms generally perform much faster than their asymmetrical counterparts. This is due to the fact that asymmetric cryptography is massively inefficient. Symmetric cryptography is designed precisely for the efficient processing of large volumes of data. In other words, symmetric encryption is generally used for speed and performance, e.g. when there's a large amount of data that needs to be encrypted/protected.

Incorrect answers:

RSA - asymmetric cipher,

DH - Diffie--Hellman key exchange is a method of securely exchanging cryptographic keys over a public channel and was one of the first public-key protocols as conceived by Ralph Merkle and named after Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman.

EC - Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields.

Blowfish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowfish_(cipher)

Blowfish is a symmetric-key block cipher, designed in 1993 by Bruce Schneier and included in many cipher suites and encryption products. Blowfish provides a good encryption rate in software and no effective cryptanalysis of it has been found to date. However, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) now receives more attention, and Schneier recommends Twofish for modern applications.

Blowfish has a 64-bit block size and a variable key length from 32 bits up to 448 bits. It is a 16-round Feistel cipher and uses large key-dependent S-boxes.

Incorrect answers:

Skipjack - symmetric algorithm. Designed by NSA for the clipper chip - a chip with built in encryption. The decryption key was kept in key escrow in case law enforcement needed to decrypt data without the owner's cooperation, making it highly controversial. Uses an 80 bit key to encrypt/decrypt 64 bit data blocks. It is an unbalanced Feistel network with 32 rounds.

Serpent - symmetric algorithm. Designed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars Knudsen. Has a block size of 128 bits. Key size is 128, 192, or 256 bits. Uses a substitution-permutation network instead of Feistel cipher. Uses 32 rounds working with a block of four 32-bit words. Each round applies one of eight 4-bit to 4-bit S-boxes 32 times in parallel. Designed so all operations can be done in parallel.

MD5 - hash function. Created by Ronald Rivest. Replaced MD4. 128 bit output size, 512 bit block size, 32 bit word size, 64 rounds. Infamously compromised by Flame malware in 2012.

X 509 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.509 In cryptography, X.509 is a standard defining the format of public key certificates. X.509 certificates are used in many Internet protocols, including TLS/SSL, which is the basis for HTTPS, the secure protocol for browsing the web. They are also used in offline applications, like electronic signatures. An X.509 certificate contains a public key and an identity (a hostname, or an organization, or an individual), and is either signed by a certificate authority or self-signed. When a certificate is signed by a trusted certificate authority, or validated by other means, someone holding that certificate can rely on the public key it contains to establish secure communications with another party, or validate documents digitally signed by the corresponding private key. Incorrect answers: RSA - (Rivest--Shamir--Adleman) is a public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission. ElGamal - asymmetric key encryption algorithm for public-key cryptography which is based on the Diffie--Hellman key exchange. It was described by Taher Elgamal in 1985. PAP - used to authenticate users, but is no longer used because the information was sent in cleartext.

DH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange

Diffie--Hellman key exchange is a method of securely exchanging cryptographic keys over a public channel and was one of the first public-key protocols as conceived by Ralph Merkle and named after Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman. DH is one of the earliest practical examples of public key exchange implemented within the field of cryptography. Published in 1976 by Diffie and Hellman, this is the earliest publicly known work that proposed the idea of a private key and a corresponding public key.

Incorrect answers:

EC - Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. ECC allows smaller keys compared to non-EC cryptography (based on plain Galois fields) to provide equivalent security.

RSA - (Rivest--Shamir--Adleman) is a public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission. It is also one of the oldest. The acronym RSA comes from the surnames of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman, who publicly described the algorithm in 1977. An equivalent system was developed secretly, in 1973 at GCHQ (the British signals intelligence agency), by the English mathematician Clifford Cocks. That system was declassified in 1997.

AES - also known by its original name Rijndael, is a specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001. AES is a subset of the Rijndael block cipher developed by two Belgian cryptographers, Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen, who submitted a proposal[5] to NIST during the AES selection process. Rijndael is a family of ciphers with different key and block sizes. For AES, NIST selected three members of the Rijndael family, each with a block size of 128 bits, but three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.

IDEA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Data_Encryption_Algorithm

In cryptography, the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA), originally called Improved Proposed Encryption Standard (IPES), is a symmetric-key block cipher designed by James Massey of ETH Zurich and Xuejia Lai and was first described in 1991. The algorithm was intended as a replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES). IDEA is a minor revision of an earlier cipher Proposed Encryption Standard (PES).

The cipher was designed under a research contract with the Hasler Foundation, which became part of Ascom-Tech AG. The cipher was patented in a number of countries but was freely available for non-commercial use. The name 'IDEA' is also a trademark. The last patents expired in 2012, and IDEA is now patent-free and thus completely free for all uses.

IDEA was used in Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) v2.0 and was incorporated after the original cipher used in v1.0, BassOmatic, was found to be insecure. IDEA is an optional algorithm in the OpenPGP standard.

Incorrect answers:

CAST - symmetric algorithm. Created in 1996 by Carlisle Adams and Stafford Tavares. Operates on 64 bit blocks and has a key size of 40-128 bits. Typically used in GPG and PGP. Encryption is either 12 or 16 rounds.

DES - The Data Encryption Standard is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of 56 bits makes it too insecure for applications, it has been highly influential in the advancement of cryptography.

RSA - a public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission. It is also one of the oldest. The acronym RSA comes from the surnames of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman, who publicly described the algorithm in 1977

Correct answers: Variable length input, fixed length output and Not reversible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function

A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, digests, or simply hashes. The values are used to index a fixed-size table called a hash table. Use of a hash function to index a hash table is called hashing or scatter storage addressing.

64

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipjack_(cipher)

Skipjack uses an 80-bit key to encrypt or decrypt 64-bit data blocks. It is an unbalanced Feistel network with 32 rounds.