Fundamentals Of Cryptography Week 61 Agenda Week 6 Overview

Fundamentals Of Cryptographyweek 61agendaweek 6 Overviewreadinglectur

Please discuss both the similarities and differences between previous encryption methods we have studied and hashing. Additionally, explain what a message digest is and its uses in cryptography.

Paper For Above instruction

Cryptography encompasses a variety of techniques designed to secure information, among which encryption and hashing are fundamental. While both serve to protect data, they operate distinctly and serve different purposes within security frameworks. Understanding their similarities, differences, and specific functions like message digests is crucial for effective application in secure communication.

Encryption and hashing are both vital cryptographic tools that assist in safeguarding data, but they differ significantly in purpose, process, and output. Encryption transforms plaintext into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key, aiming to preserve confidentiality. This process is reversible; authorized parties with the proper decryption key can recover the original message. In contrast, hashing generates a fixed-length string, known as a hash or message digest, from input data. Hash functions are designed to be one-way and irreversible, making it computationally infeasible to retrieve the original input from the hash.

Both techniques utilize similar mathematical principles and algorithms to process data, and they aim to protect information from unauthorized access or tampering. They are also integral in digital signatures, message authentication, and integrity verification processes. However, encryption primarily ensures that data remains confidential during transmission or storage, while hashing primarily verifies data integrity and authenticity through comparison of message digests.

A message digest, also called hash value, is the output of a hash function—a fixed-length string derived from input data of arbitrary size. Its primary purpose is to ensure data integrity. When a message is transmitted, a hash of the message is generated and sent along with it. The recipient can then hash the received message and compare the result with the transmitted digest. If they match, the message has not been altered. Message digests are also used in digital signatures, where they serve as a means of affirming the authenticity and integrity of a message. Because hash functions are designed to be collision-resistant, it’s highly improbable that two different inputs produce the same digest, making them effective in detecting alterations or unauthorized modifications of data.

References

  • Stallings, W. (2017). Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice (7th ed.). Pearson.
  • Kelsey, J., Schneier, B., Wagner, D., & Hall, C. (1998). Secure hash standards. NIST FIPS PUB 180-1.
  • Menezes, A., van Oorschot, P., & Vanstone, S. (1996). Handbook of Applied Cryptography. CRC Press.
  • Rivest, R. L., & Shimomura, T. (1998). The MD5 message-digest algorithm. RFC 1321.
  • Ferguson, N., Schneier, B., & Kohno, T. (2010). Cryptography Engineering: Design Principles and Practical Applications. Wiley Publishing.
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2015). SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions (FIPS PUB 202).
  • Bellare, M., & Rogaway, P. (1993). Random oracles are practical: A paradigm for designing efficient protocols. Proceedings of the 1st ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security.
  • Merkle, R. C. (1984). A certified digital signature. In Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology (pp. 218-238). Springer.
  • Diffie, W., & Hellman, M. (1976). New directions in cryptography. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 22(6), 644-654.
  • Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., & Canetti, R. (1997). HMAC: Keyed-hash message authentication code. RFC 2104.

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