Summary
Internet-aided communication ensures that a large amount of data gets transferred across many fields. As the data moves from the sender to the receiver, it is likely to pass over an insecure channel. Since the security of any data is crucial, different techniques and methods have been deployed to keep away intruders. Using two significant processes, cryptography is one of the measures used to secure data: encryption and decryption. Encryption converts original data into an unreadable format known as Ciphertext, while decryption transforms Ciphertext into a readable format. Effectiveness, these processes rely on algorithms, mathematical calculations, permutations, and substitutions.
The History of Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard is composed of a symmetric block cipher. The symmetric block cipher algorithm turns 128-bit blocks into ciphertexts. using 128,192 and 256 bits with multiple rounds of encryption in its workflow. This algorithm was created by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, and is known as the Rijndael algorithm, “Everyday Cryptography” (Bernstein, 2022) and got selected based on performance. It was published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001.
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was created to take the place of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) after appearing unsafe. With advancements in technology and the internet, the DES was disregarded because of its small key size. Before that, the Triple-DES was created to address this issue, but it was too slow to be effective for worldwide use. The National Institute for Standards and Technology used three criteria to evaluate and select an Advanced Encryption Standard. They were: Security-Its ability to defend against cyber-attacks on sensitive data, Cost and Algorithm and implementation characteristics.
Description of the method
AES encryption
The Advanced Encryption Standard, AES, works under the principles of the substitution-permutation network. It works with a series of interrelated operations, which require substituting particular outputs for specific inputs (substitution) in the midst of shuffled pieces (permutations). AES executes all of its operations in bytes, not bits. At first, the AES interprets the 128 bits to 16 bytes as a fixed plaintext. AES operates on a matrix of bytes, and these 16 bytes are represented in a 4X4 matrix “Everyday Cryptography”. With its feature, AES uses a number of rounds that are defined by the key length. Essentially, AES employs ten rounds for 128-bit keys, 192-bit keys have 12 rounds, and 256-bit keys have 14 rounds. Each round takes 16 bytes of input and uses four processes to produce 16 bytes of output. They are:
Byte substitution: This is when 16 input bytes are replaced by looking up information in a fixed table (S-box) that is part of the algorithm. The 16 new bytes that result is organized in a square with four rows and four columns. Shift rows: With this, each of the four rows of the square resulting from the byte substitution process is shifted to the left. Any entries which drop off are then re-inserted on the right. The result is a new square, with the property that all the entries which used to be in one column have been moved.
Mix columns: The technique now converts each column of four bytes using a particular mathematical function, the details of which are included in the code. This function accepts four bytes from one column as input and returns four new bytes in place of the original. As a result, a new square with 16 new bytes is created. Add round Key: The mix-columns method converts the 16 bytes of the square into 128 bits, which are then XORed with the 128 bits of the round key. The output is the Ciphertext if this is the final round. Otherwise, the 128 bits that result are read as 16 bytes, and we start over with a new byte substitution procedure.
AES Decryption
In order to decrypt an AES ciphertext, the system simply reverses the encryption process. Each step reverses the appropriate encryption procedure for each round, which consists of the four processes executed in the order. The EAS The encryption procedure is built on a series of database lookups and XOR operations, both of which are quick computer operations. Therefore, the effectiveness of EAS was dependent on the processing speed of computing platforms.
Examples of use
The US government stated in June 2003 that AES might be used to secure confidential material. AES quickly became the standard encryption method for safeguarding confidential material (Bernstein, 2022) and the first publicly available and open cipher certified by the NSA for Top Secret information. The National Security Agency (NSA) picked AES as one of the encryption algorithms utilized by its Information Assurance Directorate to secure national security systems. Because of the government’s success with AES, the algorithm is now widely used in the commercial sector. AES has become the most commonly used algorithm in symmetric key encryption. NIST’s open selection procedure contributed to a high degree of trust among security and cryptography specialists in AES.
The AES algorithm is widely used to secure transmitted data. A few AES applications are self-encrypting disk drives, database encryption, and storage encryption. The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) algorithm is widely used in online browsers (Rimkienė, 2020), virtual private network (VPN) connections, and a variety of other applications. AES encryption is also used in wireless networks (typically with WPA2). Many popular applications (such as Snapchat and Facebook Messenger) encrypt data such as photographs and messages using AES encryption. All practical file compression tools use AES to avoid data leakage. 7z, WinZip, and RAR are examples of these programs. The advanced encryption standard is used by specific operating system components (such as file systems) as an additional layer of security.
AES encryption is implemented in the libraries of programming languages, including Java, Python, and C++. Password managers use the application to safeguard programs that contain a lot of sensitive data. Thomas (2020) outlines that the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governmental entities use AES encryption and keys to secure classified or sensitive information. AES is used in online banking to safeguard malicious individuals’ credentials, passwords, and communications.
Strengths and Weaknesses
It encrypts data using longer keys, such as 128, 192, and 256 bits. As a result, the AES algorithm becomes more resistant to hacking. AES is the most widely used security protocol because T (2020) denotes that with applications ranging from wireless communication to financial transactions, e-commerce, and encrypted data storage. To break 128 bits, around 2128 attempts are required. As a result, it is challenging to hack, making it a very safe protocol. AES in counter mode is difficult to implement when considering performance and security in the software. Every block is encrypted in the same way, making software implementation difficult. If the key used in AES is not used correctly, it can lead to a cryptanalytic attack. As a result, critical scheduling should be done with care.
References
Bernstein, C. (2022). What is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)? Definition from SearchSecurity. SearchSecurity. Web.
Rimkienė, R. (2020). What is AES Encryption, and How Does It Work? | CyberNews. CyberNews. Web.
T, N. (2020). What is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)? Definition, Encryption, Decryption, Advantages, and Disadvantages – Binary Terms. Binary Terms. Web.
Thomas, R. (2020). Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): What It Is and How It Works. Security Boulevard. Web.