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Intranets
Chapter 17
How Encryption Works
CONTENTS
Encryption works to protect against many threats to the security
of an intranet. There is vulnerability during data transmission
when people capture data sent across an intranet, or from the
intranet through the Internet. This is a particular problem when
transmitting sensitive information. Data is also vulnerable to
a variety of threats while stored, including unauthorized access
and theft.
When information and data is encrypted, it is altered so
that to anyone other than the intended recipient it will look
like meaningless garble. Encrypted information needs to be decrypted
in order to view it and understand it-that is, turned back to
the original message by the recipient, and only by the recipient.
There are several terms you'll need to understand in the encryption
process: keys, algorithm, hash function, message digest, and digital
fingerprint.
The heart of understanding how cryptosystems work is to understand
the concept of keys. There are two basic kinds of encryption:
secret-key (symmetric) and public-key (asymmetric) cryptography.
Keys are secret values that are used by computers in concert with
complex mathematical formulas called algorithms to encrypt and
decrypt messages. The idea behind keys is that if someone encrypts
a message with a key, only someone with a matching key will be
able to decrypt it. Key size is the critical characteristic of
encryption systems. Size is counted in bits. DES (Data Encryption
Standard) is the most common secret key system. Both the sender
and the receiver need to have copies of the same secret key. DES
is used by the U.S. government and relies on a 56-bit key. This
is the minimum size for effectiveness. DES performs 16 sequential
calculations of substitutions on separate halves of the message
to derive the encrypted result. DES is a symmetric process, linear
calculation, and results in one secret key.
RSA encryption, named after the MIT professors who developed it
in 1977 (Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman), differs
from DES in both technique to derive the result and because RSA
uses key pairs instead of one key. The key pairs of RSA are derived
by multiplying two large (each a few hundred bits long) prime
numbers (factorization) and additional mathematical calculations.
The RSA algorithm is the best-known public-key system. In public-key
cryptography, a pair of keys are involved: a public key
and a private key. Every person has both a public key and
a private key. An individual's public key is made freely available,
while the private key is exclusively known to each individual.
If the public key is used to encrypt a message, only the companion
private key can decrypt the message. If someone wanted to send
a message to you, for example, he or she would encrypt it with
your public key. Only you, with your private key, would be able
to decrypt the message and read it. Your public key could not
decrypt it. This means that once the message is encrypted, not
even the sender can decrypt the message. Conversely, messages
encrypted with private keys can only be decrypted with the matching
public key. This ensures the authenticity of the sender to the
recipient: Only someone with the private key code can encrypt
a message that can be decrypted with that public key.
You may have heard about the Clipper chip and the Skipjack method
to program a secret key. Skipjack uses an 80-bit key, so would
be tougher to crack than DES. The controversy over the Clipper
chip is not about the effectiveness of Skipjack, rather it is
the fact that the chip contains a "back-door" that would
allow others (theoretically only specifically authorized government
agents) to get at the secret key, completely defeating the reasons
people use encryption, privacy, and security.
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an encryption program that uses a
128-bit key, and furthermore, it uses the RSA algorithm to encrypt
the encryption of the 128-bit key. This means that PGP has 2128
possible keys. PGP as an implementation with RSA, uses key pairs,
also known as public and private keys.
When a message is run through an encryption algorithm (like RSA)
it can also call a hash function. Algorithms are essentially the
mathematical method used to generate the keys. The hash function
is used as a method to ensure that a message hasn't been altered.
For example, if a sent message was 500 words long, but arrived
as a message 501 words long, you could tell something had changed
in transit. Word count by itself is not sufficient for ensuring
that a message hasn't been altered since you could have multiple
changes that have a net result of 500 words, and there would be
no way to tell that the 500 words contained different words than
the original. Hash functions on messages, therefore, are more
complex. For example, it might use the number of words and the
number of letters as components in the calculation. Because the
message is the basis for the algorithm's calculation the result
is unique to the message.
This process produces a number known as the message digest. For
the purposes of this explanation, think of it as the value of
the word count result, 500. The message digest (the 500 value)
is then encrypted apart from the message itself, with a sender's
private key. Because only the sender has access to this private
key, the result is a "digital fingerprint"-a unique
number that only the originator with a private key can create
and which can only be decrypted with the companion public key.
Next, a new, random key is generated to encrypt the actual message
and the digital signature. The recipient will need a copy of this
random key in order to decrypt the message. This random key is
the only key in the world that can decrypt the message and it
is solely in the possession of the sender. This means the random
key must now be sent, maintaining its secrecy, to the recipient,
so the message can be decrypted. To allow for secure sending of
the random key, it too is encrypted, this time with the recipient's
public key. The encrypted random key is referred to as the digital
envelope. Only the recipient will be able to decrypt the random
key since it was encrypted with his or her public key-and so only
his or her private key can decrypt it.
The result of this process is an encrypted confidential message,
an encrypted signature, and the encrypted digital envelope. When
the recipient gets the message, he or she decrypts the digital
envelope with the private key, which results in the random key
used to encrypt the message. The recipient then uses the random
key to decrypt the actual message. However, at this stage there
is no way to check that the message hasn't been altered en route-or
that the message is authentic; that is, sent by the person it
claims to be sent by. The recipient now uses the sender's public
key to decrypt his or her encrypted digital signature. The recipient
then gets the message digest-the message's "digital fingerprint."
By running the digital fingerprint message through the same algorithm-the
hash function-a new message digest is generated. If authentic,
this new message digest should match the original message digest
precisely. If they don't match, either someone else composed the
message, or the message was altered by someone after it was written.
In the process described above, a public-key system was crucial
to the flow. Private key (or secret key) cryptosystems are not
feasible to be used widely on the Internet or intranets for things
such as electronic commerce. For a company to conduct business
over the Internet or intranets with a private key system would
mean creating millions of different private keys-one for each
person who wanted to do business-and then figuring out some way
to send those private keys securely over the Internet, which is
not really possible. In secret key cryptography, only one key
is used to encrypt and decrypt messages. With a public-key system,
a business only needs to create a single public/private key combination.
The business would post the public key for anyone to use to encrypt
information-but only the business itself, with the private key,
would be able to decrypt the data.
One means of securing an intranet is to use encryption-altering
data so that only someone with access to specific decryption codes
can understand the information. Encryption is used for storing
and sending passwords to make sure that no snoopers can understand
them. Encryption is used as well when data is sent between intranets
on Very Secure Private Networks (VSPNs). Encryption is also used
to conduct commerce on the Internet to protect credit card information
during transmission.
- Keys are the heart of encryption. Keys are complex
mathematical formulas (algorithms), that are used to encrypt and
decrypt messages. If someone encrypts a message, only someone
with the proper key will be able to decrypt the message. There
are two basic key systems, secret-key and public-key cryptography.
- An algorithm is used to perform a hash function. This process
produces a message digest unique to the message. The message digest
is encrypted with the sender's private key which results in a
digital fingerprint.
- Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a secret-key (symmetric)
system; there is no public key component. Both the sender and
the receiver know the secret code word. This method is not feasible
for conducting business over the Internet.
- RSA is a public-key (asymmetric) system. RSA uses key pairs
to encrypt and decrypt messages. Each person has a public key,
available to anyone on a public key ring, and a private
key, kept only on their computer. Data encrypted with someone's
private key can only be decrypted with their public key; and data
encrypted with their public key can only be decrypted with their
private key. Therefore, RSA requires an exchange of public keys;
this can be done without a need for secrecy since the public key
is useless without the companion private key.
- PGP, Pretty Good Privacy, a program invented by Philip Zimmermann,
is a popular method used to encrypt data. It uses MD5 (message-digest
5) and RSA cryptosystems to generate the key pairs. PGP is a popular
program that can run on UNIX, DOS, and Macintosh platforms. It
offers some variations of functionality, like compression, that
other cryptosystems do not. Multiple key pairs can be generated
and placed on public and private key rings.
Because of the open nature of the Internet, it is easy for people
to intercept messages that travel across it-making it difficult
to send confidential messages or financial data, such as credit
card in-formation. To solve the problem, cryptosystems have been
developed. A popular one, called RSA, uses keys to encrypt and
decrypt messages so that only the sender and receiver can understand
the messages. The system requires that each person have a public
key that is made available to anyone, and a private key that they
keep only on their computer. Data encrypted with someone's private
key can only be decrypted with their private key. This illustration
is an example of how a public-key system works. In it, Gabriel
and Mia want to exchange a confidential message. They have already
exchanged public keys.
- Gabriel wants to send a confidential message over the Internet
to Mia. Mia will need some way to decrypt the message-as well
as a way to guarantee that the message has been actually sent
by Gabriel, and not by an imposter. First, Gabriel runs his message
through an algorithm called a hash function. This produces
a number known as the message digest. The message digest
acts as a sort of "digital fingerprint" that Mia will
use to ensure that no one has altered the message.
- Gabriel now uses his private key to encrypt the message disgest.
This produces a unique digital signature that only he, with his
private key, could have created.
- Gabriel generates a new random key. He uses this key to encrypt
his original message and his digital signature. Mia will need
a copy of this random key in order to decrypt Gabriel's message.
This random key is the only key in the world that can decrypt
the message- and at this point only Gabriel has the key.
- Gabriel encrypts this new random key with Mia's public key.
This encrypted random key is referred to as the digital envelope.
Only Mia will be able to de-crypt the random key since it was
encrypted with her public key-and so only her private key can
decrypt it.
- Gabriel sends a message over the Internet to Mia that is composed
of several parts: the encrypted confidential message, the encrypted
digital signature, and the encrypted digtal envelope.
- Mia gets the message. She decrypts the digital envelope with
her private key-and out of it gets the random key that Gabriel
used to encrypt the message.
- Mia uses the random key to decrypt Gabriel's message. She
can now read the confidential message that he sent her. She can't
yet be sure, however, that the message hasn't been altered en
route-or that the message was in fact sent by Gabriel.
- She now uses Gabriel's public key to decrypt his encrypted
digital signature. When she does this, she gets his message digest-
the message's "digital fingerprint."
- Mia will use this message digest to see whether the message
was in fact sent by Gabriel and not altered in any way. She takes
the message that she had decrypted and runs it through the same
algorithm-the hash function-that Gabriel ran the message through.
This will produce a new message digest
- Mia compares the message digest that she calculated to the
one that she got out of Gabriel's digital signature. If the two
match precisely, she can be sure that Gabriel signed the message
that it was not altered after he composed it. If they don't match,
then she knows that either he didn't compose the message or that
someone altered the message after he wrote it.
Contact
reference@developer.com with questions or comments.
Copyright 1998
EarthWeb Inc., All rights reserved.
PLEASE READ THE ACCEPTABLE USAGE STATEMENT.
Copyright 1998 Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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