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.

Explanation

Rail Fence Cipher

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

The rail fence cipher (also called a zigzag cipher) is a form of transposition cipher. It derives its name from the way in which it is encoded.

Explanation

Key

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(cryptography)

In cryptography, a key is a piece of information (a parameter) that determines the functional output of a cryptographic algorithm. For encryption algorithms, a key specifies the transformation of plaintext into ciphertext, and vice versa for decryption algorithms. Keys also specify transformations in other cryptographic algorithms, such as digital signature schemes and message authentication codes.

ECB

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

The simplest of the encryption modes is the electronic codebook (ECB) mode (named after conventional physical codebooks). The message is divided into blocks, and each block is encrypted separately.

The disadvantage of this method is a lack of diffusion. Because ECB encrypts identical plaintext blocks into identical ciphertext blocks, it does not hide data patterns well. ECB is not recommended for use in cryptographic protocols.

ECB mode can also make protocols without integrity protection even more susceptible to replay attacks, since each block gets decrypted in exactly the same way.

Explanation

Skipjack

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.

Whitening

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

In cryptography, key whitening is a technique intended to increase the security of an iterated block cipher. It consists of steps that combine the data with portions of the key.

The most common form of key whitening is xor-encrypt-xor -- using a simple XOR before the first round and after the last round of encryption.

The first block cipher to use a form of key whitening is DES-X, which simply uses two extra 64-bit keys for whitening, beyond the normal 56-bit key of DES. This is intended to increase the complexity of a brute force attack, increasing the effective size of the key without major changes in the algorithm. DES-X ' s inventor, Ron Rivest, named the technique whitening.

Explanation

Alice ' s public key

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

In asymmetric (public key) cryptography, both communicating parties (i.e. both Alice and Bob) have two keys of their own — just to be clear, that ' s four keys total. Each party has their own public key, which they share with the world, and their own private key which they ... well, which they keep private, of course but, more than that, which they keep as a closely guarded secret. The magic of public key cryptography is that a message encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. Alice will encrypt her message with Bob ' s public key, and even though Eve knows she used Bob ' s public key, and even though Eve knows Bob ' s public key herself, she is unable to decrypt the message. Only Bob, using his secret key, can decrypt the message ... assuming he ' s kept it secret, of course.

Explanation

Each block of plaintext is XORed with the previous ciphertext block before being encrypted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_cipher_mode_of_operation#Cipher_block_chaining_(CBC)

In CBC mode, each block of plaintext is XORed with the previous ciphertext block before being encrypted. This way, each ciphertext block depends on all plaintext blocks processed up to that point. To make each message unique, an initialization vector must be used in the first block.

Explanation

TLS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security#History_and_development

TLS 1.0 was first defined in RFC 2246 in January 1999 as an upgrade of SSL Version 3.0, and written by Christopher Allen and Tim Dierks of Consensus Development. As stated in the RFC, " the differences between this protocol and SSL 3.0 are not dramatic, but they are significant enough to preclude interoperability between TLS 1.0 and SSL 3.0 " . Tim Dierks later wrote that these changes, and the renaming from " SSL " to " TLS " , were a face-saving gesture to Microsoft, " so it wouldn ' t look [like] the IETF was just rubberstamping Netscape ' s protocol " .

Correct answers: One-way, Fixed length output

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

A cryptographic hash function is a mathematical algorithm that maps data of arbitrary size (often called the " message " ) to a bit array of a fixed size (the " hash value " , " hash " , or " message digest " ). It is a one-way function, that is, a function which is practically infeasible to invert.