CryptoAnalysis (Types of attacks on Cryptography)

This video is about different types of attacks on cryptography the attacker or crypto-analyst can do. The video starts with the basics of cryptography and how the encryption and decryption is performed. Cryptoanalysis is a synonym for codebreaking and refers to the practice of analyzing ciphertext with the intent of breaking it or "cracking the code". Cryptoanalysis is the study of ways that can be used to obtain plaintext information from encrypted information without using the intended method such as using a key to decrypt the information. Cryptoanalysis attempts to attack weaknesses in the methods used to encrypt code or the methods used to generate keys. There are several cryptoanalysis methods including:

• Linear cryptoanalysis is a plaintext attack which uses linear approximation to determine the behavior of the block cipher. If enough plaintest and matching ciphertest are obtained, information about the key can eventually be discovered. It has been used successfully against FEAL and DES.
• Differential cryptoanalysis is basically a plaintext attack using chosen plaintest and depends on an analysis of the differences between two related plaintexts as they are encrypted using the same key. By carefully analyzing the data the probability of possible keys being used to encrypt the data can be calculated and the correct key can be eventually identified.

The video talks about the following attacks:

• Cipher text only attack
Known plain text attack
• Chosen plain text attack
• Adaptive chosen plain text attack
• Chosen cipher text attack
• Chosen key attack
• Bribery and other social engineering attack
As the name suggests, in Cipher text only attack, the cryptanalyst has access to only the cipher text, and he has to find the flaw in cryptographic algorithm or the way it is used to find the key. In similar ways the video explains about the different attacks.

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Amit Vartak, 27 is working in wired and wireless security fields since last 3-4 years. His current area of interest includes IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) suite of protocols, vulnerabilities in these protocols and countermeasure for those vulnerabilities. Working on cutting edge tools and technology always keeps him busy. He has contributed from concept level to final prototyping for the presentations in Defcon 2007 (The Emperor Has No Cloak - WEP Cloaking Exposed) and Toorcon 2007 (Caffe latte attack). He holds 2 patents with USPTO (current status: Patent Pending) and a few papers in IEEE journals on wireless protocol vulnerabilities. Prior to this, he was working on MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) and has published a few papers in SPIE and ICMAT. (Yeah… kindda orthogonal fields… but technology really doesn’t limit the talent :) He did his masters in Electrical Engineering from one of the premier institutes in India, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) and his under graduation, from University of Mumbai in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. He is currently working with AirTight Networks Inc. as a team lead in technology group since last 3 years.You can get in touch with him at amitcv[at]gmail[dot]com