Driver-Level vs. File-Level Encryption

There are two ways to encrypt a hard drive: at the file level and at the driver level. Encryption at the file level means that every file is encrypted separately. To use a file thats been encrypted, you must first decrypt the file, then use it, and then re- e n-crypt it.

Driver-level encryption maintains a logical drive on the users machine that has all data on it encrypted. If done well, this can provide security that, beyond choosing good passwords, requires little worry on the part of the user. The driver must be consider ably more complex than a simple file-encryption program, however, because it must deal with the issues of being an installed d e-vice driver, allocation of new sectors to files, recycling of old sectors from files, random-access read and update requests for any data on the logical disk, and so on.

Typically, the driver prompts the user for a password before starting up. This is used to generate the master decryption key, which may then be used to decrypt actual decryption keys used on different data.

Providing Random Access to an Encrypted Drive

Most systems expect to be able to access individual disk sectors randomly. This adds some complication for using many stream ciphers and block ciphers in any chaining mode. Several solutions are possible.

Use the sector address to generate a unique IV for each sector being encrypted or decrypted. The drawback is that each se c-tor will always be encrypted with the same IV. Make sure this is not a security problem.

For the master key, generate a pseudo-random block as large as one sector. You can do this by running an algorithm in OFB mode, for example.) To encrypt any sec- tor, first XOR in this pseudo-random block, then encrypt normally with a block cipher in ECB mode. This is called ECB+OFB (see Section 15.4).

Since CBC and CFB are error-recovering modes, you can use all but the first block or two in the sector to generate the IV for that sector. For example, the IV for sector 3001 may be the hash of the all but the first 128 bits of the sectors data. After genera ting the IV, encrypt normally in CBC mode. To decrypt the sector, you use the second 64-bit block of the sector as an IV, and d e-crypt the remainder of the sector. Then, using the decrypted data, you regenerate the IV and decrypt the first 128 bits.

You can use a block cipher with a large enough block size that it can encrypt the whole sector at once. Crab See Section 14.6) is an example.

10.5 HARDWARE ENCRYPTION VERSUS SOFTWARE ENCRYPTION

Hardware

Until very recently, all encryption products were in the form of specialized hardware. These encryption/decryption boxes plugged into a communications line and encrypted all the data going across that line. Although software encryption is becoming more prevalent today, hardware is still the embodiment of choice for military and serious commercial applications. The NSA, for example, only authorizes encryption in hardware. There are several reasons why this is so.

The first is speed. As we will see in Part III, encryption algorithms consist of many complicated operations on plaintext bits. These are not the sorts of operations that are built into your run-of-the-mill computer. The two most common encryption alg o-rithms, DES and RSA, run inefficiently on general-purpose processors. While some cryptographers have tried to make their alg o-rithms more suitable for software implementation, specialized hardware will always win a speed race.

Additionally, encryption is often a computation-intensive task. Tying up the computers primary processor for this is ineff i-cient. Moving encryption to another chip, even if that chip is just another processor, makes the whole system faster. The second reason is security. An encryption algorithm running on a generalized computer has no physical protection. Mallory can go in with various debugging tools and surreptitiously modify the algorithm without anyone ever realizing it. Hardware encryption devices can be securely encapsulated to prevent this. Tamper- proof boxes can prevent someone from modifying a hardware encryption device. Special-purpose VLSI chips can be coated with a chemical such that any attempt to access their interior will result in the destruction of the chips logic. The U.S. governments Clipper and Capstone chips See Sections 24.16 and 24.171 are designed to be tamperproof. The chips can be designed so that it is impossible for Mallory to read the unencrypted key.

IBM developed a cryptographic system for encrypting data and communications on mainframe computers [515,1027]. It i n-cludes tamper-resistant modules to hold keys. This system is discussed in Section 24.1.

Electromagnetic radiation can sometimes reveal what is going on inside a piece of electronic equipment. Dedicated encry p-tion boxes can be shielded, so that they leak no compromising information. General-purpose computers can be shielded as well, but it is a far more complex problem. The U.S. military calls this TEMPEST; its a subject well beyond the scope of this book.

The final reason for the prevalence of hardware is the ease of installation. Most encryption applications dont involve ge n-eral-purpose computers. People may wish to encrypt their telephone conversations, facsimile transmissions, or data links. It is cheaper to put special-purpose encryption hardware in the telephones, facsimile machines, and modems than it is to put in a m i-croprocessor and software.

Even when the encrypted data comes from a computer, it is easier to install a dedicated hardware encryption device than it is to modify the computers system software. Encryption should be invisible; it should not hamper the user. The only way to do this in software is to write encryption deep into the operating system. This isnt easy. On the other hand, even a computer neophyte can plug an encryption box between his computer and his external modem.

The three basic kinds of encryption hardware on the market today are: self-contained encryption modules (that perform functions such as password verification and key management for banks), dedicated encryption boxes for communications links, and boards that plug into personal computers.

Some encryption boxes are designed for certain types of communications links, such as T-1 encryption boxes that are d e-signed not to encrypt synchronization bits. There are different boxes for synchronous and asynchronous communications lines. Newer boxes tend to accept higher bit rates and are more versatile.

Even so, many of these devices have some incompatibilities. Buyers should be aware of this and be well-versed in their pa r-

ticular needs, lest they find themselves the owners of encryption equipment unable to perform the task at hand. Pay attention to restrictions in hardware type, operating system, applications software, net- work, and so forth. PC-board encryptors usually e n-crypt everything written to the hard disk and can be configured to encrypt everything sent to the floppy disk and serial port as well. These boards are not shielded against electromagnetic radiation or physical interference, since there would be no benefit in pr o-tecting the boards if the computer remained unaffected. More companies are starting to put encryption hardware into their co m-munications equipment. Secure telephones, facsimile machines, and modems are all available. Internal key management for these devices is generally secure, although there are as many different schemes as there are equipment vendors. Some schemes are more suited for one situation than another, and buyers should know what kind of key management is incorporated into the encryption box and what they are expected to provide themselves.

Software

Any encryption algorithm can be implemented in software. The disadvantages are in speed, cost, and ease of modification (or manipulation). The advantages are in flexibility and portability, ease of use, and ease of upgrade. The algorithms written in C at the end of this book can be implemented, with little modification, on any computer. They can be inexpensively copied and i n-stalled on many machines. They can be incorporated into larger applications, such as communications programs or word proce s-sors.

Software encryption programs are popular and are available for all major operating systems. These are meant to protect i n-dividual files; the user generally has to manually encrypt and decrypt specific files. It is important that the key management scheme be secure: The keys should not be stored on disk anywhere (or even written to a place in memory from where the processor swaps out to disk). Keys and unencrypted files should be erased after encryption. Many programs are sloppy in this regard, and a user has to choose carefully.

Of course, Mallory can always replace the software encryption algorithm with something lousy. But for most users, that isnt a problem. If Mallory can break into our office and modify our encryption program, he can also put a hidden camera on the wall, a wiretap on the telephone, and a TEMPEST detector down the street. If Mallory is that much more powerful than the user, the user has lost the game before it starts.

10.6 COMPRESSION, ENCODING, AND ENCRYPTION

Using a data compression algorithm together with an encryption algorithm makes sense for two reasons:

Cryptanalysis relies on exploiting redundancies in the plaintext; com- pressing a file before encryption reduces these redu n-dancies.

Encryption is time-consuming; compressing a file before encryption speeds up the entire process.

The important thing to remember is to compress before encryption. If the encryption algorithm is any good, the ciphertext will not be compressible; it will look like random data. (This makes a reasonable test of an encryption algorithm; if the cipher-text can be compressed, then the algorithm probably isnt very good.)

If you are going to add any type of transmission encoding or error detection and recovery, remember to add that after encry p-tion. If there is noise in the communications path, decryptions error-extension properties will only make that noise worse. Figure 10.3 summarizes these steps.

10.7 DETECTING ENCRYPTION

How does Eve detect an encrypted file? Eve is in the spy business, so this is an important question. Imagine that shes eave s-dropping on a network where messages are flying in all directions at high speeds; she has to pick out the interesting ones. E n-crypted files are certainly interesting, but how does she know they are encrypted?

Generally, she relies on the fact that most popular encryption programs have well-defined headers. Electronic-mail messages encrypted with either PEM or POP (see Sections 24.10 and 24.12) are easy to identify for that reason.