Foundations of Computer Security
Lecture 40: Substitution Ciphers
Dr. Bill Young
Department of Computer Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
Lecture 40: 1 Substitution Ciphers
Substitution Ciphers
A substitution cipher is one in which each symbol of the plaintext
is exchanged for another symbol.
If this is done uniformly this is called a monoalphabetic cipher or
simple substitution cipher.
If different substitutions are made depending on where in the
plaintext the symbol occurs, this is called a polyalphabetic
substitution.
Lecture 40: 2 Substitution Ciphers
Simple Substitution
A simple substitution cipher is an injection (1-1 mapping) of the
alphabet into itself or another alphabet. What is the key?
A simple substitution is breakable; we could try all k! mappings
from the plaintext to ciphertext alphabets. That’s usually not
necessary.
Redundancies in the plaintext (letter frequencies, digrams, etc.)
are reflected in the ciphertext.
Not all substitution ciphers are simple substitution ciphers.
Lecture 40: 3 Substitution Ciphers
Caesar Cipher
The Caesar Cipher is a monoalphabetic cipher in which each letter
is replaced in the encryption by another letter a fixed “distance”
away in the alphabet.
For example, A is replaced by C, B by D, ..., Y by A, Z by B, etc.
What is the key?
What is the size of the keyspace? Is the algorithm strong?
Lecture 40: 4 Substitution Ciphers
Vigenère Cipher
The Vigenère Cipher is an example of a polyalphabetic cipher,
sometimes called a running key cipher because the key is another
text.
Start with a key string: “monitors to go to the bathroom” and a
plaintext to encrypt: “four score and seven years ago.” Align the
two texts, possibly removing spaces:
plaintext: fours corea ndsev enyea rsago
key: monit orsto gotot hebat hroom
ciphertext: rcizl qfkxo trlso lrzet yjoua
Then use the letter pairs to look up an encryption in a table
(called a Vigenère Tableau or tabula recta).
What is the corresponding decryption algorithm?
Lecture 40: 5 Substitution Ciphers
Vigenère Tableau
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
B B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
C C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B
D D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C
E E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D
F F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E
G G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F
H H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G
I I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H
J J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I
K K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J
L L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K
M M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L
N N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M
O O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
P P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Q Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
R R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
S S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R
T T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S
U U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
V V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U
W W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
X X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
Y Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X
Z Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
Lecture 40: 6 Substitution Ciphers
Cryptanalysis on Vigenère Cipher
The Vigenère Cipher selects one of twenty-six different Caesar
Ciphers, depending upon the corresponding letter in the key.
Running key ciphers are susceptible to statistical analysis. Both
key and plaintext are English language strings and so have the
entropy characteristics of English. In particular, the letters A, E, O,
T, N, I make up approximately 50% of English text. Thus, at
approximately 25% of indices, these can be expected to coincide.
This is an example of a regularity in the ciphertext that would not
be expected merely from chance.
Lecture 40: 7 Substitution Ciphers
AES Substitution Step
Substitution need not only apply to symbols in a text.
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) contains a substitution
step; each byte in a 16-byte array is replaced with a corresponding
entry from a fixed 8-bit lookup table.
Lecture 40: 8 Substitution Ciphers
Lessons
Substitution is one of the building blocks of encryption.
Simple substitution means replacing symbols uniformly by
others. The Caesar Cipher and our pirate example are
instances.
Polyalphabetic substitution means that the substitution varies
according to the position in the text. The Vigenère Cipher is
an example.
Next lecture: Using Information
Lecture 40: 9 Substitution Ciphers
