Cryptography

Terms and concepts you should know

Paul Krzyzanowski

February 10, 2024

  • Cryptography
  • Cryptanalysis
  • Plaintext
  • Ciphertext
  • Cipher
  • Encryption
  • Decryption
  • Key
  • Secret algorithm
  • Kerckhoffs’s Principle
  • Properties of a good cryptosystem
  • Symmetric key cipher
  • Substitution cipher
  • Monoalphabetic substitution cipher
  • Caesar cipher
  • Frequency analysis
  • Polyalphabetic substitution cipher
  • Alberti cipher
  • Vigenère cipher
  • Repeating key
  • Keystream
  • Coincidences
  • exclusive-or operation
  • Stream cipher
  • Keystream generator
  • One-time pad
  • Perfect secrecy
  • Rotor machine
  • Shannon entropy
  • Transposition cipher
  • Scytale
  • Padding (pad)
  • Columnar transposition
  • Combined cipher
  • Block cipher
  • Stream cipher
  • Iterative cipher
  • Round (in an iterative cipher)
  • Subkey
  • Feistel Network (general idea)
  • SP-Network
  • S-box, P-box
  • Confusion
  • Diffusion
  • Key length
  • DES - Data Encryption Standard
  • 3DES (triple-DES)
  • AES (just the most basic concepts)
  • ChaCha20 (just the most basic concepts)
  • Modes
  • Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode encryption
  • Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode encryption
  • Counter (CTR) mode encryption
  • Chosen plaintext attack
  • Known plaintext attack
  • Ciphertext-only attack
  • Goal of differential cryptanalysis
  • Goal of linear cryptanalysis
Last modified February 10, 2024.
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