Examples of weak AES implementation and attacks against them

Abstract

With more people getting into the internet world, the amount of traffic generated has increased tremendously. This surge in internet traffic caught the eyes of malicious hacker and contributed to the growth in cybercrime.

This increase in cybercrime rate resulted in people paying more attention towards confidentiality in their data transmitted. With confidentiality being enforced, people can assume that the data sent across will be for the intended user. Unauthorised personnel will find it hard to understand the information captured since it is not meant for them.

One way to ensure confidentiality is by using an encryption program. With the program, the user will be able to ensure the document will only be understood by the intended user. The basis of such program requires a strong cryptography algorithm and proper implementation. Internet user have been blindsided by program claiming the usage of a strong algorithm but did not pay attention to the way the algorithm is implemented.

This study will talk about some of weakened implementation of a strong encryption algorithm and conduct attacks against it. After completing the attacks, suggestions will be given on ways to spot or avoid the use of these weakly implemented program. By reading this study, users can gain the knowledge of identifying potential weakly implemented program and avoid the use of such program.