INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 03, MARCH 2016 ISSN 2277-8616

An Enhanced Vigenere Cipher For Data Security

Aized Amin Soofi, Irfan Riaz, Umair Rasheed

Abstract: In today’s world the amount of data that is exchanged has increased in the last few years so securing the information has become a crucial
task. Cryptography is an art of converting plain text message into unreadable message. Encryption algorithms play an important role in information
security systems. Encryption is considered as one of the most powerful tool for secure transmission of data over the communication network. Vigenere
technique is an example of polyalphabetic stream cipher; it has various limitations such as Kasiski and Friedman attack to find the length of encryption
key. In this paper an enhanced version of traditional vigenere cipher has been proposed that eliminates the chances of Kaisiski and Friedman attack.
Proposed technique also provides better security against cryptanalysis and pattern prediction.

Index Terms: Encryption; Stream cipher; Vigenere cipher; symmetric encryption

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1. INTRODUCTION For example person A send message ―how are you‖ to

With the rapid development of computer technology, the person B. In this case ―how are you‖ will be our plain text
number of data files transmitted over internet keeps message.
increasing. As a result, the secure transmission of secret  Cipher text
data over public channels has become a common interest In Cryptography, the transformation of original message
in both academic and research fields [1]. There are many into non readable message before the transmission is
aspects to security and applications, ranging from secure known as cipher text [5]. It is a message obtained by
commerce and payments to private communications and some kind of encryption operation on plain text.
protecting passwords. Cryptography is an essential aspect  Encryption
for secure communications [2]. Although the crucial goal of Encryption is a process of converting plain text into cipher
cryptography is to hide information from unauthorized text. Encryption process requires encryption algorithm
individuals, most algorithms can be broken and the and key to convert the plain text into cipher [6]. In
information can be exposed if the attacker has enough time, cryptography encryption performed at sender end.
desire, and resources. So a more hardheaded goal of  Decryption
cryptography is to make it too work intensive for attacker. Decryption is the reverse process of encryption. It
The basic terms used in cryptography are discussed below: converts the cipher text into plain text. In cryptography
decryption performed at receiver end.
 Plain text  Key
In cryptography, plain text is a simple readable text before The key is the numeric or alphanumeric text used for the
being encrypted into ciphertext [3]. The data that can be encryption of plain text and decryption of cipher text [5].
read and understood without any special measure is called
plaintext [4]. 1.1 Objectives of Cryptography
Various goals of cryptography are presented in [7, 8]. These
goals include:
 Authentication
Authentication is verification of the identity of the sender
at receiver end. A user or system can prove their identity
to another who does not have personal knowledge of
their identity.
 Confidentiality
Confidentiality is most commonly addressed goal. It
refers that transmitted message is only received by
authorized party.
 Integrity
Integrity is making it sure that the received message is
in same form as it was sent. Only authorized users have
privileges to modify the data.
____________________  Access control
Access control is making it sure that only authorized
 Aized Amin Soofi is currently pursuing doctorate parties have privileges to access the given information.
degree in computer science from Allama Iqbal Open  Non Repudiation
University, Islamabad, Pakistan. E-mail: Non repudiation is a method of guaranteeing message
aizedamin@yahoo.com transmission between parties via digital signature or
 Irfan Riaz is currently serving as lecturer in Electrical encryption. It helps to protect against the denial of
Engineering department, Government College authentication attempt.
University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Email:
shohabsons@gmail.com

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1.2 Classification of Cryptography and hence key and plaintext [15]. The basic theme of
Cryptography is classified into two basic types include Vigenere cipher is to conceal plaintext letter frequencies by
symmetric cryptography and asymmetric cryptography. The defeating simple frequency analysis. But the crucial
classification of cryptography is shown in figure 1. weakness of the Vigenere cipher is the repeating nature of
its key. If a cryptanalyst correctly guesses the key's length,
then the cipher text can be easily broken. Various methods
Cryptography
like Kasiski and Friedman tests can help to determine the
key length. With the advent of computer the Vigenere
cipher has become even easier to break. Most cipher texts
can be cracked within a few seconds even with long keys.
This cipher is now considered trivial to break and provides
no security by today’s standards. However, it is used in
Symmetric Key Asymmetric Key many stronger encryption algorithms like the Advance
Encryption Standard (AES) [16]. Vigenere algorithm can be
viewed algebraically if the letters A–Z are taken to be the
numbers 0–25, Vigenere encryption formula is:

Block Stream Ci = (Pi+ Ki) mod m

Where,
Figure1: Cryptography classification C = Cipher text character
P = Plain text character
a) Symmetric Key Cryptography K = Key phrase character
Symmetric key is also known as secret key or private key m = Length of alphabets (i.e, 26 in Vigenere cipher)
cryptography. Symmetric key algorithms are most
commonly used algorithms. It uses [9] same key for both 3. LITERATURE REVIEW
encryption of plain text and decryption of cipher text. It In [17] modified version of vigenere algorithm was proposed
categorized into stream cipher and block cipher. in which diffusion is provided by adding a random bit to
each byte before the message is encrypted using Vigenere.
(i) Stream Cipher This technique fails kasiski attack to find the length of key
Stream cipher operates on single bit in which cryptographic because the padding of message with random bits. The
key and algorithm are applied to each binary digit in data main drawback of this technique is that the size of the
stream [10]. Stream ciphers are an important class of encrypted message will be increased by around 56%. In
symmetric ciphers used widely in encryption for hardware- [18] a new way of implementing Vigenere algorithm was
based cryptographic systems. They are simple, efficient introduced by automatically changing the cipher key after
without compromising performance [11]. each encryption step. In this method successive keys were
(ii) Block Cipher used that were dependent on the initial key value during the
In block cipher cryptographic key and algorithm are applied encryption process. In [14] modification of Vigenere cipher
on block of data instead of single bit in stream [12]. It by random numbers, punctuations & mathematical symbols
encrypts one block of data at a time by using the same key was presented. In proposed method numbers, punctuations
on each block [13]. and mathematical symbols were used for key in place of
characters to make it more difficult for brute force attack. It
b) Asymmetric Key Cryptography was concluded that if random numbers are used for key
Asymmetric key is also known a public key cryptography. and to spread the spectrum then only skilled persons can
This type of cryptography used asymmetric algorithms that identify the message. A novel approach was presented [19]
encrypt and decrypt with different keys in which public key by combing the LFSR (Linear feedback shift register) key
used for encryption and private key used for decryption [2]. with Vigenere cipher key. In Proposed technique the
Asymmetric algorithms are very slow in working and it is concepts and methodologies of classical Vigenere cipher
unfeasible to use them to encrypt huge data. This paper is plus modern LFSR stream cipher was used. Proposed
organized as following; in section2 introduction of Vigenere technique generates the period less and pseudorandom
cipher is presented, review of literature is presented in letter key stream for encryption/ decryption. Period less and
section 3, section 4 contains description of proposed randomness of key lowers the flatness of letter frequency
approach and section 5 consist of conclusion and future that makes it difficult to identify the length of key. In [20] the
directions. Caesar Cipher and Vigenere Cipher have been modified
and expanded by including alphabets, numbers and
2. VIGENERE CIPHER symbols and at the same time introduced a complete
The Vigenere cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic confusion and diffusion into the modified cipher developed.
text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on It was concluded that cipher text generated by proposed
the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of polyalphabetic hybrid technique is very difficult to break using a frequency
substitution in which each alphabet can replace with several method, brute force attack etc. A new algorithm [21] by
cipher alphabets [14]. Vigenere cipher was considered combining Vigenere substitution cipher with Stream cipher
secure for centuries but later its weakness was identified. was proposed in which repeated portions of plaintext
Friedrich Kasiski discovered a method to identify the period always encrypted with the different portion of the keyword
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or binary key. The letters in odd location were encrypted  The process explained in above steps will remain
with stream cipher and the letters in even locations with continue till eighth table. After that next plain character i.e
Vigenere cipher. It was concluded that proposed algorithm character 9 of plain text and key will undergo through
hides the relation between cipher text and plain text that same process by using value from table 1 and so on.
makes cryptanalysis much difficult.
Mathematically we can express encryption process by
4. PROPOSED APPROACH proposed algorithm as:
In traditional Vigenere cipher each alphabet has one fixed
numeric value but in our proposed technique we have eight C1 = P1 + K1 (mod 27) [T1], C2 = P2 + K2 (mod 27)
tables shown in figure 2. In each table every alphabet [T2], ------ , C8 = P8 + K8 (mod 27) [T8], C9 = P9 + K9
represent with different numeric value. In traditional (mod 27) [T1], ------, C16 = P16 + K16 (mod 27) [T8],
Vigenere technique the plaintext is considered as a C17 = P17 + K17 (mod 27) [T1],------
sequence of alphabets without any space between them. It
may create a problem for receiver to read the message by Where, T in above mathematical relation represents table
inserting spaces between words and receiver needs to no.
guess the exact place to insert space in decrypted plaintext.
In proposed technique we eliminate this problem by 4.2 Decryption
introducing different numeric value for space in each table. Decryption process of proposed approach works the same
The encryption and decryption process by proposed way as encryption does but in reverse direction. Formula for
approach is given below: decryption by proposed method is:
Pi = Ci - Ki (mod m)
4.1 Encryption
Formula for encryption by proposed method is: The steps for decryption process are:
 Numeric value of first cipher text character and key
Ci = Pi + Ki (mod m) character will be subtracted according to table 1.
 Modulo 27 of the resultant value from above step will be
In proposed approach we have length of alphabet 27, so calculated. The character correspond to the calculated
value m will be 27. modulo value will be first plain text character.
 The process explained in above steps will remain
The steps for encryption process are: continue till eighth table. After that next cipher character
 If the length of key is smaller than the length of plain text i.e character 9 of cipher text and key will undergo through
then key will be repetitive until it becomes equal to the same process by using value from table 1 and so on.
length of plain text.
 Numeric value of first plain text character and key Mathematically we can express decryption process by
character will be added according to table 1. proposed algorithm as:
 Modulo 27 of the resultant value from above step will be
calculated. The character correspond to the calculated P1 = C1 - K1 (mod 27) [T1], P2 = C2 - K2 (mod 27)
modulo value will be first cipher text character. [T2], ------- , P8 = C8 - K8 (mod 27) [T8], P9 = C9 - K9
 Numeric value of second plain text character and key (mod 27) [T1], ------, P16 = C16 - K16 (mod 27) [T8], P17
character will be added according to table 2. = C17 - K17 (mod 27) [T1],------
 Modulo 27 of the resultant value from above step will be
calculated. The character correspond to the calculated
modulo value will be second cipher character.

T.No. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

1 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
2 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
3 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
4 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
5 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
6 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
7 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
8 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

Figure 2: Proposed technique tables

The first column of figure 2 represent the table numbers converted into some cipher character by using the value of
and first row represent the numeric value of alphabets in space from tables.
each table. Space is represented by ―&‖ in given table. In
our proposed method space in the plain text will also

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