Key generation is the process of generating keys in cryptography. A key is used to encrypt and decrypt whatever data is being encrypted/decrypted.
A device or program used to generate keys is called a key generator or keygen.
Generation in cryptography[edit]
Diffie-Hellman, also known as D-H is named after Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, who proposed this public key exchange scheme in 1976. Diffie-Hellman key exchange is a method for sharing secret between two entities who have no prior knowledge of each other, which can be used for encrypted communication in order to exchange sensitive information in a public channel.
Modern cryptographic systems include symmetric-key algorithms (such as DES and AES) and public-key algorithms (such as RSA). Symmetric-key algorithms use a single shared key; keeping data secret requires keeping this key secret. Public-key algorithms use a public key and a private key. The public key is made available to anyone (often by means of a digital certificate). A sender encrypts data with the receiver's public key; only the holder of the private key can decrypt this data.
Since public-key algorithms tend to be much slower than symmetric-key algorithms, modern systems such as TLS and SSH use a combination of the two: one party receives the other's public key, and encrypts a small piece of data (either a symmetric key or some data used to generate it). The remainder of the conversation uses a (typically faster) symmetric-key algorithm for encryption.
Computer cryptography uses integers for keys. In some cases keys are randomly generated using a random number generator (RNG) or pseudorandom number generator (PRNG). A PRNG is a computeralgorithm that produces data that appears random under analysis. PRNGs that use system entropy to seed data generally produce better results, since this makes the initial conditions of the PRNG much more difficult for an attacker to guess. Another way to generate randomness is to utilize information outside the system. veracrypt (a disk encryption software) utilizes user mouse movements to generate unique seeds, in which users are encouraged to move their mouse sporadically. Generate a random key in php. In other situations, the key is derived deterministically using a passphrase and a key derivation function.
Many modern protocols are designed to have forward secrecy, which requires generating a fresh new shared key for each session.
Classic cryptosystems invariably generate two identical keys at one end of the communication link and somehow transport one of the keys to the other end of the link.However, it simplifies key management to use Diffie–Hellman key exchange instead.
The simplest method to read encrypted data without actually decrypting it is a brute-force attack—simply attempting every number, up to the maximum length of the key. Therefore, it is important to use a sufficiently long key length; longer keys take exponentially longer to attack, rendering a brute-force attack impractical. Currently, key lengths of 128 bits (for symmetric key algorithms) and 2048 bits (for public-key algorithms) are common.
Generation in physical layer[edit]
Wireless channels[edit]
A wireless channel is characterized by its two end users. By transmitting pilot signals, these two users can estimate the channel between them and use the channel information to generate a key which is secret only to them.[1] The common secret key for a group of users can be generated based on the channel of each pair of users.[2]
Optical fiber[edit]
A key can also be generated by exploiting the phase fluctuation in a fiber link.[clarification needed]
See also[edit]
- Distributed key generation: For some protocols, no party should be in the sole possession of the secret key. Rather, during distributed key generation, every party obtains a share of the key. A threshold of the participating parties need to cooperate to achieve a cryptographic task, such as decrypting a message.
References[edit]
- ^Chan Dai Truyen Thai; Jemin Lee; Tony Q. S. Quek (Feb 2016). 'Physical-Layer Secret Key Generation with Colluding Untrusted Relays'. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. 15 (2): 1517–1530. doi:10.1109/TWC.2015.2491935.
- ^Chan Dai Truyen Thai; Jemin Lee; Tony Q. S. Quek (Dec 2015). 'Secret Group Key Generation in Physical Layer for Mesh Topology'. 2015 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). San Diego. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/GLOCOM.2015.7417477.
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-->Diffie Hellman Key
Generating Diffie-Hellman Keys
To generate a Diffie-Hellman key, perform the following steps:
- Call the CryptAcquireContext function to get a handle to the Microsoft Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider.
- Generate the new key. There are two ways to accomplish this—by having CryptoAPI generate all new values for G, P, and X or by using existing values for G and P, and generating a new value for X.To generate the key by generating all new values
- Call the CryptGenKey function, passing either CALG_DH_SF (store and forward) or CALG_DH_EPHEM (ephemeral) in the Algid parameter. The key will be generated using new, random values for G and P, a newly calculated value for X, and its handle will be returned in the phKey parameter.
- The new key is now ready for use. The values of G and P must be sent to the recipient along with the key (or sent by some other method) when doing a key exchange.
To generate the key by using predefined values for G and P- Call CryptGenKey passing either CALG_DH_SF (store and forward) or CALG_DH_EPHEM (ephemeral) in the Algid parameter and CRYPT_PREGEN for the dwFlags parameter. A key handle will be generated and returned in the phKey parameter.
- Initialize a CRYPT_DATA_BLOB structure with the pbData member set to the P value. The BLOB contains no header information and the pbData member is in little-endian format.
- The value of P is set by calling the CryptSetKeyParam function, passing the key handle retrieved in step a in the hKey parameter, the KP_P flag in the dwParam parameter, and a pointer to the structure that contains the value of P in the pbData parameter.
- Initialize a CRYPT_DATA_BLOB structure with the pbData member set to the G value. The BLOB contains no header information and the pbData member is in little-endian format.
- The value of G is set by calling the CryptSetKeyParam function, passing the key handle retrieved in step a in the hKey parameter, the KP_G flag in the dwParam parameter, and a pointer to the structure that contains the value of G in the pbData parameter.
- The value of X is generated by calling the CryptSetKeyParam function, passing the key handle retrieved in step a in the hKey parameter, the KP_X flag in the dwParam parameter, and NULL in the pbData parameter.
- If all the function calls succeeded, the Diffie-Hellman public key is ready for use.
- When the key is no longer needed, destroy it by passing the key handle to the CryptDestroyKey function.
If CALG_DH_SF was specified in the previous procedures, the key values are persisted to storage with each call to CryptSetKeyParam. The G and P values can then be retrieved by using the CryptGetKeyParam function. Some CSPs may have hard-coded G and P values. In this case a NTE_FIXEDPARAMETER error will be returned if CryptSetKeyParam is called with KP_G or KP_P specified in the dwParam parameter. If CryptDestroyKey is called, the handle to the key is destroyed, but the key values are retained in the CSP. However, if CALG_DH_EPHEM was specified, the handle to the key is destroyed, and all values are cleared from the CSP.
Exchanging Diffie-Hellman Keys
The purpose of the Diffie-Hellman algorithm is to make it possible for two or more parties to create and share an identical, secret session key by sharing information over a network that is not secure. Sonic generations steam key free. The information that gets shared over the network is in the form of a couple of constant values and a Diffie-Hellman public key. The process used by two key-exchange parties is as follows:
- Both parties agree to the Diffie-Hellman parameters which are a prime number (P) and a generator number (G).
- Party 1 sends its Diffie-Hellman public key to party 2.
- Party 2 computes the secret session key by using the information contained in its private key and party 1's public key.
- Party 2 sends its Diffie-Hellman public key to party 1.
- Party 1 computes the secret session key by using the information contained in its private key and party 2's public key.
- Both parties now have the same session key, which can be used for encrypting and decrypting data. The steps necessary for this are shown in the following procedure.
To prepare a Diffie-Hellman public key for transmission
- Call the CryptAcquireContext function to get a handle to the Microsoft Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider.
- Create a Diffie-Hellman key by calling the CryptGenKey function to create a new key, or by calling the CryptGetUserKey function to retrieve an existing key.
- Get the size needed to hold the Diffie-Hellman key BLOB by calling the CryptExportKey, passing NULL for the pbData parameter. The required size will be returned in pdwDataLen.
- Allocate memory for the key BLOB.
- Create a Diffie-Hellman public key BLOB by calling the CryptExportKey function, passing PUBLICKEYBLOB in the dwBlobType parameter and the handle to the Diffie-Hellman key in the hKey parameter. This function call causes the calculation of the public key value, (G^X) mod P.
- If all the preceding function calls were successful, the Diffie-Hellman public key BLOB is now ready to be encoded and transmitted.
To import a Diffie-Hellman public key and calculate the secret session key
- Call the CryptAcquireContext function to get a handle to the Microsoft Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider.
- Create a Diffie-Hellman key by calling the CryptGenKey function to create a new key, or by calling the CryptGetUserKey function to retrieve an existing key.
- To import the Diffie-Hellman public key into the CSP, call the CryptImportKey function, passing a pointer to the public key BLOB in the pbData parameter, the length of the BLOB in the dwDataLen parameter, and the handle to the Diffie-Hellman key in the hPubKey parameter. This causes the calculation, (Y^X) mod P, to be performed, thus creating the shared, secret key and completing the key exchange. This function call returns a handle to the new, secret, session key in the hKey parameter.
- At this point, the imported Diffie-Hellman is of type CALG_AGREEDKEY_ANY. Before the key can be used, it must be converted into a session key type. This is accomplished by calling the CryptSetKeyParam function with dwParam set to KP_ALGID and with pbData set to a pointer to a ALG_ID value that represents a session key, such as CALG_RC4. The key must be converted before using the shared key in the CryptEncrypt or CryptDecrypt function. Calls made to either of these functions prior to converting the key type will fail.
- The secret session key is now ready to be used for encryption or decryption.
- When the key is no longer needed, destroy the key handle by calling the CryptDestroyKey function.
Exporting a Diffie-Hellman Private Key
To export a Diffie-Hellman private key, perform the following steps:
- Call the CryptAcquireContext function to get a handle to the Microsoft Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider.
- Create a Diffie-Hellman key by calling the CryptGenKey function to create a new key, or by calling the CryptGetUserKey function to retrieve an existing key.
- Create a Diffie-Hellman private key BLOB by calling the CryptExportKey function, passing PRIVATEKEYBLOB in the dwBlobType parameter and the handle to the Diffie-Hellman key in the hKey parameter.
- When the key handle is no longer needed, call the CryptDestroyKey function to destroy the key handle.
Session Key Generation And Diffie Hellman Youtube
Example Code
Diffie Hellman Key Agreement
The following example shows how to create, export, import, and use a Diffie-Hellman key to perform a key exchange.