Modern Cryptography Lab

The Modern Cryptography Lab will be assigned in two parts:

  1. An in-class lab that will give you some practice with basic concepts from block ciphers, modes of operation, and random number generation. This portion of the lab will also count as part of Project 2 for graduate students.
  2. An assignment in which you will use OpenSSL to create your own Certification Authority, create certificates, and demonstrate their use with a webserver.

Part 1: In-class Lab

For the in-class lab, you will analyze the communications of Gru and Dr. Nefario to find weaknesses in their encryption system. The lab includes an extra credit assignment to implement an attack and recover plaintext messages. The lab instructions provide some basic background on hex viewing in a Linux environment and then set you loose to analyze the data.

The in-class lab may be completed individually or in groups of 2‐3. Although hard-copy lab instructions will be provided in class, you are to write-up your answers and submit them on Blackboard.

Part 2: Public Key Cryptography and PKI Lab

In this lab, you wil use openssl to create your own Certification Authority, create a server certificate, and demonstrate it's use with a web browser. The Lab Instructions describe the necessary steps and specify what you will need to turn-in.