1. Computer Network Security ECE web page  Courses  Course web pages
Cryptography
and
Computer Network Security
Course web page:
ECE web page  Courses  Course web pages
 ECE 646

2. Research and teaching interests:
Kris Gaj
Research and teaching interests:
cryptography
network security
computer arithmetic
FPGA & ASIC design and testing
Contact:
The Engineering Building, room 3225
Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday :00-7:00 PM

3. Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
ECE 646
Part of:
MS in CpE
Network and System Security (required)
Computer Networks (elective)
MS in EE
Communications & Networks (elective)
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
MS in Information Security & Assurance
MS in E-Commerce
Certificate in Information Systems Security
Ph.D. in Information Technology

4. NETWORK AND SYSTEM SECURITY
Concentration advisors: Kris Gaj, Jens-Peter Kaps
ECE 542 Computer Network Architectures and Protocols – S.-C. Chang, et al.
ECE 646 Cryptography and Computer Network Security – K. Gaj, J-P. Kaps – lab, project
ECE 746 Advanced Applied Cryptography – K. Gaj – lab, project: C/C++, VHDL, or analytical
ISA 656 Network Security – A. Stavrou
ECE 699 Cryptographic Engineering – J.-P. Kaps, K. Gaj

5. ECE 646 Lecture Laboratory Project Homework 15 % Quizzes 5 %
Midterm exams
10 %
Final Exam
20 %
15 %
35 %
Specification %
Results %
Oral presentation - 10%
Written report %
Review %

6. deapth

7. Lecture viewgraphs / whiteboard viewgraphs available on the web
(please, extend with your notes)
books
1 required (Stallings)
1 optional (all chapters available on the book web page)
articles (CryptoBytes, RSA Data Security Conf., CHES,
CRYPTO, etc.)
web sites - Crypto Resources
standards, FAQs, surveys

8. Distance Learning Mode (1)
pilot project introduced for the first time this year
lectures delivered simultaneously in class and on-line
students joining on-line can actively participate in
the class (raise a hand, ask questions, etc.)
minimum preparation required (setting options of a browser, login to Blackboard, etc.)
on-line sessions can be recorded and replayed
outside of the class time (in the asynchronous mode)

9. Distance Learning Mode Rules
this semester done at a specific request of students interested in attending classes remotely
requests for on-line delivery should be sent to the
instructor at least 24 hours before the beginning of a given class
allow participation in the lectures by students who are on
travel, sick, or cannot attend the class for any other serious
reason
no guarantee of the equivalent quality of educational experience is provided

10. Important Announcement
There will be no class
next Tuesday, September 8
(the instructor attending a conference in Europe).
Instead, we will hold a make-up lecture
in class: Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 12
on-line: per your request

11. Homework (1) reading assignments
theoretical problems (may require basics of
number theory or probability theory)
problems from the main textbook
short programs
literature surveys

12. Homework (2) optional assignments
short programs vs. analytical problems
or HDL codes
More time consuming
Most time spent
on debugging
Relatively straightforward
Typically less
time consuming
More thinking
Little writing

13. Midterm exam 2 hours 30 minutes multiple choice test + short problems
open-books, open-notes
practice exams available on the web
midterm exam review session - optional
Tentative date:
Tuesday, October 27th

14. Quizzes
10-15 minutes
one-two questions related to the most recent lectures
closed-books, closed-notes
announced

15. Final exam 2 hours 45 minutes Multiple choice + several problems
Tuesday, December 15
7:30 – 10:15 PM

16. Laboratory 4 labs based on three major software packages CrypTool
GnuPG for Linux or GnuPG for Windows
MAGMA Computational Algebra System
done at home or in the ECE labs:
software downloaded from the web
based on detailed instructions
grading based on written reports (answers to
questions included in the instructions)

17. Tentative list of laboratory topics
Secure Pretty Good Privacy - GnuPG
Historical ciphers - CrypTool
3. Properties of classical cryptosystems - CrypTool
4. Properties of public key cryptosystems - Magma

18. Project (1) original useful depth, originality
based on additional literature
you can start at the point where former students ended
based on something you know and are interested in
software or hardware
may involve experiments
teams of 1-3 students

19. Project (2) about three weeks to choose a topic and write
the corresponding specification
regular meetings with the instructor
a few oral progress reports based on Power Point slides
draft final presentation due at the last progress report
written report/article, IEEE style
due Tuesday December 1
short conference-style oral presentations
Tuesday, December 8
contest for the best presentation
publication of reports and viewgraphs on the web

20. Project (3) Project reports/articles requirements - IEEE style
- 15 pages maximum
- appendices possible but do not influence
the evaluation
Review of project reports
reviews done by your fellow students
reviews due, Saturday, December 5, midnight
final version of the report due Monday,
December 7, midnight

21. Project (4) Project presentations (Tuesday, December 8, 7:30-10:00PM)
- conference style
- open to general public (in particular,
students from previous years), ECE seminar credit
- 10 minutes for the presentation + 5 minutes for Q&A
- time strictly enforced

22. This Year’s Project Theme
Benchmarking (comparing)
cryptographic algorithms
cryptographic libraries and open-source
implementations (software and hardware)
platforms
tools

23. Motivation (1)
multitude of implementations of cryptographic algorithms available in public domain
(~50 open-source software libraries,
>20 open-source hardware cryptographic cores)
How do they compare against each other?
Which one to use when implementing
a particular cryptographic system?

24. Motivation (2) multitude of platforms
general-purpose microprocessors (e.g., Pentium 4, Core i7, etc.)
microcontrollers (TI MSP 430, MicroChip PIC18)
Digital Signal Processors
FPGAs (from Xilinx, Altera, Actel, etc.)
ASICs (based on various libraries of standard cells)
processors embedded in FPGAs (PicoBlaze, MicroBlaze,
Nios II)

25. Motivation (3) multitude of languages and tools
C, C++, Java, Python, C#, assembly language, etc.
VHDL, Verilog, AHDL, etc.
multiple compilers for software codes
multiple synthesis tools for hardware codes

26. Motivation (4) multitude of cryptographic algorithms
secret-key block ciphers
secret-key stream ciphers
public-key ciphers
hash functions
message authentication codes
digital signature schemes
key agreement schemes

27. Common benchmarking pitfalls
taking credit for improvements in technology e.g. comparing Bob's AES in Virtex 5 vs. Alice's AES in Virtex 2 Pro
choosing a convenient performance measure
comparing designs with different functionality
e.g., encryption+decryption vs. encryption only
comparing the speed of different operations
e.g., comparing the combined speed of encrypting 8 messages in parallel vs. the speed of encrypting a single long message
designs optimized using different optimization criteria
e.g., speed only or the ratio of speed to cost
using different input/output interfaces

28. Previous Work
Comparative Analysis of Software Multi-precision Arithmetic Libraries for Public Key Cryptography
Ashraf AbuSharekh
MS Thesis, April 2004

29. Previous work
eBACS: ECRYPT Benchmarking of Cryptographic Systems
Project to compare software implementations of cryptographic algorithms
Developed by: Daniel J. Bernstein and Tanja Lange (2006-present)
Activity of: VAMPIRE: Virtual Application and Implementation REsearch Lab
Integrates:
eBATS: ECRYPT Benchmarking of Asymmetric Systems
eBASC: ECRYPT Benchmarking of Stream Ciphers
eBASH: ECRYPT Benchmarking of All Submitted Hashes
Extends earlier software evaluation projects developed by different groups
within NESSIE and eSTREAM.

30. SUPERCOP
System for Unified Performance Evaluation Related to Cryptographic Operations and Primitives
toolkit developed by the VAMPIRE lab for measuring the performance of cryptographic software
measures the performance of
hash functions
secret-key stream ciphers
public-key encryption systems
public-key signature systems
public-key secret-sharing systems
output is an extensive set of measurements in a form suitable for easy computer processing

31. SUPERCOP
measurements on multiple machines (currently over 70) and machine-ABI (application binary interface) combinations (currently over 100)
each implementation is recompiled multiple times (currently over 1200 times) with various compiler options to identify best working options for implementation, machine
time measured in clock cycles/byte for multiple input/output sizes
median, lower quartile (25th percentile), and upper quartile (75th percentile) reported
standardized function arguments (may be implemented using wrappers)

32. ATHENa – Automated Tool for Hardware EvaluatioN
GMU Tool
ATHENa – Automated Tool for Hardware EvaluatioN
Set of scripts written in Perl aimed at an AUTOMATED generation of
OPTIMIZED results for
MULTIPLE hardware platforms
Currently under development at
George Mason University.
First version to be released this Fall.

33. ATHENa Major Features
running all steps of synthesis, implementation, and timing analysis in the batch mode
support for devices and tools of multiple FPGA vendors: Xilinx, Altera, Actel
generation of results for multiple families of FPGAs of a given vendor
automated choice of a device within a given family of FPGAa assuming that the resource utilization does not exceed a certain limit, e.g., 80% of CLB slices, or 70% of BRAM
choice of multiple optimization criteria (speed, area, ratio speed/area)
heuristic optimization algorithms aimed at maximizing the performance measures (e.g., speed) based on checking multiple options, and multiple target clock frequencies

34. ATHENa Additional Features
automated verification of the design through simulation, run in the batch mode based on the provided testbench (optional):
Functional
Post-synthesis
Timing
support for Windows and Linux
Graphical User Interface
Requirements:
interpreter of Perl
FPGA tools: free, educational, or commercial versions

35. ATHENa Input/Output Input: synthesizable source files
configuration files (text files)
testbench (optional)
constraint files (optional)
Output:
result summary (human readable)
database entries (suitable for computer postprocessing)

36. Basic Dataflow of ATHENa
User
FPGA Synthesis and Implementation 6 5
Ranking
of designs 2 3
Database
query
HDL + scripts +
configuration files
Result Summary
+ Database Entries
ATHENa
Server 1
HDL + FPGA Tools
Download scripts and configuration files8 4
Designer
Database Entries

37. Draft Specification due in two weeks
Specification should include the choice of:
software vs. hardware
software cryptographic libraries or
hardware cryptographic cores
languages
platforms
tools
list of cryptographic algorithms included in comparison (common for selected libraries)

38. Follow-up courses Cryptography and Computer Network Security ECE 646
Digital System Design
with VHDL
ECE 545
Advanced Applied
Cryptography
ECE 746
Computer Arithmetic
ECE 645

39. Advanced Applied Cryptography
Cryptography and Computer
Network Security
Advanced Applied
Cryptography
Modular integer arithmetic
Operations in the Galois Fields GF(2n)
AES
Stream ciphers
Elliptic curve cryptosystems
Random number generators
Smart cards
Attacks against implementations
(timing, power, fault analysis)
Efficient and secure
implementations of cryptography
Security in various kinds of
networks (IPSec, wireless)
Zero-knowledge identification
schemes
Historical ciphers
Classical encryption
(DES, IDEA, RC5, AES)
Public key encryption
(RSA, DH, DSA)
Hash functions and MACs
Digital signatures
Public key certificates
Secure Internet Protocols
- PGP and S-MIME
- www: SSL
Cryptographic standards

40. “Typical” course
difficulty
time
This course
difficulty
time