Encryption algorithms are essential for protecting sensitive information and ensuring secure communications in a variety of domains. They are used
for several important reasons:
- Confidentiality, privacy, and intellectual property protection
- Security during transmission or on storage devices
- Data integrity, general trust, and authentication
When selecting encryption algorithms, tools, or combinations, you should also consider two things:
- No encryption is unbreakable.
- The strength of an encryption algorithm is usually measured by the effort required to crack it within a reasonable time frame.
In today’s cryptography, the length of the key directly affects the security level of cryptographic algorithms.
Note that depending on the algorithm, the term key refers to a different mathematical property. For example:
- For RSA, the key is the product of two large prime numbers, also called the modulus.
- For AES and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), the key is only a sequence of randomly generated bytes.
- In some cases, AES keys are derived from a master key or a passphrase using a Key Derivation Function (KDF) like PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key
Derivation Function 2)
If an application uses a key that is considered short and insecure, the encrypted data is exposed to attacks aimed at getting at
the plaintext.
In general, it is best practice to expect a breach: that a user or organization with malicious intent will perform cryptographic attacks on this
data after obtaining it by other means.
What is the potential impact?
After retrieving encrypted data and performing cryptographic attacks on it on a given timeframe, attackers can recover the plaintext that
encryption was supposed to protect.
Depending on the recovered data, the impact may vary.
Below are some real-world scenarios that illustrate the potential impact of an attacker exploiting the vulnerability.
Additional attack surface
By modifying the plaintext of the encrypted message, an attacker may be able to trigger additional vulnerabilities in the code. An attacker can
further exploit a system to obtain more information.
Encrypted values are often considered trustworthy because it would not be possible for a
third party to modify them under normal circumstances.
Breach of confidentiality and privacy
When encrypted data contains personal or sensitive information, its retrieval by an attacker can lead to privacy violations, identity theft,
financial loss, reputational damage, or unauthorized access to confidential systems.
In this scenario, the company, its employees, users, and partners could be seriously affected.
The impact is twofold, as data breaches and exposure of encrypted data can undermine trust in the organization, as customers, clients and
stakeholders may lose confidence in the organization’s ability to protect their sensitive data.
Legal and compliance issues
In many industries and locations, there are legal and compliance requirements to protect sensitive data. If encrypted data is compromised and the
plaintext can be recovered, companies face legal consequences, penalties, or violations of privacy laws.
