EnCryption / DeCryption guide when using 96Crypt



    The purpose of this guide is to help the user understand all the functions
    of 96Crypt, in order to receive the maximum benefit from this multi-feature,
    secure and easy to use file/FOLDER EnCryption/DeCryption program.

    The following major primitives are important to understand before
    EnCrypting/DeCrypting any file or FOLDER using 96Crypt:



    • 1. Select a block cipher from one of the seven choices proposed by 96Crypt
      (3DES, AES-RijnDael, Blowfish, MARS, SERPENT, Twofish or 96Crypt which is a
      combined process using Twofish followed by SERPENT).

      The block cipher is the algorithm that will be applied to the DATA itself, like
      your files (photos, videos, music files, text documents or spreadsheets...) or
      FOLDERS in order to EnCrypt or DeCrypt them.
      Encryption is the process of transforming the plaintext data into an unreadable
      form, called ciphertext, using a user-provided secret password. Decryption transforms
      the ciphertext back into plaintext using a decryption key.
      All our block ciphers are symmetric key algorithms, where the encryption password
      is the same as the decryption password.

      As the block ciphers are intended to process data by blocks (groups of several bytes),
      there are different ways of using a block cipher when encrypting multiple blocks.
      With 96Crypt, the user can select between CTR or CBC mode, both with a MAC, or
      "Message Authentication Code". This implementation is supposed to insure both confidentiality
      (Block Cipher in CTR or CBC mode) and integrity (usage of a MAC), because confidentiality-only
      is a serious security hole that unfortunately many cryptographic programs do not take
      into account!




    • 2. Select a HASH from one of the ten choices proposed by 96Crypt
      (MD5, RMD-128, RMD-160, TIGER, HAVAL-5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512 or
      96Crypt which is a combined process using HAVAL-5 & SHA256 XORed with SHA512).

      A HASH function is simply a cryptographic algorithm that accepts input, arbitrary in
      length and renders a fixed-length output. In 96Crypt, HASH functions are applied to the
      user-selected password in order to transform any password using variable size letters
      and numbers into a fixed-length string which is called the hash value or "key".

      The length of the result "key" is totally independent of the number of letters/numbers
      contained in the user-provided secret password. This result "key", derived from the
      user-provided secret password, has a fixed length defined ONLY by the selected HASH
      function. This result "key" represents the "fingerprint" of the user-provided secret
      password.

      The result "key" is very similar to a "fingerprint". It is UNIQUE. The longer the
      key-length is, the lower (<< 10^-128) the probability is to find another identical
      result "key". This is the main reason why long-key HASH functions are more secure
      than short or medium size HASH result keys. [SHA512 (512-bit) vs MD5 (128-bit)]

      In cases where the selected HASH provides a shorter key length than what's required
      by the chosen cipher, like selecting MD5 (128-bit result) with Blowfish (448-bit required),
      96Crypt will pad the "key" to bring it to the required length before feeding it to the
      block cipher to complete the process.

      In any case, even if the HASH function returns the right key length as required by the
      selected cipher, 96Crypt will still use multiple HASH/SALT rounds to provide a result
      key that meets the highest level of security.




    • 3. Type a password in the corresponding field or select a file to be used as a password.
      96Crypt requires a typed password containing letters and numbers of at least 7 characters
      or a file-password larger than 7bytes, but smaller than 2.5Mb.

      The password will be processed by the HASH and transformed to a "key", the HASH provides
      a fixed length "key" from a variable size user-provided password. The "key" will then
      be fed to the cipher after being properly length-adjusted to meet the cipher's requirements.






    The block ciphers implemented in 96Crypt are listed below:

Algorithm Name
Rank in AES competition
Max. key length required by cipher
Key length provided by 96Crypt
AES-RijnDael
First - 86 votes
256-bit
256-bit
SERPENT
Second - 59 votes
256-bit
256-bit
Twofish
Third - 31 votes
256-bit
256-bit
MARS
Fifth - 13 votes
1248-bit theory / 448-bit industry
448-bit
Blowfish
-
448-bit
448-bit
3DES
-
3x64-bit
192-bit




    The HASH functions implemented in 96Crypt are listed below:

Algorithm Name
Rendered Key length
MD5
128-bit
RMD-128
128-bit
RMD-160
160-bit
SHA-1
160-bit
TIGER
192-bit
HAVAL-5
256-bit
SHA256
256-bit
SHA384
384-bit
SHA512
512-bit








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