HTW Berlin Medieninformatik

HTW Berlin
Fachbereich 4
Internationaler Studiengang
Internationale Medieninformatik (Bachelor)
Aktuelles - Medien: Kryptographie
Winter Term 2010/11

Lab 6: Symmetric Key Programming


As a preparation for the lab, please download the example code from David Hook, Beginning Cryptography with Java.
  1. The Java Cryptographic Extension (which implements the Java Cryptographic Architectre) should be in every default Java installion. To check that this is so, and to ensure that the policy files are correct, get the code SimplePolicyTest from Hook, Chapter 1, and run it. Can you do 64 bit encryption? 192? How many bits are you allowed with the default policy?
  2. Secret Message
    1. In chapter 2 of Hook there is a nice example SimpleSymmetricExample. Copy this, compile, run, and report on how it works
    2. Take some paper and make up a key for at least seven other groups of two in either your lab or the other one. Don't forget to remember who you gave which key to! Every group gets their own key, otherwise they can read your secrets!
    3. Adapt SimpleSymmetricExample to encode a different message for each group in the lab. Post a list of these in the Moodle Forum "Secret Message" for this week!
    4. Download the secret messages from the others and decode the messages intended for your group.
    5. Describe any problems that occured with this exercise!
  3. What is the German legal situation? How many bits may your key be to be used inside of Germany? How many if you want to export it to France? To Pakistan? To Iran?
  4. (For the bored) Can you crack any of the messages for which you do not posess a key?

Note that - unless noted otherwise - you work in groups of two!


Copyright 2010 Dr. Hermann Thiel & Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff - All rights reserved.
Questions or comments: <weberwu@htw-berlin.de>

This material is jointly prepared by Dr. Hermann Thiel and Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff. Much of the material comes from other sources and is denoted by the copyright notices on the individual pages