CISSP Study Notes Chapter 7 - PKI and Cryptographic Applications

Chapter 7 is all about applying cryptography. It covers the cryptographic lifecycle, methods, Public Key Infrastructure, and key management practices. It also covers Digital signatures, nonrepudiation, integrity, cryptanalytic attacks, and Digital Rights Management.

Last summer I spent about a month studying for and getting my Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification from ISC2. I went about studying for the test a few ways:

I used the PocketPrep app
I attended a study bootcamp
I did a bunch of practice tests

And finally…

I got the ISC2 CISSP official study guide - I read it cover to cover, and highlighted and annotated the entire thing.

Twitter (@MrThomasRayner) told me there is interest in seeing my study notes. So, here we go! Welcome to my 21 part series on the takeaways and crucial points from each chapter in the ISC2 CISSP official study guide. To be clear, this isn’t a replacement for all those other study methods I mentioned above. This is just a supplement. This also isn’t everything you need to know for the test. This is just what I feel are the most important points.

It’s important to remember that while many of these terms and phrases have different meanings in different contexts, the definitions I’m providing below are the ones that are relevant in the CISSP exam. Your own training or experience may tell you that a definition is incorrect or invalid, but if you want to get the exam questions right, you’ll have to know them as they’re defined in the books and study material.

The CISSP exam is often said to be “a mile wide but only an inch deep” which means you need to know a little bit about a lot of stuff. Accordingly, these posts contain a lot of points and while you might not be questioned on all of them, you could be questioned on any of them. It’s important to have a good grip on every chapter in its entirety.

Previous Chapters

Chapter 7: PKI and Cryptographic Applications

My key takeaways and crucial points

Public and Private Keys

Every user maintains a public key and a private key in asymmetric crypto
Private key is preserved for the sole use of the individual who owns the key
Public key is available to anyone they want to communicate with
RSA
- Choose two large prime numbers approximately 200 digits each labeled p and q
- Multiply them together n = p * q
- Select a number e that is:
  - Less than n
  - e and (p - 1)(q - 1) are relatively prime (no common factors)
- Find d that is (ed - 1) mod (p - 1)(q - 1) = 1
- Distribute e and n as the public key and keep d as the secret private key
Key length is the most important parameter
- RSA key length: 1024 bits
- DSA key length: 1024 bits
- Elliptical curve key length: 160 bits
El Gamal
- Major disadvantage - this algo doubles the length of any message it encrypts
Elliptical Curve
- Better for low power devices like phones
- 1024 bit RSA key is cryptographically equivalent to 160 bit elliptical curve

Hash Functions

Hash functions - Take a potentially long message and generate a unique output value derived from the content of the message
- Message digest - The output of a hash function
Basic hash function requirements
- Input can be any length
- Output has a fixed length
- Should be relatively easy to compute for any input
- Hash function is one-way which means it is extremely hard to determine the input when provided the output
- Collision free - hard to find two inputs that produce the same message digest
SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm
- SHA-1 produces 160 bit digest
- Processes 512 bit blocks
- Pads messages to fit
- SHA-256 produces 256 bit messages using 512 bit block size
- SHA-224 uses truncated version of SHA-256 hash to make a 224 bit message with 512 bit block size
- SHA-512 produces 512 bit message digests using a 1024 bit block size
- SHA-384 uses truncated SHA-512 to produce 384 bit digest with 1024 bit block size
MD5
- 512 bit blocks
- 4 distinct rounds of computation
- Message length must be 64 bits less than a multiple of 512 bits
  - Uses padding to make up the difference
Hash of Variable Length (HAVAL) - MD5 variant
- Hash value length: 128, 160, 192, 224, 256 bits

Digital Signatures

Enforces nonrepudiation
Assures the recipient that the message was not altered while in transit
If Alice wants to sign a message she’s sending to Bob…
- Alice generates a message digest of the original plaintext using a hashing algo
- Alice encrypts the message digest using her private key - this is the digital signature
- Alice appends the signed message digest to the plaintext
- Alice transmits the appended message to Bob
- Bob decrypts the digital signature using Alice’s public key
- Bob uses the same hashing function to create a message digest of the full plaintext received from Alice
- Bob compares the decrypted message digest he got from Alice with the message digest he computed himself
  - If the hashes match, the signature is verified and the message was sent from Alice
  - If the hashes do not match, the signature is invalid and either the message didn’t come from Alice, or it was modified in transit
Does not provide privacy/confidentiality
Does provide integrity, authentication, nonrepudiation
HMAC - Hashed Message Authentication Code
- Provides integrity, does not provide nonrepudiation
- Depends on a shared secret key

Which Key To Use When

If you want to	Use this key
Encrypt a message	Recipient’s public key
Decrypt a message sent to you	Your private key
Digitally sign a message you are sending to someone else	Your private key
Verify the signature on a message sent by someone else	Sender’s public key

Digital Signature Standard

Federal Information processing Standard (FIPS) 186-4

Public Key Infrastructure

Certificates
- Endorsed copies of a public key
- International standard: X.509
- Contains
  - Version of X.509 it conforms to
  - Serial number
  - Signature algo identifier
  - Issuer name
  - Validity period
  - Subject’s name
  - Subject’s public key
- Certificate extensions are custom variables inserted into a certificate
Certificate Authorities
- Neutral organizations that offer notarization services for digital certificates
- Registration authorities assist by verifying user’s identities prior to issuing certificates but do not issue certs themselves
- Certificate Path Validation - CPV. Each certificate in the certificate path from the original start or root of trust down to the server or client in question is valid and legitimate.
Certificate Generation and Destruction
- Enrollment
  - Prove your identity to the CA
  - Provide them your public key
  - CA signs your certificate with their private key
- Verification
  - Verify the cert by checking the CA’s digital signature using the CA’s public key
  - Make sure it was not revoked (Certificate Revocation List - CRL)
    - Or Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)
  - A certificate is valid if:
    - The digital signature of the CA is authentic
    - You trust the CA
    - The certificate is not listed on a CRL
    - The certificate contains the data you are trusting
- Revocation
  - Revoking a certificate declares it invalid before it’s natural expiry
  - Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) contain serial numbers of certs that a CA revoked along with when they were revoked
  - Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) eliminates latency with CRLs by providing a real-time check

Asymmetric Key Management

Choose an encryption system whose algo is in the public domain
Use a key length that balances security requirements with performance
Keep private key secret
Retire keys when they’re done being useful
Back up your key
Hardware security modules - HSMs. Store and manage encryption keys in a secure manner
- Yubikey is an example

Applied Cryptography

Portable devices
- Windows includes BitLocker and Encrypting File System (EFS)
- Mac has FileVault
- Linux has VeraCrypt
- All for disk encryption of mobile devices like laptops
Trusted Platform Module - TPM. A chip on the motherboard that stores and manages keys used for full disk encryption.
Email
- For confidentiality, encrypt the message
- For integrity, hash the message
- For authentication, integrity, and/or nonrepudiation, digitally sign the message
- For confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and nonrepudiation, encrypt and sign the message
- Always the responsibility of the sender
- Pretty Good Privacy - PGP
  - “web of trust”
  - Secure email system
- Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - S/MIME
  - Uses X.509 certificates for exchanging crypto keys
Web Applications
- SSL and TLS (Secure Sockets Layer, and Transport Layer Security)
- HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) uses port 443 to negotiate encrypted communications between web servers and clients
- Depends on the exchange of server digital certificates
  - When a user accesses a website, the browser gets the web server’s cert and extracts the public key from it
  - The browser creates a random symmetric key, uses the server’s public key to encrypt it, and sends the encrypted symmetric key to the server
  - The server decrypts the symmetric key using it’s private key, and the two systems exchange future messages using symmetric encryption/key
- Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE) is a downgrade attack - forcing a system to use an older/vulnerable version of TLS or SSL instead of an up to date version
Steganography and Watermarking
- Steganography - Using crypto techniques to embed secret messages within another message
- Ex: Adding digital watermarks to documents to protect intellectual property
Digital Rights Management - DRM
- Using encryption to enforce copyright restrictions on digital media
- High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection - HDCP. Provides protection over digital connections like HDMI
- Advanced Access Content System - AACS. Protects Blu-Ray
- Video games increasingly depend on having an internet connection
- Document DRM may want to control permissions like who can read, modify, remove watermarks, download/save, print, take a screenshot

Networking

IPSec and Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP)
Circuit Encryption
- Link encryption - Protects entire communication circuits by creating a secure tunnel
- End-to-end encryption - Protects communications between two parties
- The difference between the above is that link encryption, all data including headers, trailers, address, routing data is also encrypted
- When encryption happens at higher OSI layers, it’s usually end-to-end
- Secure Shell - SSH. End-to-end encryption
IPSec
- Could be any two entities - servers, routers, gateway, a combo
- Uses public key crypto to provide encryption, access control, nonrepudiation, message authentication
- VPNs use IPSec
- Authentication Header - AH. provides message integrity and nonrepudiation
- Encapsulating Security Payload - ESP. Provides confidentiality and integrity of packet contents
- Transport mode - only the packet payload is encrypted
- Tunnel mode - entire packet, including header, is encrypted
- Set up a session with a security association (SA)
  - Represents the communication session and records configuration and status
  - Need two SAs, one for each direction
  - If using both AH and ESP bi-directional, you need four SAs
ISAKMP
- Used by IPSec for negotiating, establishing, modifying, deleting SAs
Wireless networking
- Wired Equivalent Privacy - WEP. 64 bit and 128 bit encryption for IEEE 802.11
  - A lot of flaws exist here, not considered secure - should never be used
- WiFi Protected Access - WPA. Improves WEP by adding Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
  - WPA2 adds AES crypto
  - Does not provide end-to-end encryption
- 802.11x - authentication and key management framework for both wired and wireless networks
  - Client runs software called a supplicant

Cryptographic Attacks

Analytic Attack - Using math to reduce complexity of algo
Implementation Attack - Exploits weaknesses in the implementation of a crypto system
Statistical Attack - Using math to find patterns, floating-point errors, inability to find truly random numbers
Brute Force - Trying every possible combination for key and password
- Key length is critical for defending brute force
- Rainbow tables - precomputed values for crypto hashes, commonly for cracking passwords
Salt - A random value added to the end of the password before it is hashed
Frequency analysis - Counting the number of times each letter appears in the ciphertext
Known Plaintext - Attacker has a copy of the encrypted message, along with plaintext, can be used to determine the key
Chosen Ciphertext - Attacker has ability to decrypt portions of the ciphertext
Chosen Plaintext - Attacker has ability to encrypt plaintext messages of their choosing
Meet in the Middle - Known plaintext message
Man in the Middle - A malicious individual sits between two communicating parties and intercepts communications
Birthday - AKA collision attack, finding flaws in hashing functions where two inputs generate the same output
Replay - A system lacks temporal protections, a message can be sent more than once at different times

Written on September 16, 2020