Security problems with improper implementations of improved FEA-M

Authors:
Shujun Li;Kwok-Tung Lo
Affiliations:
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China;Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
Venue:
Journal of Systems and Software
Year:
2007

Citing 5
Cited 1

Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
Image And Video Encryption: From Digital Rights Management To Secured Personal Communication (Advances in Information Security)

Image And Video Encryption: From Digital Rights Management To Secured Personal Communication (Advances in Information Security)
Fast encryption for multimedia

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics
ID-based key agreement for multimedia encryption

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics
Comments on the security of fast encryption algorithm for multimedia (FEA-M)

IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics

A novel DRM framework for peer-to-peer music content delivery

Journal of Systems and Software

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Abstract

This paper reports security problems with improper implementations of an improved version of FEA-M (fast encryption algorithm for multimedia). It is found that an implementation-dependent differential chosen-plaintext attack or its chosen-ciphertext counterpart can reveal the secret key of the cryptosystem, if the involved (pseudo-)random process can be tampered (for example, through a public time service). The implementation-dependent differential attack is very efficient in complexity and needs only O(n^2) chosen plaintext or ciphertext bits. In addition, this paper also points out a minor security problem with the selection of the session key. In real implementations of the cryptosystem, these security problems should be carefully avoided, or the cryptosystem has to be further enhanced to work under such weak implementations.