Abstract

We invesitgate how to construct ciphers which operate on messages of various (and effectively arbitrary) lengths. In particular, lengths not necessarily a multiple of some block length. (By a "cipher" we mean a key-indexed family of length-preserving permutations, with a "good" cipher being one that resembles a family of random length-preserving permutations.) Oddly enough, this question seems not to have been investiaged. We show how to construct variableinput -length ciphers starting from any block cipher (ie, a cipher which operates on strings of some fixed length n). We do this by giving a general method starting from a particular kind of pseudorandom function and a particular kind of encryption scheme, and then we give example ways to realize these tools from a block cipher. All of our constructions are proven sound, in the provable-security sense of contemporary cryptography. Variable-input-length ciphers can be used to encrypt in the presence of the constraint that the ciphertex...

Citations