Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0744

What size is an MD5 message digest (hash)?

A.
128 bits
B. 160 bits
C. 256 bits
D. 128 bytes

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

MD5 is a one-way hash function producing a 128-bit message digest from the input message, through 4 rounds of transformation. MD5 is specified as an Internet Standard (RFC1312).
Reference(s) used for this question: TIPTON, Hal, (ISC)2, Introduction to the CISSP Exam presentation.

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0743

Which of the following is not a DES mode of operation?

A.
Cipher block chaining
B. Electronic code book
C. Input feedback
D. Cipher feedback

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

Output feedback (OFB) is a DES mode of operation, not input feedback.
Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 4: Cryptography (page 149).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0742

Which of the following offers confidentiality to an e-mail message?

A.
The sender encrypting it with its private key.
B. The sender encrypting it with its public key.
C. The sender encrypting it with the receiver's public key.
D. The sender encrypting it with the receiver's private key.

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

An e-mail message’s confidentiality is protected when encrypted with the receiver’s public key, because he is the only one able to decrypt the message. The sender is not supposed to have the receiver’s private key. By encrypting a message with its private key, anybody possessing the corresponding public key would be able to read the message. By encrypting the message with its public key, not even the receiver would be able to read the message.
Source: HARRIS, Shon, All-In-One CISSP Certification Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2002, chapter 8: Cryptography (page 517).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0741

What is the effective key size of DES?

A.
56 bits
B. 64 bits
C. 128 bits
D. 1024 bits

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a symmetric key algorithm. Originally developed by IBM, under project name Lucifer, this 128-bit algorithm was accepted by the NIST in 1974, but the total key size was reduced to 64 bits, 56 of which make up the effective key, plus and extra 8 bits for parity. It somehow became a national cryptographic standard in 1977, and an American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standard in 1978. DES was later replaced by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) by the NIST.
Source: HARRIS, Shon, All-In-One CISSP Certification Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2002, chapter 8: Cryptography (page 525).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0740

Which of the following offers security to wireless communications?

A.
S-WAP
B. WTLS
C. WSP
D. WDP

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) is a communication protocol that allows wireless devices to send and receive encrypted information over the Internet. S-WAP is not defined. WSP (Wireless Session Protocol) and WDP (Wireless Datagram Protocol) are part of Wireless Access Protocol (WAP).
Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 4: Cryptography (page 173).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0739

Which of the following standards concerns digital certificates?

A.
X.400
B. X.25
C. X.509
D. X.75

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

X.509 is used in digital certificates. X.400 is used in e-mail as a message handling protocol. X.25 is a standard for the network and data link levels of a communication network and X.75 is a standard defining ways of connecting two X.25 networks. Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 4: Cryptography (page 164).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0738

What is the name for a substitution cipher that shifts the alphabet by 13 places?

A.
Caesar cipher
B. Polyalphabetic cipher
C. ROT13 cipher
D. Transposition cipher

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

An extremely simple example of conventional cryptography is a substitution cipher.
A substitution cipher substitutes one piece of information for another. This is most frequently done by offsetting letters of the alphabet. Two examples are Captain Midnight’s Secret Decoder Ring, which you may have owned when you were a kid, and Julius Caesar’s cipher. In both cases, the algorithm is to offset the alphabet and the key is the number of characters to offset it.
So the offset could be one, two, or any number you wish. ROT-13 is an example where it is shifted 13 spaces. The Ceaser Cipher is another example where it is shifted 3 letters to the left.
ROT13 (“rotate by 13 places”, sometimes hyphenated ROT-13) is a simple letter substitution cipher that replaces a letter with the letter 13 letters after it in the alphabet. ROT13 is an example of the Caesar cipher, developed in ancient Rome.
In the basic Latin alphabet, ROT13 is its own inverse; that is, to undo ROT13, the same algorithm is applied, so the same action can be used for encoding and decoding. The algorithm provides virtually no cryptographic security, and is often cited as a canonical example of weak encryption.
ROT13 is used in online forums as a means of hiding spoilers, puzzle solutions, and offensive materials from the casual glance. ROT13 has been described as the “Usenet equivalent of a magazine printing the answer to a quiz upside down”. ROT13 has inspired a variety of letter and word games on-line, and is frequently mentioned in newsgroup conversations. See diagram Below:

The following are incorrect: The Caesar cipher is a simple substitution cipher that involves shifting the alphabet three positions to the right. In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar’s cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar’s code or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For example, with a left shift of 3, D would be replaced by A, E would become B, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence.

Caesar Cipher Polyalphabetic cipher refers to using multiple alphabets at a time. A polyalphabetic cipher is any cipher based on substitution, using multiple substitution alphabets. The Vigenère cipher is probably the best-known example of a polyalphabetic cipher, though it is a simplified special case.

Viginere Cipher Transposition cipher is a different type of cipher. In cryptography, a transposition cipher is a method of encryption by which the positions held by units of plaintext (which are commonly characters or groups of characters) are shifted according to a regular system, so that the ciphertext constitutes a permutation of the plaintext. That is, the order of the units is changed. See the reference below for multiple examples of Transpositio Ciphers.
An exemple of Transposition cipher could be columnar transposition, the message is written out in rows of a fixed length, and then read out again column by column, and the columns are chosen in some scrambled order. Both the width of the rows and the permutation of the columns are usually defined by a keyword. For example, the word ZEBRAS is of length 6 (so the rows are of length 6), and the permutation is defined by the alphabetical order of the letters in the keyword. In this case, the order would be “6 3 2 4 1 5”.
In a regular columnar transposition cipher, any spare spaces are filled with nulls; in an irregular columnar transposition cipher, the spaces are left blank. Finally, the message is read off in columns, in the order specified by the keyword. For example, suppose we use the keyword ZEBRAS and the message WE ARE DISCOVERED. FLEE AT ONCE. In a regular columnar transposition, we write this into the grid as Follows:

Transposition Cipher
Providing five nulls (QKJEU) at the end. The ciphertext is then read off as:
EVLNE ACDTK ESEAQ ROFOJ DEECU WIREE
Reference(s) used for this question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyalphabetic_cipher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_cipher

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0737

Which of the following protects Kerberos against replay attacks?

A.
Tokens
B. Passwords
C. Cryptography
D. Time stamps

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

A replay attack refers to the recording and retransmission of packets on the network. Kerberos uses time stamps, which protect against this type of attack.
Source: HARRIS, Shon, All-In-One CISSP Certification Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2002, chapter 8: Cryptography (page 581).

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0736

Which of the following algorithms is used today for encryption in PGP?

A.
RSA
B. IDEA
C. Blowfish
D. RC5

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

The Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) email encryption system was developed by Phil Zimmerman. For encrypting messages, it actually uses AES with up to 256-bit keys, CAST, TripleDES, IDEA and Twofish. RSA is also used in PGP, but only for symmetric key exchange and for digital signatures, but not for encryption.
Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security,
John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 4: Cryptography (pages 154, 169). More info on PGP can be found on their site at http://www.pgp.com/display.php?pageID=29.

Systems Security Certified Practitioner – SSCP – Question0735

What is the maximum allowable key size of the Rijndael encryption algorithm?

A.
128 bits
B. 192 bits
C. 256 bits
D. 512 bits

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

The Rijndael algorithm, chosen as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to replace DES, can be categorized as an iterated block cipher with a variable block length and key length that can be independently chosen as 128, 192 or 256 bits. Below you have a summary of the differences between AES and Rijndael. AES is the advanced encryption standard defined by FIPS 197. It is implemented differently than Rijndael:
FIPS-197 specifies that the block size must always be 128 bits in AES, and that the key size may be either 128, 192, or 256 bits. Therefore AES-128, AES-192, and AES-256 are actually: Key Size (bits) Number of rounds Block Size (bits) AES-128
128 10 Rounds
128 AES-192
192 12 Rounds
128 AES-256
256 14 Rounds
128
Some book will say “up to 9 rounds will be done with a 128 bits keys”. Really it is 10 rounds because you must include round zero which is the first round.
By contrast, the Rijndael specification per se is specified with block and key sizes that may be any multiple of 32 bits, both with a minimum of 128 and a maximum of 256 bits.
Reference(s) used for this question:
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 4: Cryptography (page 153).
and FIPS 197 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard