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KSAm – An Improved RC4 Key-Scheduling Algorithm for Securing WEP

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Book cover Novel Algorithms and Techniques in Telecommunications and Networking

Abstract

RC4 is one of the most widely used stream cipher. In this paper we propose a new variant of RC4 Key-Scheduling Algorithm, called KSAm, whose primary goal is to address the FMS (Fluhrer-Mantin-Shamir) weakness of WEP-like cryptosystems, where IV precedes the secret key. Security analysis of KSAm reveals that the FMS IV weakness is removed by destroying the FMS resolved condition. KSAm has a huge internal state of »3748 bits and provides a better distribution of the state table elements than original KSA. Further, based on the Roos’ experimental observation, we also found a weaker probabilistic correlation between the first three words of the secret key and the first three entries of the state table after KSAm, which causes a negligible bias of the first word of the RC4KSAm output stream towards the sum of the first three words of the secret key. The effect of this negligible bias can be easily avoided by discarding only the first word from the RC4KSAm output stream.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. “Petru Maior” University of Târgu Mureş, N. Iorga, No. 1, Târgu Mureş, MS, 540088, Romania

    Bogdan Crainicu

  2. “Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, M. Kogalniceanu, No. 1, Cluj-Napoca, CJ, 400084, Romania

    Florian Mircea Boian

Authors
  1. Bogdan Crainicu
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  2. Florian Mircea Boian
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Correspondence to Bogdan Crainicu or Florian Mircea Boian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, University Avenue 221, Bridgeport, 06604, USA

    Tarek Sobh

  2. School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, University Avenue 221, Bridgeport, 06604, USA

    Khaled Elleithy

  3. School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, University Avenue 221, Bridgeport, 06604, USA

    Ausif Mahmood

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Crainicu, B., Boian, F.M. (2010). KSAm – An Improved RC4 Key-Scheduling Algorithm for Securing WEP. In: Sobh, T., Elleithy, K., Mahmood, A. (eds) Novel Algorithms and Techniques in Telecommunications and Networking. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3662-9_67

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3662-9_67

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