A C++ Implementation of the Rijndael Encryption/Decryption method

• Download demo project - 24.8 Kb

Introduction

Rijndael (pronounced rain-dahl) is the block cipher algorithm that has been selected by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the candidate for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It was selected by contest from a list of five finalists, that were themselves selected from an original list of more than 15 submissions. Rijndael will begin to supplant the Data Encryption Standard (DES) - and later Triple DES - over the next few years in many cryptography applications. The algorithm was designed by two Belgian cryptologists, Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen, whose surnames are reflected in the cipher's name. Rijndael has its origins in Square, an earlier collaboration between the two cryptologists.

The cipher has a variable block length and key length. The authors currently specify how to use keys with a length of 128, 192 or 256 bits, to encrypt blocks with a length of 128, 192 or 256 bits (all nine combinations of key length and block length are possible). Both block length and key length can be extended very easily to multiples of 32 bits. Documentation and complete specification of the method (as required by NIST) can be found here.

Rijndael can be implemented very efficiently on a wide range of processors and in hardware. This C++ implementation presented here is based on the Java implementation used with the Cryptix toolkit found on the Internet here (Java code authors are Raif S. Naffah and Paulo S.L.M. Barreto). This implementation was tested against KAT test published by the authors of the method and the results were identical.

Implementation

The public user interface of the CRijndael class is given below:

class CRijndael
{
public:
  //Operation Modes

  enum { ECB=0, CBC=1, CFB=2 };

  //CONSTRUCTOR

  CRijndael();

  //DESTRUCTOR

  virtual ~CRijndael();

  //Expand a user-supplied key material into a session key.

  void MakeKey(char const* key, char const* chain, 
    int keylength=DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE, 
    int blockSize=DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE);

  //Encrypt exactly one block of plaintext.

  void EncryptBlock(char const* in, char* result);

  //Decrypt exactly one block of ciphertext.

  void DecryptBlock(char const* in, char* result);

  //Encrypt a larger block of data

  void Encrypt(char const* in, char* result, size_t n, int iMode=ECB);

  //Decrypt a larger block of data

  void Decrypt(char const* in, char* result, size_t n, int iMode=ECB);

  //Get Key Length

  int GetKeyLength();

  //Block Size

  int GetBlockSize();

  //Number of Rounds

  int GetRounds();

  //Resets chain block to initial chain block.

  void ResetChain();

  //Null chain block

  static char const* sm_chain0;
};

The MakeKey() function is used to expand a user-supplied key material into a session key and to initialize the chain block. The keylength and blockSize can be any combination of 16, 24 or 32 bytes sizes with DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE being 16. This function has to be called after construction before any other functions.

The EncryptBlock() function is used to encrypt a block of the specified size using the specified key.

The DecryptBlock() function is the reverse of the EncryptBlock() function and is used to decrypt a block of the specified size using the specified key.

The Encrypt() function is used to encrypt larger blocks of data. The block size has to be a multiple of the method's block size. This function can operate in the following modes: ECB, CBC or CFB. ECB mode is not using chaining. If the same block is encrypted twice with the same key, the resulting ciphertext blocks are the same. In CBC mode, a ciphertext block is obtained by first XORing the plaintext block with the previous ciphertext block, and encrypting the resulting value. In CFB mode, a ciphertext block is obtained by encrypting the previous ciphertext block and XORing the resulting value with the plaintext. The operation mode is specified in the iMode parameter with ECB being the default value.

The Decrypt() function is the reverse of the Encrypt() function.

The purposes of the other functions are obvious.

Use Examples

The use of CRijndael class is very easy. In the first code snippet example, a block and key size of 16 bytes are applied to a 16 bytes block. The initial chain block is a null block. The block "aaaaaaaabbbbbbbb" is encrypted and then decrypted back.

try
{
  char szHex[33];

  //Initialization

  CRijndael oRijndael;
  oRijndael.MakeKey("abcdefghabcdefgh", CRijndael::sm_chain0, 16, 16);

  char szDataIn[] = "aaaaaaaabbbbbbbb";
  char szDataOut[17] = "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0";

  //Encryption

  oRijndael.EncryptBlock(szDataIn, szDataOut);

  CharStr2HexStr((unsigned char*)szDataIn, szHex, 16);
  cout << szHex << endl;
  CharStr2HexStr((unsigned char*)szDataOut, szHex, 16);
  cout << szHex << endl;
  memset(szDataIn, 0, 16);

  //Decryption

  oRijndael.DecryptBlock(szDataOut, szDataIn);

  CharStr2HexStr((unsigned char*)szDataIn, szHex, 16);
  cout << szHex << endl;
}
catch(exception& roException)
{
  cout << roException.what() << endl;
}

In the next code snippet example, a block and key size of 16 bytes are applied to a larger block of data of size 48 bytes (the block of data size should be a multiple of the block size). The initial chain block is a null block. The block "ababababccccccccababababccccccccababababcccccccc" is encrypted and then decrypted back in all the operation modes (ECB, CBC and CFB).

try
{
  CRijndael oRijndael;
  oRijndael.MakeKey("1234567890123456", CRijndael::sm_chain0, 16, 16);
  char szDataIn1[49] = "ababababccccccccababababccccccccababababcccccccc";
  char szDataIn[49];
  char szDataOut[49];
  memset(szDataIn, 0, 49);
  memset(szDataOut, 0, 49);

  //Test ECB

  strcpy(szDataIn, szDataIn1);
  memset(szDataOut, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.Encrypt(szDataIn, szDataOut, 48, CRijndael::ECB);
  memset(szDataIn, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.Decrypt(szDataOut, szDataIn, 48, CRijndael::ECB);

  //Test CBC

  oRijndael.ResetChain();
  strcpy(szDataIn, szDataIn1);
  memset(szDataOut, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.Encrypt(szDataIn, szDataOut, 48, CRijndael::CBC);
  memset(szDataIn, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.ResetChain();
  oRijndael.Decrypt(szDataOut, szDataIn, 48, CRijndael::CBC);

  //Test CFB

  oRijndael.ResetChain();
  strcpy(szDataIn, szDataIn1);
  memset(szDataOut, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.Encrypt(szDataIn, szDataOut, 48, CRijndael::CFB);
  memset(szDataIn, 0, 49);
  oRijndael.ResetChain();
  oRijndael.Decrypt(szDataOut, szDataIn, 48, CRijndael::CFB);
}
catch(exception& roException)
{
  cout << "Exception: " << roException.what() << endl;
}

I am interested in any opinions and new ideas about this implementation. The project AES.zip attached to this article is including the source code of the presented CRijndael class and a test code.

History

• 8 Nov 2002 - updated download.