What’s AES Encryption Software?

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AES software uses symmetric key block cipher to encrypt data, widely used for its security and efficiency. It offers three key sizes: AES 128, AES 192, and AES 256. AES encryption is secure and efficient, but side-channel attacks can crack it on certain systems.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) software is a security program that uses a block cipher of symmetric keys to encrypt files, data, and other information. This cryptographic software typically helps individuals and businesses securely protect hard drives, operating systems, emails, and files from malicious attacks. These AES ciphers are used worldwide because they have been extensively analyzed.

AES encryption software has been adopted by the United States (US) government National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its symmetric key encryption standard. The AES encryption standard was taken from a much larger collection published as Rijndael. Most AES encryption software consists of a 128-bit block cipher and three key sizes: AES 128, AES 192, and AES 256. These three different key sizes cause each algorithm to behave slightly differently , thus making it difficult to break the encryption.

Symmetric key ciphers use a single key to encrypt and decrypt data. The three different key sizes allow for varying bit sizes, thus allowing the user to choose the strength of the ciphers. Typically, the larger the key size used, the more complex the algorithm to encrypt the data. AES encrypts and decrypts data in 128-bit blocks.

When AES encryption software is implemented successfully in a system, its performance is generally secure, efficient, and fast. AES encryption software operations generally make it easy to defend against power and timing attacks. AES encryption software typically performs well in both hardware and software across many platforms and environments. Computer systems protected by AES are generally considered highly secure. These systems are typically password protected and encrypted using the AES standard.

The US government has declared AES encryption secure enough to protect its classified documents as classified since June 2003. It is generally believed that only side-channel attacks are capable of cracking AES encryption on certain deployed systems. Side-channel attacks don’t attack the cipher itself; instead, it attacks some implementations of the cipher on systems that leak information; in this case, AES security itself is not attacked.

In July of 2009, a key attack related to software versions 192 and 256 AES was reported. Also, in November 2009, a known-key discrimination attack on the AES 128 version was reported. While these attacks are difficult to accomplish because they must be performed at a faster rate than brute-force attacks, some implementations have been found on systems where the attacks occurred.




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