Cryptography attacks

 by:- sara ahmed

Passive Attacks

The main goal of a passive attack is to obtain unauthorized access to the information. For example, actions such as intercepting and eavesdropping on the communication channel can be regarded as passive attack.

Active Attacks

An active attack involves changing the information in some way by conducting some process on the information. For example,

• Modifying the information in an unauthorized manner.
• Initiating unintended or unauthorized transmission of information.
• Alteration of authentication data such as originator name or timestamp associated with information
• Unauthorized deletion of data.
• Denial of access to information for legitimate users (denial of service).
  
  
  

  Cryptographic Attacks

  The basic intention of an attacker is to break a cryptosystem and to find the plaintext from the ciphertext. To obtain the plaintext, the attacker only needs to find out the secret decryption key, as the algorithm is already in public domain.
  Hence, he applies maximum effort towards finding out the secret key used in the cryptosystem. Once the attacker is able to determine the key, the attacked system is considered as broken or compromised.