Stream Ciphers
Prev: block-ciphers Next: hash-functions
Stream ciphers generate pseudorandom bits from a key and encrypt a plaintext by XORing it the generated bits.
How Stream Ciphers Work
Stream ciphers take two values, a key and a nonce. The key must be secret, and is 128 or 256 bits normally. The nonce doesn’t need to be secret, but it must be unique for each key, and is either a 64 or 128 bit value. It’s also sometimes called the IV (initial value).
Stream ciphers compute the keystream as and then encrypts as and decrypts with .
Prev: block-ciphers Next: hash-functions