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Optics Express

Ciphertext-only attack on a joint transform correlator encryption system

Chenggong Zhang, Meihua Liao, Wenqi He, Xiang Peng

Published Nov 13, 2013• 65 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A ciphertext-only attack (COA) on a joint transform correlator (JTC) encryption system is proposed. From the perspective view of optical cryptanalysis, we find out that the issue to be solved in the COA scheme could be transferred into a phase retrieval problem with single intensity measurement. And in this paper, the hybrid input-output (HIO) algorithm is employed to handle this issue with the help of an inartificial signal domain support and a given frequency domain constraint. Meanwhile, we provide a set of numerical simulations to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the presented method.

DOI
10.1364/oe.21.028523

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A ciphertext-only attack (COA) on a joint transform correlator (JTC) encryption system is proposed. From the perspective view of optical cryptanalysis, we find out that the issue to be solved in the COA scheme could be transferred into a phase retrieval problem with single intensity measurement. And in this paper, the hybrid input-output (HIO) algorithm is employed to handle this issue with the help of an inartificial signal domain support and a given frequency domain constraint. Meanwhile, we provide a set of numerical simulations to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the presented method.
The speckle correlation technique is applied to ciphertext-only attack (COA) on optical cryptosystem based on double random phase encoding. According to the inherent merits of speckle correlation, we have revealed a fact that the ciphertext’s autocorrelation is essentially identical to the plaintext’s own autocorrelation. Then, a plaintext image can be directly reconstructed from the autocorrelation of its corresponding ciphertext by employing a iterate phase-retrieval algorithm. This could then lead to a potential security flaw because an unauthorized user could directly retrieve the plaintext from an intercepted ciphertext by performing proposed COA approach. Meanwhile, a series of numerical simulations will also be provided to verify the validity and feasibility of our proposed COA method.
Joint-transform correlator (JTC) architecture presents some advantages, such as no requirement of interferometric recording of the phase distribution or complex conjugation of the key phase mask, in order to optically implement the well-known double random phase encryption (DRPE) method. In addition, a practical optical realization was proposed in a way that the whole information (primary image and two random phase masks) was easily introduced in the same input plane of the JTC system. However, poor image quality was obtained in the decryption stage. Cryptanalysis of JTC-based encryption systems demonstrated that they were vulnerable to certain intruder attacks, similarly to the original DRPE method. In this work, we review recent modifications of encryption algorithms based on JTC architecture that permit, on the one hand, to significantly increase the quality of the retrieved image after information decryption, and on the other hand, to achieve a high security level against a variety of system attacks. The modifications, which were firstly introduced in the Fourier-based JTC system, have been also adapted to be used in the Fresnel and Fractional Fourier domains as well as in the Gyrator domain. Nonlinear operations have been also introduced in multifactor encryption-authentication.
We demonstrate in this paper that the traditional double random phase encoding (DRPE) technique is vulnerable to ciphertext-only attack (COA). In this method, an unauthorized user (or say attacker) is assumed to be able to retrieve the corresponding plaintext from the only ciphertext under some certain condition. The proposed scheme mainly relies on a hybrid iterative phase retrieval (HIPR) algorithm, which combines various phase retrieval algorithms. With an estimation of the number of nonzero pixels (NNP) in the original plaintext, an attacker could recover the plaintext in a large extent. The simulation results show that this method is feasible and validate.
The phase-shifting interferometry-based (PSI-based) encryption is one of most typical optical encryption systems. In this paper, we demonstrate a new approach to ciphertext-only attack (COA) on PSI-based encryption, revealing that there is serious security risk in PSI-based encryption. With the proposed COA approach, an opponent can crack the ciphertexts directly without use of the keys of the system. This demonstration, as far as our best knowledge, shows the PSI technique is vulnerable to COA for the first time. A series of attack results are shown to demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the attack method. Our study reveals a critical security issue that should be taken in to account when designing an optical information security system.
Security analysis of optical encryption system based on double random phase encoding indicates that the system can be classified as a linear symmetric block-cipher cryptosystem, which may lead to a great vulnerability. Under the ciphertext-only attack (COA), an opponent can attack such a cryptosystem only on the basis of estimated support of wave function in the object plane with iterative phase retrieval methods, and subsequently deduce the phase keys in the Fourier plane easily. The ciphertext-only attack (COA) requires much less resources than other types of attacks. Estimated support of wave function in the object plane could have some translations relative to the true support, so retrieved wave function could also have translations in both the amplitude and the phase, leading to a translation of retrieved plaintext relative to original plaintext. However, attackers can take this translation as a priori knowledge to traverse estimated support in the object plane until finding the best estimated keys, which bring about the best decryption quality.