Triple DES (3DES) Encryption —  Features, Process, Advantages, and Applications | 2023 (2024)

FAQs

Triple DES (3DES) Encryption —  Features, Process, Advantages, and Applications | 2023? ›

Using three keys in a cascade provides an effective key length of 168 bits, making Triple DES more secure than single DES. Triple DES aims to address the vulnerabilities of a single DES by applying the algorithm multiple times.

Using three keys in a cascade provides an effective key length of 168 bits, making Triple DES more secure than single DES. Triple DES aims to address the vulnerabilities of a single DES by applying the algorithm multiple times.

3DES is an encryption algorithm widely used in the finance industry. It improves upon the earlier block cipher DES and brings various benefits, such as its ease of implementation in hardware and software and its widespread support among cryptographic libraries and protocols.

Difference between 3DES and DES

3DES was developed as a more secure alternative because of DES's small key length. 3DES or Triple DES was built upon DES to improve security. In 3DES, the DES algorithm is run three times with three keys; however, it is only considered secure if three separate keys are used.

Limitations of 3DES

Slow Speed: The triple-layered encryption process of 3DES makes it slower than other encryption algorithms. Limited Key Size Options: While 3DES supports variable key sizes, the maximum key size is only 192 bits, which may not be enough to meet the security needs of some applications.

3DES runs through one instance of DES, feeds that output as input to another instance of DES and finally that output goes in to a third. 2DES would be similar, but only going through two DES algorithms. The reason we use 3DES and not 2DES is that 2DES doesn't actually give us that much more security than DES.

According to draft guidance published by NIST on July 19, 2018, TDEA/3DES is officially being retired. The guidelines propose that Triple DES be deprecated for all new applications and disallowed after 2023.

3DES is a strengthening of DES introduced in 1998, because 56 bit keys had become feasible to brute force. 3DES is simply three DES encryptions with two different keys, for an effective 112 bit key; or with three different keys, for an effective 168 bit key.

Encryption algorithm Triple DES is a block cipher which is still recognized as secure, but deprecated. It has multiple vulnerabilities (eg: sweet32 attack, meet-in-the-middle attack, brute-force attack) and it is considered as weak and disallowed by National Institute of Standards and Technology after 2023.

3-KEY Triple DES

Encrypt the plaintext blocks using single DES with key K₁. Now decrypt the output of step 1 using single DES with key K₂. Finally, encrypt the output of step 2 using single DES with key K₃. The output of step 3 is the ciphertext.

What is an example of DES encryption? ›

For example, if we take the plaintext message "8787878787878787", and encrypt it with the DES key "0E329232EA6D0D73", we end up with the ciphertext "0000000000000000". If the ciphertext is decrypted with the same secret DES key "0E329232EA6D0D73", the result is the original plaintext "8787878787878787".

AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard, was established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001 to replace DES and 3DES as the go-to encryption standard. Like 3DES, AES is a symmetric key encryption algorithm that uses the same encryption key for both encrypting and decrypting data.

Triple DES provides much stronger encryption than ordinary DES but it is less secure than advanced encryption standard (AES).

3DES is the algorithm that makes triple encryption of DES; it is based on applying it three times, with three different keys, making it much safer. This method is gradually being replaced by the AES, since it is up to six times faster, however, there are still electronic payments, credit cards, etc.

Each cipher has a 128-bit block size, with key sizes of 128, 192 and 256 bits, respectively, making it exponentially stronger than the 56-bit key of DES.

A CVE released in 2016, CVE-2016-2183, disclosed a major security vulnerability in the DES and 3DES encryption algorithms. This CVE, combined with the inadequate key size of 3DES, led to NIST deprecating 3DES in 2019 and disallowing all uses (except processing already encrypted data) by the end of 2023.

Triple DES (3DES) represents a significant advancement in the field of cryptography by addressing the vulnerabilities of single and double encryption methods. Through its use of three stages of DES encryption and decryption, 3DES effectively increases the key length and resists meet-in-the-middle attacks.