This project implements the CipherSaber-2 encryption algorithm. It is based on RC4 using a passphrase, with a 10 random byte Initialization Vector appended to the key. The initialization stage of the cipher is repeated a number of times (10 minimum) to address possible weaknesses in the cipher. Encrypted streams start with the 10 byte initialization vector. This way, two encrypted messages should never be the same.

What makes this project so powerful is that the encryption algorithm is very easy to describe and code. Here is the description, straight from the FAQ page at http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/faq.html#getRC4

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RC4 uses two arrays of eight bit bytes. The "state" array is 256 bytes long and holds a permutation of the numbers 0 through 255. The "key" array can be of any length up to 256 bytes. RC4 also uses two index variables i and j that start off as zero. All variables are eight bits long and all addition is performed modulo 256.

RC4 has two phases: key setup and ciphering. The setup phase is only done once per message and starts by initializing the entire state array so that the first state element is zero, the second is one, the third is two, and so on.
The state array is then subjected to 256 mixing operations using a loop that steps i through the values from zero to 255. Each mixing operation consists of two steps:

  • Add to the variable j the contents of the ith element of the state array and the nth element of the key, where n is equal to i modulo the length of the key.
  • Swap the ith and jth elements of the state array.

After the entire mixing loop is completed, i and j are set to zero.
During the ciphering operation, the following steps are performed for each byte of the message:

  • The variable i is incremented by one
  • The contents of the ith element of the state array is then added to j
  • The ith and jth elements of the state array are swapped and their contents are added together to form a new value n.
  • The nth element of the state array is then combined with the message byte, using a bit by bit exclusive-or operation, to form the output byte.

The same ciphering steps are performed for encryption and for decryption.

Note that in CipherSaber the RC4 key array consists of the user's CipherSaber key followed by the 10 byte initialization vector (IV).

  • When you are encrypting a file, you generate a new IV randomly and write out the 10 bytes before you write out the encrypted file bytes.
  • When you are decrypting the file, you read the IV from the first 10 bytes of the encrypted file.

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The random bytes for the Initialization Vector are generated by a modified version of "probably_random_with_TimerOne.ino" https://gist.github.com/endolith/2568571

First test that your implementation of CS-1 is working and it decodes the cstest1.cs1 and cstest2.cs1 messages at http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/, 

Then upgrade it to the more secure CS-2 by following the instructions here:  http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/faq.html#cs2  and verify it works with the test vectors provided:

The test vectors can also be downloaded here: http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/cstest.zip