Format Preserving Encryption

This library provides Format Preserving Encryption (FPE) techniques for use in a zero-trust environment. These techniques are based on FPE-FF1 which is described in NIST:800-38G.

• Format Preserving Encryption (FPE)
  • Implementation
  • Using FPE
    • Encrypting Text
      • Encrypting and decrypting an alphanumeric text
      • Encrypting and decrypting a credit card number
      • Encrypting and decrypting a Chinese text with spaces
    • Encrypting Integers
    • Encrypting Floats
    • Tweaks
• Benchmarks
  • Run quick start
  • Run detailed report (Linux, MacOS)

Format Preserving Encryption (FPE)

FPE aims to encrypt plaintext while retaining its format (alphabet). FPE-FF1 is a normalized algorithm that uses symmetric encryption, but it's not as fast or secure as standardized symmetric (or public key) encryption methods like AES or ChaCha. It should only be used where the format of the ciphertext container is constrained (e.g., a fixed database schema that cannot be changed).

Implementation

The FPE implementation follows NIST specifications for FF1 (found in the NIST SP 800-38G specification).

The code is based on the cosmian_fpe directory found on GitHub, which is based on str4d/fpe. The number of Feistel rounds has been increased to 18 following the recommendations of this cryptanalysis paper.

The implementation also enforces the requirement that radix^min_len > 1_000_000. For the Alphabet and Integer FPE facilities, this requirement is met with the following parameters:

Using FPE

Cosmian FPE proposes 3 structures:

• fpe::Alphabet to encrypt text
• fpe::Integer to encrypt integers with various radixes
• fpe::Float to encrypt floating numbers

Encrypting Text

The fpe::Alphabet structure provides the ability to encrypt a plaintext using an alphabet. Characters of the plaintext that belong to the alphabet are encrypted while the others are left unchanged at their original location in the ciphertext.

An alphabet can be instantiated using the Alphabet::instantiate() method:

let hexadecimal_alphabet = Alphabet::instantiate("01234567890abcdef").unwrap();

There are multiple pre-defined alphabets available:

• Alphabet::alpha()
• Alphabet::alpha_lower()
• Alphabet::alpha_upper()
• Alphabet::numeric()
• Alphabet::hexa_decimal()
• Alphabet::alpha_numeric()
• Alphabet::chinese()
• Alphabet::latin1sup()
• Alphabet::latin1sup_alphanum()

These alphabets can easily be extended using the extend_with method

//0-9a-zA-Z
let mut alphabet = Alphabet::alphanumeric();
// add the space character
alphabet.extend_with(" ");

Encrypting and decrypting an alphanumeric text

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

let alphabet = Alphabet::alpha_numeric(); //0-9a-zA-Z

let ciphertext = alphabet.encrypt(&key, tweak, "alphanumeric").unwrap();
assert_eq!("jraqSuFWZmdH", ciphertext);

let plaintext = alphabet.decrypt(&key, tweak, &ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!("alphanumeric", plaintext);

Encrypting and decrypting a credit card number

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

let alphabet = Alphabet::numeric(); //0-9

let ciphertext = alphabet
   .encrypt(&key, tweak, "1234-1234-1234-1234")
   .unwrap();
assert_eq!("1415-4650-5562-7272", ciphertext);

let plaintext = alphabet.decrypt(&key, tweak, &ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!("1234-1234-1234-1234", plaintext);

Note: since the - character is not part of the alphabet it is preserved during encryption and decryption.

Encrypting and decrypting a Chinese text with spaces

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

let mut alphabet = Alphabet::chinese();
// add the space character to the alphabet
alphabet.extend_with(" ");

let ciphertext = alphabet.encrypt(&key, tweak, "天地玄黄 宇宙洪荒").unwrap();
assert_eq!("儖濣鈍媺惐墷礿截媃", ciphertext);

let plaintext = alphabet.decrypt(&key, tweak, &ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!("天地玄黄 宇宙洪荒", plaintext);

Note: since the space character was added to the alphabet, it is also encrypted.

Encrypting Integers

The fpe::Integer structure offers the ability to encrypt integers with a radix between 2 (binary) and 16 (hexadecimal) and up to a maximum power of this radix.

To encrypt decimal integers up to u64::MAX, use:

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

// decimal number with digits 0-9
let radix = 10_u32;
// the number of digits of the biggest number = radix^digits -1
// In this case 6 decimal digits -> 999_999
let digits = 6;

let itg = Integer::instantiate(radix, digits).unwrap();

let ciphertext = itg.encrypt(&key, tweak, 123_456_u64).unwrap();
assert_eq!(110_655_u64, ciphertext);

let plaintext = itg.decrypt(&key, tweak, ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!(123_456_u64, plaintext);

There is also support for Big Unsigned Integers

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

// decimal number with digits 0-9
let radix = 10_u32;
// the number of digits of the greatest number = radix^digits -1 = 10^20-1
let digits = 20;

// the value to encrypt: 10^17
let value = BigUint::from_str_radix("100000000000000000", radix).unwrap();

let itg = Integer::instantiate(radix, digits).unwrap();

let ciphertext = itg.encrypt_big(&key, tweak, &value).unwrap();
assert_eq!(
   BigUint::from_str_radix("65348521845006160218", radix).unwrap(),
   ciphertext
);

let plaintext = itg.decrypt_big(&key, tweak, &ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!(
   BigUint::from_str_radix("100000000000000000", radix).unwrap(),
   plaintext
);

Encrypting Floats

The fpe::Float structure provides support for encrypting floats of type f64:

let key = [0_u8; 32];
let tweak = b"unique tweak";

let flt = Float::instantiate().unwrap();
let ciphertext = flt.encrypt(&key, tweak, 123_456.789_f64).unwrap();
assert_eq!(1.170438892319619e91_f64, ciphertext);

let plaintext = flt.decrypt(&key, tweak, ciphertext).unwrap();
assert_eq!(123_456.789_f64, plaintext);

Tweaks

Tweaks are public parameters that should vary with each instance of the encryption whenever possible. Tweaks are described in NIST:800-38G: Appendix C. There is no size limit for the tweak.

Benchmarks

Run quick start

Run cargo criterion from the current directory (./crates/fpe).

Run detailed report (Linux, MacOS)

1. Install criterion and criterion-table

   cargo install cargo-criterion
   cargo install criterion-table
   

2. From the root of the project, run

   bash ./benches/benches.sh
   

3. The benchmarks are then available in ./benches/BENCHMARKS.md