Problems with the normal use of cryptography for providing security on unclassified networks

Abstract

The normal use of cryptography in unclassified computing systems often fails to provide the level of protection that the system designers and users would expect. This is partially caused by confusion of cryptographic keys and user passwords, and by underestimations of the power of known plaintext attacks. The situation is worsenned by performance constraints and occasionally by the system builder’s gross misunderstandings of the cryptographic algorithm and protocol.