What are the advantages and disadvantages of stream versus block ciphers|Legit essays

Stream ciphers and block ciphers are both types of symmetric-key encryption, which means they use the same key for both encryption and decryption.

Advantages of stream ciphers:

• They are typically faster and require less computational power than block ciphers.
• They can encrypt data in real-time, as it is being transmitted.
• They can encrypt individual bits or bytes of data, which makes them well suited for encrypting data streams or communications.

Disadvantages of stream ciphers:

• They are not well suited for encrypting large amounts of data, such as entire files or disk drives, because they do not divide the plaintext into fixed-size blocks.
• They may be vulnerable to certain types of attacks, such as replay attacks, if the same keystream is reused.

Advantages of block ciphers:

• They can encrypt large amounts of data, such as entire files or disk drives.
• They divide the plaintext into fixed-size blocks, which can make them more resistant to certain types of attacks.
• They are well-suited for use in other cryptographic primitives, such as message authentication codes (MACs) and cryptographic hash functions.

Disadvantages of block ciphers:

• They are typically slower and require more computational power than stream ciphers.
• They cannot encrypt data in real-time, as it is being transmitted.