Cybersecurity Lab
Investigate how encryption algorithms protect data and what makes them vulnerable. Run brute force simulations, measure crack times for different key lengths, test password strength, and observe the avalanche effect in hash functions.
Guided Experiment: Cracking Caesar
How many attempts will it take to crack a Caesar cipher? Can you predict why this cipher is considered insecure?
Write your hypothesis in the Lab Report panel, then click Next.
Brute Force Simulation
Click Run to start the brute force simulation
The simulation will attempt to crack the cipher and measure timing
Controls
Security Analysis
Password Strength
Enter a password above to analyze its strength
Avalanche Effect
Data Table
(0 rows)| # | Trial | Cipher | Key Length | Time to Crack(ms) | Keyspace Size | Security Rating |
|---|
Reference Guide
Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption
Symmetric encryption (Caesar, Vigenère, AES) uses the same key for encryption and decryption. Both parties must share the key securely.
Asymmetric encryption (RSA) uses a public/private key pair. Anyone can encrypt with the public key, but only the private key holder can decrypt. This solves the key distribution problem.
Password Entropy
Entropy measures the unpredictability of a password. Higher entropy means more possible combinations and longer brute force crack times.
Where L is the password length and N is the character set size (26 for lowercase, 62 for alphanumeric, 95 for all printable ASCII). A password with 80+ bits of entropy is considered strong.
Brute Force Complexity
A brute force attack tries every possible key until finding the correct one. The number of keys to try is the keyspace size.
For a Vigenère cipher with alphabet size 26 and key length L, the keyspace grows exponentially. This is why longer keys provide dramatically better security.
Hash Functions
A hash function maps input of any size to a fixed-size output (the hash or digest). Good hash functions have the avalanche property: changing a single bit in the input changes roughly 50% of the output bits.
Hashes are one-way: you cannot recover the input from the hash. They are used for password storage, digital signatures, and data integrity checks. Common algorithms include SHA-256 and BLAKE2.