What is Differential cryptanalysis?
'''Differential cryptanalysis''' is a general form of [[cryptanalysis]] applicable to [[block cipher]]s. It can be applied to [[stream cipher]]s and [[cryptographic hash function]]s. It is the study of how differences in the [[input]] can affect the resultant differences at the [[output]]. In the case of a block cipher, it refers to a set of [[Technique|techniques]] and methods for tracing differences through the network of transformations, discovering where the [[cipher]] demonstrates [[Random|non-random]] behaviour, and extend such properties to recover the secret [[key (cryptography)|key]]. Differential cryptanalysis [[Attack|attacks]] are usually [[Chosen-plaintext attack|chosen plaintext attacks]], meaning that the attacker must be able to obtain encrypted [[Encryption|ciphertexts]] for some set of [[plaintext]]s. ==Related pages== * [[Linear cryptanalysis]] {{math-stub}} [[Category:Cryptography]]