Triple DES, also known as 3DES, is a common shorthand for the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA), which is a symmetric-key block cipher.
It involves applying the DES encryption algorithm three times to each data block.
As computer processing power increased, the original DES encryption algorithm became vulnerable to brute-force attacks due to its relatively short key length.
3DES was designed as a way to provide a simple method to enhance security by increasing the key length of DES, rather than creating an entirely new block cipher algorithm.
Padding Modes
- None: No padding
- PKCS7: Padding consists of a byte sequence, with each byte padded to the length of the byte sequence
- Zeros: Padding consists of bytes set to zero
- ANSIX923: Padding consists of a byte sequence, where the last byte of the sequence indicates the length and other bytes are filled with zeros
- ISO10126: Padding consists of a byte sequence, where the last byte of the sequence indicates the length and other bytes are filled with random data
For block symmetric encryption algorithms, some operation modes require the byte length of plaintext data to be a multiple of the block size, so we must pad the plaintext data before encrypting it.