Multiple choice general knowledge

Which type of attack was the reason that Double DES(2DES) was quickly discarded in favor of Triple DES(3DS) as a viable enhancement to the DES encryption?

  1. Chosen Plaintext

  2. Know plaintext

  3. Meet-in-the-middle

  4. Man-in-the-middle
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The meet-in-the-middle attack is a cryptanalysis technique that works on double encryption schemes like 2DES. It reduces the effective security from 2^56 to 2^57 by attacking both encryption directions simultaneously and comparing intermediate results. This attack was the primary reason 2DES was abandoned and 3DES was adopted instead. Man-in-the-middle is a different attack involving intercepting communications.

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