General data-encryption processes

Although the fundamental concepts of enciphering and deciphering data are simple, different methods exist to process data strings that are not a multiple of eight bytes in length.

Two widely used methods for enciphering general data are defined in these ANSI standards:
  • ANSI X3.106 cipher block chaining (CBC)
  • ANSI X9.23

These methods also differ in how they define the initial chaining value (ICV).

This section describes how the Encipher and Decipher verbs implement these methods.