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I am studying the RC4 stream cipher, particularly when it used to be applied in the TLS/SSL protocol.

Is it safe to say the KSA acts like an extractor taking in the shared secret key, k (between 128bits and 256bits) and then blows it up to a scrambled 256 byte array?

Then this is essentially used as a "seed" for the PRGA that comes next?

If the above is correct, then what is the difference then between an extractor and a key-scheduling algorithm?

NOTE: I have zero intention of using RC4 in any TLS application, this is purely for my own education.

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  • $\begingroup$ What do the acronyms LISA and PRGA mean? $\endgroup$ – SEJPM♦ Dec 17 '16 at 18:16
  • $\begingroup$ PRGA stands for the Pseudo Random Generator Algorithm. I don't know what you mean by LISA though. $\endgroup$ – guy Dec 17 '16 at 19:51
  • $\begingroup$ Damn auto-correct. I meant KSA. $\endgroup$ – SEJPM♦ Dec 17 '16 at 20:41
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, Key-Scheduling Algorithm (KSA). Here is quick overview of how they work in the context of RC4. $\endgroup$ – guy Dec 17 '16 at 21:05
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It would not work as a randomness extractor as there is a detectable correlation between the key, the internal state, and the output.

http://saluc.engr.uconn.edu/refs/stream_cipher/fluhrer01weaknessRC4.pdf https://eprint.iacr.org/2011/448.pdf

It does expand the key by concatenating it until it fills a 256-byte array and it is used to mix the internal state. So it acts like it, but it is not one, and should not be used as one.

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  • $\begingroup$ I guess a follow-up would be, why not use an extractor then? $\endgroup$ – guy Dec 17 '16 at 20:20
  • $\begingroup$ @tbone that's usually how RC4 is used. Even in WPA, the master secret is weakly hashed. $\endgroup$ – user3201068 Dec 25 '16 at 6:42

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