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CISSP · Question #32

What principle requires that changes to the plaintext affect many parts of the ciphertext?

The correct answer is A. Diffusion. Diffusion is the principle that requires that changes to the plaintext affect many parts of the ciphertext. Diffusion is a property of a good encryption algorithm that aims to spread the influence of each plaintext bit over many ciphertext bits, so that a small change in the plai

Submitted by haruto_sh· Mar 5, 2026Security Architecture and Engineering

Question

What principle requires that changes to the plaintext affect many parts of the ciphertext?

Options

  • ADiffusion
  • BEncapsulation
  • CObfuscation
  • DPermutation

How the community answered

(32 responses)
  • A
    94% (30)
  • B
    3% (1)
  • D
    3% (1)

Explanation

Diffusion is the principle that requires that changes to the plaintext affect many parts of the ciphertext. Diffusion is a property of a good encryption algorithm that aims to spread the influence of each plaintext bit over many ciphertext bits, so that a small change in the plaintext results in a large change in the ciphertext. Diffusion can increase the security of the encryption by making it harder for an attacker to analyze the statistical patterns or correlations between the plaintext and the ciphertext. Encapsulation, obfuscation, and permutation are not principles that require that changes to the plaintext affect many parts of the ciphertext, as they are related to different aspects of encryption or security.

Topics

#cryptography#diffusion#plaintext#ciphertext

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