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SAS/CONNECT User's Guide

Data Encryption Algorithms

The encryption algorithms as well as the SAS Proprietary algorithm are defined as follows:

RC2
A proprietary algorithm developed by RSA Data Security, Inc., RC2 is an alternative to DES. The algorithm expands a single message by up to 8 bytes. RC2 is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits. The size of the output of the algorithm is always a multiple of the block size. The RC2 key size can range from 8 to 256 bits.

RC4
A proprietary algorithm developed by RSA Data Security, Inc., RC4 is a stream cipher. A stream cipher encrypts one byte at a time. The RC4 key size can range from 8 to 2048 bits.

Note:   The term cipher means encryption algorithm.  [cautionend]

DES
An acronym for Data Encryption Standard, DES was developed by IBM. The algorithm expands a single message by up to 8 bytes. DES is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits by using a 56-bit key.

Triple DES
Triple DES executes DES three times on the data in order to exploit a key size that is three times that of DES. The algorithm expands a single message by up to 8 bytes. DES is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits.

SAS Proprietary
This provides basic fixed encoding encryption services on all platforms and requires no additional product licenses. The algorithm expands a single message by approximately one-third. It uses a 32-bit key that is fixed.

The key sizes that are used are based on the encryption software that is available on your host and the value that is assigned to the NETENCRKEYLEN= option (see the next section).


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