Technologies for Encryption

Encryption Algorithms

The following encryption algorithms are used by SASProprietary and SAS/SECURE:

RC2

is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits. A block cipher is an encryption algorithm that divides a message into blocks and encrypts each block. The RC2 key size ranges from 8 to 256 bits. SAS/SECURE uses a configurable key size of 40 or 128 bits. (The NETENCRYPTKEYLEN= system option is used to configure the key length.) The RC2 algorithm expands a single message by a maximum of 8 bytes. RC2 is a proprietary algorithm developed by RSA Data Security, Inc.

Note: RC2 is supported in SAS/SECURE and SSL. [cautionend]

RC4

is a stream cipher. A stream cipher is an encryption algorithm that encrypts data 1 byte at a time. The RC4 key size ranges from 8 to 2048 bits. SAS/SECURE uses a configurable key size of 40 or 128 bits. (The NETENCRYPTKEYLEN= system option is used to configure the key length.) RC4 is a proprietary algorithm developed by RSA Data Security, Inc.

Note: RC4 is supported in SAS/SECURE and SSL. [cautionend]

DES (Data Encryption Standard)

is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits by using a 56-bit key. The algorithm expands a single message by a maximum of 8 bytes. DES was originally developed by IBM but is now published as a U.S. Government Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 46-3).

Note: DES is supported in SAS/SECURE and SSL. [cautionend]

TripleDES

is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 64 bits. TripleDES executes the DES algorithm on a data block three times in succession by using a single, 56-bit key. This has the effect of encrypting the data by using a 168-bit key. TripleDES expands a single message by a maximum of 8 bytes. TripleDES is defined in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X9.52 specification.

Note: TripleDES is supported in SAS/SECURE and SSL. [cautionend]

SASProprietary

is a cipher that provides basic fixed encoding encryption services under all operating environments that are supported by SAS. Included in Base SAS, SASProprietary does not require additional SAS product licenses. The algorithm expands a single message to approximately one-third by using 32-bit encoding.

Note: SASProprietary is supported only by the SASProprietary encryption provider. [cautionend]

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

is a block cipher that encrypts data in blocks of 128 bits by using a 256-bit key. AES expands a single message by a maximum of 16 bytes. Based on its DES predecessor, AES has been adopted as the encryption standard by the U.S. Government, and is one of the most popular algorithms that is used in symmetric key cryptography. AES is published as a U.S. Government Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 197).

Note: AES is supported in SAS/SECURE and SSL. [cautionend]

Here is a summary of the encryption algorithms, by operating environment:

Encryption Algorithms Supported by Operating Environments
	Operating Environments
Encryption Algorithms	OpenVMS	UNIX	Windows	z/OS
SASProprietary	X	X	X	X
RC2		X	X	X
RC4		X	X	X
DES		X	X	X
TripleDES		X	X	X
SSL	X	X	X	X
AES		X	X	X

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