WGU Introduction-to-Cryptography Practice Exam Questions & Answers

A polyalphabetic substitution cipher uses multiple substitution alphabets rather than a single fixed mapping. The classic cipher that uses a keyword to select shifting alphabets across the message is the Vigenre cipher. In Vigenre, each plaintext letter is shifted by an amount determined by the corresponding key letter (repeating the keyword as needed). For example, a keyword like ''YELLOW'' is aligned under the plaintext; each key character defines a Caesar shift (A=0, B=1, ...) applied to the plaintext character, producing ciphertext. This rotation of alphabets across positions makes Vigenre more resistant to simple frequency analysis than monoalphabetic substitution, because the same plaintext letter may encrypt to different ciphertext letters depending on its position relative to the key. The Pigpen cipher is a symbol substitution cipher, Caesar is monoalphabetic with a single shift, and Playfair is a digraph substitution cipher using a 55 key square, not the repeating-key polyalphabetic method described. Therefore, the correct cipher is Vigenre.

In classic WEP deployments, RC4 was used with what is commonly called ''40-bit WEP'' (also labeled ''64-bit WEP'' because it combines a 40-bit secret key with a 24-bit IV to form a 64-bit RC4 seed). The key attribute emphasized in many foundational descriptions of WEP is this 40-bit shared secret length, which was originally chosen due to export restrictions and legacy constraints. Although ''104-bit WEP'' (sometimes called ''128-bit WEP,'' again counting the 24-bit IV) also existed, the option set here points to the historically standard and widely referenced attribute: a 40-bit key when RC4 is used in WEP. Importantly, WEP's security failure is not only about key size; the 24-bit IV is too small and repeats frequently, and WEP's key scheduling vulnerabilities combined with IV reuse allow attackers to recover the secret key with enough captured frames. Still, among the given options, the correct attribute is the 40-bit key.

Lightweight cryptography refers to cryptographic primitives and profiles engineered for environments where computational resources are constrained---limited CPU, memory, power, bandwidth, and code size---while still requiring robust security. Typical targets include IoT sensors, embedded controllers, smart cards, RFID, wearables, and many mobile or edge deployments. The design goals emphasize efficiency (low energy consumption, small silicon area for hardware, small firmware footprint) and practical performance under constraints, often while providing modern security properties like authenticated encryption (confidentiality + integrity) and secure hashing. Lightweight cryptography is not simply ''stronger encryption''; it balances security with implementability in constrained systems. It is also not restricted to military settings and is not inherently outdated---many lightweight designs are modern and motivated by the rapid growth of IoT and pervasive computing. Because constrained devices are common entry points for attackers, having secure primitives that fit those devices is a critical part of contemporary security architecture. Therefore, the best description is cryptographic algorithms designed for resource-constrained environments.

WPA with TKIP was designed as an interim improvement over WEP while still using the RC4 stream cipher for compatibility with legacy hardware. TKIP addresses WEP's major weaknesses by introducing per-packet key mixing, a message integrity mechanism (''Michael''), and replay protection. In TKIP, the encryption key used with RC4 is 128 bits. Practically, TKIP derives a per-packet RC4 key from a 128-bit temporal key (TK), the transmitter's MAC address, and a sequence counter (TKIP Sequence Counter, TSC) to avoid the simple IV reuse patterns that made WEP easy to break. Even with these improvements, TKIP has known weaknesses and is deprecated in favor of WPA2/WPA3 using AES-based CCMP/GCMP. But strictly for the question asked, TKIP's RC4 keying material is based on a 128-bit key size, not 40/56-bit legacy sizes and not 256-bit.

ECB (Electronic Codebook) mode encrypts each block independently with the same key, which makes it naturally amenable to parallel processing: multiple blocks can be encrypted or decrypted simultaneously because there is no chaining dependency between blocks. This is in contrast to CBC encryption, where each plaintext block is XORed with the previous ciphertext block, creating a dependency that prevents straightforward parallelization of encryption (though CBC decryption can be parallelized because ciphertext blocks are already known). Feedback modes like CFB and OFB generate keystream material sequentially, where each step depends on the previous state, limiting parallelism. While ECB's parallelism is an implementation advantage, it is widely discouraged for most real data because it leaks patterns---identical plaintext blocks produce identical ciphertext blocks. Modern systems prefer parallel-friendly and secure modes such as CTR or GCM, but among the listed options, the mode most known for parallel processing is ECB due to block independence. Therefore, the correct answer is Electronic Codebook (ECB).

CBC mode introduces chaining between blocks to prevent the pattern leakage inherent in ECB. In CBC, each plaintext block is XORed with the previous ciphertext block before being encrypted with the block cipher. For the first block, CBC uses an Initialization Vector (IV) to serve as the ''previous ciphertext'' input. This makes encryption of each block dependent on the previous block's ciphertext, which is exactly the defining characteristic described in option A. CBC does not generate a continuous stream of key material---that describes stream ciphers or stream-like modes such as CTR/OFB. CBC also does not require a different key per operation; the same symmetric key is reused, while the IV must be fresh/unpredictable to ensure semantic security. The block size is determined by the underlying block cipher (e.g., AES is 128-bit blocks, DES/3DES are 64-bit blocks), not a fixed 32-bit size for CBC itself. Because CBC is not inherently authenticated, best practice is to pair it with a MAC (Encrypt-then-MAC) or use an AEAD mode instead.