A Mode of Operation with Partial Encryption and Message Integrity

At the recent AES Modes of Operation Conference, several modes of operation were proposed for using a block cipher to provide both con dentiality and authentication. These modes require only a little more work than the cost of encryption alone, and come with proofs of security. However, these modes require the entire message to be sent in encrypted form. This can cause problems in situations where some of the message neeeds to be sent in plaintext while still being authenticated. This paper describes a simple variation that allows any choice of message blocks to be sent in plaintext form rather than in encrypted form. This mode, Partial Encryption with Message Integrity (PEMI), is shown to be secure for message integrity and message secrecy.