• Click here to download the Windows version.
  This version is a self-extracting one with name AES_Release.exe.
  1. Download this file to a selected directory and run it by double-clicking on its icon.
  2. This program will run, create a directory AES-Release, and save all files to this directory.
  3. Double-click the program AES to run it.
• Click AES_Linux to download the Linux version. This version is a standard Unix tar.gz files with filename AES_Linux.tar.gz
  1. Download this file to a selected directory.
  2. The standard Unix way to uncompress and untar this file is to run the following commands

     gzip -d *.gz; tar xvf *.tar
     

  3. A binary executable AES will be created in the selected directory. This is the AES Visualization program.
• Click here to download the MacOS version.
  This version is a standard zip file with name AES_Mac.zip. However, the MacOS version requires some extra work to be installed properly.
  1. Download this file to a selected directory.
  2. If you are using an Unix based machine, run the following command

     unzip *.zip
     

     This will create several directories. The AES Visualization software is in AES.app/Contents/MacOS/AES
  3. If you are using a MacIntosh machine, double click the zip file and this will create an executable AES.
  4. However, you need one more step because the Qt library is not provided. The package can be downloaded from the following link (recommended): http://download.qt-project.org/archive/qt/4.8/4.8.4/qt-mac-opensource-4.8.4.dmg.

User Guide

Demo Mode Page

This page has four subpages: Overview, Encryption, Decryption and Key Expansion.

The "Overview" subpage illustrates the work flow for both encryption and decryption of the AES algorithm and provides buttons to access to "Encryption", "Decryption" and "Key Expansion" subpages.

The "Key Expansion" subpage demonstrates how the algorithm expands the forty new words. Clicking the "G" button will show the details of the G operation. The "XOR" buttons show the computation of the corresponding XOR operations.

The "Encryption" subpage contains the four major modules of encryption: Substitute Bytes, Shift Rows, Mix Columns and Add Round Key for the first round.

• "Substitute Bytes" demonstrates how the message after the first "Add Round Key" module has been transformed using S-box. Click the "Random" button to generate a 128-bit original message and a 128-bit key. The "Add Round Key" button will lead users to the corresponding module. Clicking the "Expand Key" button will switch to the "Key Expansion" subpage. Select one word from the left matrix and click the "Check S-box" button to show how the resulting word is transformed using the S-box table. To advance to the next module, click the "Shift Rows" button.
• "Shift Rows" shows how the result from the "Substitute Bytes" module has been shifted by byte rotation. Click the "Mix Columns" button to access to the next module.
• "Mix Columns" demonstrates how the input matrix has been mixed with a given matrix by applying the matrix multiplication defined by GF(2⁸) multiplication and addition. Clicking the input matrix will allow users to select one column. Click the "X" and "+" buttons to show details of GF(2⁸) multiplications and additions, respectively. To advance to the next module, click the "Add Round Key" button.
• "Add Round Key" shows how the result from "Mix Columns" has been XORed with the corresponding round keys. Select one word from input or key matrix to check the corresponding XOR operation.

Practice Mode Page

This page allows you to practice the calculation of AES encryption step by step. Click the "Start" button to enter the practice mode.

To check correctness of the answer, click the "Check Ans" button.

To show the answer of each question, click the "Show Ans" and the answer will be automatically filled in.

Page switching is disabled during practicing.

Click the "Quit" to leave the practice mode.