What cipher mode is usually used for network traffic encryption?

Question

I'm currently teaching myself about cryptography with the intentions of learning more about cryptanalysis. As of now I'm learning about cipher modes! I understand that I should be looking into CBC, CFB, and OFB.

I understand that CBC mode is preferable when it comes to enciphering files and such but which mode is preferred for enciphering networking protocols?

I know that ECB mode is used for enciphering random data and is vulnerable to replay attacks. Though since it's easy to crypanalyze my assumption is that it shouldn't be used to protect the confidentiality of network data.

I'm open to the idea that my assumptions could be wrong. So once again, What is the best cipher mode to use for the encryption of data being sent over a tcp socket?

my goal this to implement AES though I still have many leaps to take. If the cipher modes can be used with other algorithms. please, don't hold back your knowledge!

Answer 1

Modern network traffic encryption uses GCM by default.

ECB is used for teaching students about encryption. It's not really useful for anything else.

CBC is the simplest secure mode for static files, but it lacks authentication, so should never be used over a vulnerable channel (network). It's been obsoleted or deprecated from such uses.

It's not really ideal for files either, just simple. File encryption is generally best served by GCM-SIV (opinions will vary). For disk encryption the current industry-standard mode is XTS.

GCM combines most of the performance of CTR with good security, authentication and moderate overhead. If you plant to implement AES, use open source GCM implementations. Write only as much of your own code as necessary to integrate and call third-party libraries.