What is the encryption method used by XCOMENCR

Products

• XCOM Data Transport
• XCOM Data Transport - Windows
• XCOM Data Transport - Linux PC
• XCOM Data Transport - z/OS

Issue/Introduction

• What encryption method cipher is used by the XCOM encryption utility XCOMENCR to encrypt a password?
• Is there any way to decrypt the encrypted password?

Environment

XCOM™ Data Transport® for Windows
XCOM™ Data Transport® for UNIX
XCOM™ Data Transport® for Linux
XCOM™ Data Transport® for z/OS

Resolution

XCOMENCR is a proprietary multi key algorithm using 72 -bit and 32-bit keys. The encryption key is different each time when the encryption routine is called to encrypt a password. There is no utility to decrypt the encrypted password as that would be a vulnerability.

In XCOM, password encryption happens in two modes: 

• Password encryption at rest. This is when the password is saved in the configuration files and the XCOMENCR utility is used to encrypt the password in those configuration files.
• Password encryption at transmission. This is when XCOM communicates password details with its XCOM partner.

By default, XCOM uses its proprietary encryption mechanism for transmission.
The above applies to LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows) platforms and to z/OS.

On LUW , starting with XCOM 11.6, the TRNENCRL_CIPHER/STCTRNENCRL_CIPHER and TRNENCRR_CIPHER  parameters allow configuration of industry-standard encryption ciphers to encrypt the passwords during transmissions. In this case, the cipher algorithm negotiated between the XCOM partners and the encryption key gets generated dynamically for each transfer. See: Set Up Transmission Password Encryption