Key whitening is a cryptographic technique used to enhance the security of block ciphers and other cryptographic algorithms. The main idea behind key whitening is to add additional randomness to the encryption process, thereby making it more resistant to cryptanalysis and attacks. In key whitening, extra bits of key material, called whitening keys, are incorporated into the encryption process. This is typically done by XORing (exclusive OR) these whitening keys with the plaintext before encryption and/or with the ciphertext after encryption.
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