AES192

AES-192 is a variant of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) that uses a 192-bit key and a 128-bit block size. It employs the Rijndael cipher, which was standardized by NIST in FIPS 197 in 2001 alongside AES-128 and AES-256. Like the other AES variants, AES-192 uses the same fundamental operations—SubBytes, ShiftRows, MixColumns, and AddRoundKey—on 4x4 byte blocks.

The key length for AES-192 is 192 bits, and the algorithm performs 12 rounds of the main transformation (with an initial AddRoundKey before the first round and a final round that omits MixColumns). The 192-bit key is expanded during the key schedule into 52 32-bit words, producing 13 round keys in total for the 12 rounds plus the initial AddRoundKey.

In terms of security, AES-192 provides a brute-force resistance on the order of 2^192, higher than AES-128 but lower than AES-256. There are no practical cryptanalytic attacks that significantly reduce this complexity. AES-192 is widely supported by cryptographic libraries and standards, though AES-128 is often preferred for its performance and comparable security margins. AES-192 remains a valid option in systems that require 192-bit keys or compatibility with existing deployments that specify this key length.