[encryption] How to choose an AES encryption mode (CBC ECB CTR OCB CFB)?

  1. Anything but ECB.
  2. If using CTR, it is imperative that you use a different IV for each message, otherwise you end up with the attacker being able to take two ciphertexts and deriving a combined unencrypted plaintext. The reason is that CTR mode essentially turns a block cipher into a stream cipher, and the first rule of stream ciphers is to never use the same Key+IV twice.
  3. There really isn't much difference in how difficult the modes are to implement. Some modes only require the block cipher to operate in the encrypting direction. However, most block ciphers, including AES, don't take much more code to implement decryption.
  4. For all cipher modes, it is important to use different IVs for each message if your messages could be identical in the first several bytes, and you don't want an attacker knowing this.