A Swan-like note for a family of binary pentanomials

In this note, we employ the techniques of Swan (Pacific J. Math. 12(3): 1099-1106, 1962) with the purpose of studying the parity of the number of the irreducible factors of the penatomial $X^n+X^{3s}+X^{2s}+X^{s}+1\in\mathbb{F}_2[X]$, where $s$ is even and $n>3s$. Our results imply that if $n \not\equiv \pm 1 \pmod{8}$, then the polynomial in question is reducible

Low Complexity Cubing and Cube Root Computation over \F_{3^m} in Polynomial Basis

We present low complexity formulae for the computation of cubing and cube root over \F_{3^m} constructed using special classes of irreducible trinomials, tetranomials and pentanomials. We show that for all those special classes of polynomials, field cubing and field cube root operation have the same computational complexity when implemented in hardware or software platforms. As one of the main applications of these two field arithmetic operations lies in pairing-based cryptography, we also give in this paper a selection of irreducible polynomials that lead to low cost field cubing and field cube root computations for supersingular elliptic curves defined over \F_{3^m}, where $m$ is a prime number in the pairing-based cryptographic range of interest, namely, $m\in [47, 541]$

XOR-counts and lightweight multiplication with fixed elements in binary finite fields

XOR-metrics measure the efficiency of certain arithmetic operations in binary finite fields. We prove some new results about two different XOR-metrics that have been used in the past. In particular, we disprove an existing conjecture about those XOR-metrics. We consider implementations of multiplication with one fixed element in a binary finite field. Here we achieve a complete characterization of all elements whose multiplication matrix can be implemented using exactly 2 XOR-operations. Further, we provide new results and examples in more general cases, showing that significant improvements in implementations are possible

Mathematical aspects of the design and security of block ciphers

Block ciphers constitute a major part of modern symmetric cryptography. A mathematical analysis is necessary to ensure the security of the cipher. In this thesis, I develop several new contributions for the analysis of block ciphers. I determine cryptographic properties of several special cryptographically interesting mappings like almost perfect nonlinear functions. I also give some new results both on the resistance of functions against differential-linear attacks as well as on the efficiency of implementation of certain block ciphers