94 research outputs found
Analysis and Design of Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithms
This doctoral thesis is dedicated to the analysis and the design of
symmetric cryptographic algorithms.
In the first part of the dissertation, we deal with fault-based attacks
on cryptographic circuits which belong to the field of active implementation
attacks and aim to retrieve secret keys stored on such chips. Our main focus
lies on the cryptanalytic aspects of those attacks. In particular, we target
block ciphers with a lightweight and (often) non-bijective key schedule where
the derived subkeys are (almost) independent from each other. An attacker who is
able to reconstruct one of the subkeys is thus not necessarily able to directly
retrieve other subkeys or even the secret master key by simply reversing the key
schedule. We introduce a framework based on differential fault analysis that
allows to attack block ciphers with an arbitrary number of independent subkeys
and which rely on a substitution-permutation network. These methods are then
applied to the lightweight block ciphers LED and PRINCE and we show in both
cases how to recover the secret master key requiring only a small number of
fault injections. Moreover, we investigate approaches that utilize algebraic
instead of differential techniques for the fault analysis and discuss advantages
and drawbacks. At the end of the first part of the dissertation, we explore
fault-based attacks on the block cipher Bel-T which also has a lightweight key
schedule but is not based on a substitution-permutation network but instead on
the so-called Lai-Massey scheme. The framework mentioned above is thus not
usable against Bel-T. Nevertheless, we also present techniques for the case of
Bel-T that enable full recovery of the secret key in a very efficient way using
differential fault analysis.
In the second part of the thesis, we focus on authenticated encryption
schemes. While regular ciphers only protect privacy of processed data,
authenticated encryption schemes also secure its authenticity and integrity.
Many of these ciphers are additionally able to protect authenticity and
integrity of so-called associated data. This type of data is transmitted
unencrypted but nevertheless must be protected from being tampered with during
transmission. Authenticated encryption is nowadays the standard technique to
protect in-transit data. However, most of the currently deployed schemes have
deficits and there are many leverage points for improvements. With NORX we
introduce a novel authenticated encryption scheme supporting associated data.
This algorithm was designed with high security, efficiency in both hardware and
software, simplicity, and robustness against side-channel attacks in mind. Next
to its specification, we present special features, security goals,
implementation details, extensive performance measurements and discuss
advantages over currently deployed standards. Finally, we describe our
preliminary security analysis where we investigate differential and rotational
properties of NORX. Noteworthy are in particular the newly developed
techniques for differential cryptanalysis of NORX which exploit the power of
SAT- and SMT-solvers and have the potential to be easily adaptable to other
encryption schemes as well.Diese Doktorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Analyse und dem Entwurf von
symmetrischen kryptographischen Algorithmen.
Im ersten Teil der Dissertation befassen wir uns mit fehlerbasierten Angriffen
auf kryptographische Schaltungen, welche dem Gebiet der aktiven
Seitenkanalangriffe zugeordnet werden und auf die Rekonstruktion geheimer
Schlüssel abzielen, die auf diesen Chips gespeichert sind. Unser Hauptaugenmerk
liegt dabei auf den kryptoanalytischen Aspekten dieser Angriffe. Insbesondere
beschäftigen wir uns dabei mit Blockchiffren, die leichtgewichtige und eine
(oft) nicht-bijektive Schlüsselexpansion besitzen, bei denen die erzeugten
Teilschlüssel voneinander (nahezu) unabhängig sind. Ein Angreifer, dem es
gelingt einen Teilschlüssel zu rekonstruieren, ist dadurch nicht in der Lage
direkt weitere Teilschlüssel oder sogar den Hauptschlüssel abzuleiten indem er
einfach die Schlüsselexpansion umkehrt. Wir stellen Techniken basierend auf
differenzieller Fehleranalyse vor, die es ermöglichen Blockchiffren zu
analysieren, welche eine beliebige Anzahl unabhängiger Teilschlüssel einsetzen
und auf Substitutions-Permutations Netzwerken basieren. Diese Methoden werden im
Anschluss auf die leichtgewichtigen Blockchiffren LED und PRINCE angewandt und
wir zeigen in beiden Fällen wie der komplette geheime Schlüssel mit einigen
wenigen Fehlerinjektionen rekonstruiert werden kann. Darüber hinaus untersuchen
wir Methoden, die algebraische statt differenzielle Techniken der Fehleranalyse
einsetzen und diskutieren deren Vor- und Nachteile. Am Ende des ersten Teils der
Dissertation befassen wir uns mit fehlerbasierten Angriffen auf die Blockchiffre
Bel-T, welche ebenfalls eine leichtgewichtige Schlüsselexpansion besitzt jedoch
nicht auf einem Substitutions-Permutations Netzwerk sondern auf dem sogenannten
Lai-Massey Schema basiert. Die oben genannten Techniken können daher bei Bel-T
nicht angewandt werden. Nichtsdestotrotz werden wir auch für den Fall von Bel-T
Verfahren vorstellen, die in der Lage sind den vollständigen geheimen Schlüssel
sehr effizient mit Hilfe von differenzieller Fehleranalyse zu rekonstruieren.
Im zweiten Teil der Doktorarbeit beschäftigen wir uns mit authentifizierenden
Verschlüsselungsverfahren. Während gewöhnliche Chiffren nur die Vertraulichkeit
der verarbeiteten Daten sicherstellen, gewährleisten authentifizierende
Verschlüsselungsverfahren auch deren Authentizität und Integrität. Viele dieser
Chiffren sind darüber hinaus in der Lage auch die Authentizität und Integrität
von sogenannten assoziierten Daten zu gewährleisten. Daten dieses Typs werden in
nicht-verschlüsselter Form übertragen, müssen aber dennoch gegen unbefugte
Veränderungen auf dem Transportweg geschützt sein. Authentifizierende
Verschlüsselungsverfahren bilden heutzutage die Standardtechnologie um Daten
während der Übertragung zu beschützen. Aktuell eingesetzte Verfahren weisen
jedoch oftmals Defizite auf und es existieren vielfältige Ansatzpunkte für
Verbesserungen. Mit NORX stellen wir ein neuartiges authentifizierendes
Verschlüsselungsverfahren vor, welches assoziierte Daten unterstützt. Dieser
Algorithmus wurde vor allem im Hinblick auf Einsatzgebiete mit hohen
Sicherheitsanforderungen, Effizienz in Hardware und Software, Einfachheit, und
Robustheit gegenüber Seitenkanalangriffen entwickelt. Neben der Spezifikation
präsentieren wir besondere Eigenschaften, angestrebte Sicherheitsziele, Details
zur Implementierung, umfassende Performanz-Messungen und diskutieren Vorteile
gegenüber aktuellen Standards. Schließlich stellen wir Ergebnisse unserer
vorläufigen Sicherheitsanalyse vor, bei der wir uns vor allem auf differenzielle
Merkmale und Rotationseigenschaften von NORX konzentrieren. Erwähnenswert sind
dabei vor allem die für die differenzielle Kryptoanalyse von NORX entwickelten
Techniken, die auf die Effizienz von SAT- und SMT-Solvern zurückgreifen und das
Potential besitzen relativ einfach auch auf andere Verschlüsselungsverfahren
übertragen werden zu können
Contributions to Confidentiality and Integrity Algorithms for 5G
The confidentiality and integrity algorithms in cellular networks protect the transmission of user and signaling data over the air between users and the network, e.g., the base stations. There are three standardised cryptographic suites for confidentiality and integrity protection in 4G, which are based on the AES, SNOW 3G, and ZUC primitives, respectively. These primitives are used for providing a 128-bit security level and are usually implemented in hardware, e.g., using IP (intellectual property) cores, thus can be quite efficient. When we come to 5G, the innovative network architecture and high-performance demands pose new challenges to security. For the confidentiality and integrity protection, there are some new requirements on the underlying cryptographic algorithms. Specifically, these algorithms should: 1) provide 256 bits of security to protect against attackers equipped with quantum computing capabilities; and 2) provide at least 20 Gbps (Gigabits per second) speed in pure software environments, which is the downlink peak data rate in 5G. The reason for considering software environments is that the encryption in 5G will likely be moved to the cloud and implemented in software. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate existing algorithms in 4G, checking if they can satisfy the 5G requirements in terms of security and speed, and possibly propose new dedicated algorithms targeting these goals. This is the motivation of this thesis, which focuses on the confidentiality and integrity algorithms for 5G. The results can be summarised as follows.1. We investigate the security of SNOW 3G under 256-bit keys and propose two linear attacks against it with complexities 2172 and 2177, respectively. These cryptanalysis results indicate that SNOW 3G cannot provide the full 256-bit security level. 2. We design some spectral tools for linear cryptanalysis and apply these tools to investigate the security of ZUC-256, the 256-bit version of ZUC. We propose a distinguishing attack against ZUC-256 with complexity 2236, which is 220 faster than exhaustive key search. 3. We design a new stream cipher called SNOW-V in response to the new requirements for 5G confidentiality and integrity protection, in terms of security and speed. SNOW-V can provide a 256-bit security level and achieve a speed as high as 58 Gbps in software based on our extensive evaluation. The cipher is currently under evaluation in ETSI SAGE (Security Algorithms Group of Experts) as a promising candidate for 5G confidentiality and integrity algorithms. 4. We perform deeper cryptanalysis of SNOW-V to ensure that two common cryptanalysis techniques, guess-and-determine attacks and linear cryptanalysis, do not apply to SNOW-V faster than exhaustive key search. 5. We introduce two minor modifications in SNOW-V and propose an extreme performance variant, called SNOW-Vi, in response to the feedback about SNOW-V that some use cases are not fully covered. SNOW-Vi covers more use cases, especially some platforms with less capabilities. The speeds in software are increased by 50% in average over SNOW-V and can be up to 92 Gbps.Besides these works on 5G confidentiality and integrity algorithms, the thesis is also devoted to local pseudorandom generators (PRGs). 6. We investigate the security of local PRGs and propose two attacks against some constructions instantiated on the P5 predicate. The attacks improve existing results with a large gap and narrow down the secure parameter regime. We also extend the attacks to other local PRGs instantiated on general XOR-AND and XOR-MAJ predicates and provide some insight in the choice of safe parameters
Investigations into Decrypting Live Secure Traffic in Virtual Environments
Malicious agents increasingly use encrypted tunnels to communicate with external servers. Communications may contain ransomware keys, stolen banking details, or other confidential information. Rapid discovery of communicated contents through decrypting tunnelled traffic can support effective means of dealing with these malicious activities.Decrypting communications requires knowledge of cryptographic algorithms and artefacts, such as encryption keys and initialisation vectors. Such artefacts may exist in volatile memory when software applications encrypt. Virtualisation technologies can enable the acquisition of virtual machine memory to support the discovery of these cryptographic artefacts.A framework is constructed to investigate the decryption of potentially malicious communications using novel approaches to identify candidate initialisation vectors, and use these to discover candidate keys. The framework focuses on communications that use the Secure Shell and Transport Layer Security protocols in virtualised environments for different operating systems, protocols, encryption algorithms, and software implementations. The framework minimises virtual machine impact, and functions at an elevated level to make detection by virtual machine software difficult.The framework analyses Windows and Linux memory and validates decrypts for both protocols when the Advanced Encryption Standard symmetric block or ChaCha20 symmetric stream algorithms are used for encryption. It also investigates communications originating from malware clients, such as bot and ransomware, that use Windows cryptographic libraries.The framework correctly decrypted tunnelled traffic with near certainty in almost all experiments. The analysis durations ranged from sub-second to less than a minute, demonstrating that decryption of malicious activity before network session completion is possible. This can enable in-line detection of unknown malicious agents, timely discovery of ransomware keys, and knowledge of exfiltrated confidential information
Primitive Specification for SOBER-128
SOBER-128 joins the SOBER family of stream ciphers, with the added functionality of incorporating a Message Authentication Code generator if required. SOBER-128 draws on the research into the previous SOBER ciphers: the design does not differ significantly from its predecessor SOBER-t32. The biggest change is the replacement of the stuttering with a strengthened non-linear function. SOBER-128 is faster and more secure than SOBER-t32
Performance-efficient cryptographic primitives in constrained devices
PhD ThesisResource-constrained devices are small, low-cost, usually fixed function and very limitedresource devices. They are constrained in terms of memory, computational capabilities,
communication bandwidth and power. In the last decade, we have seen widespread use of
these devices in health care, smart homes and cities, sensor networks, wearables, automotive
systems, and other fields. Consequently, there has been an increase in the research activities
in the security of these devices, especially in how to design and implement cryptography that
meets the devices’ extreme resource constraints.
Cryptographic primitives are low-level cryptographic algorithms used to construct security protocols that provide security, authenticity, and integrity of the messages. The building
blocks of the primitives, which are built heavily on mathematical theories, are computationally complex and demands considerable computing resources. As a result, most of these
primitives are either too large to fit on resource-constrained devices or highly inefficient
when implemented on them.
There have been many attempts to address this problem in the literature where cryptography engineers modify conventional primitives into lightweight versions or build new
lightweight primitives from scratch. Unfortunately, both solutions suffer from either reduced
security, low performance, or high implementation cost.
This thesis investigates the performance of the conventional cryptographic primitives and
explores the effect of their different building blocks and design choices on their performance.
It also studies the impact of the various implementations approaches and optimisation
techniques on their performance. Moreover, it investigates the limitations imposed by the
tight processing and storage capabilities in constrained devices in implementing cryptography.
Furthermore, it evaluates the performance of many newly designed lightweight cryptographic
primitives and investigates the resources required to run them with acceptable performance.
The thesis aims to provide an insight into the performance of the cryptographic primitives and
the resource needed to run them with acceptable performance. This will help in providing
solutions that balance performance, security, and resource requirements for these devices.The Institute of
Public Administration in Riyadh, and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in
Londo
TriviA: A Fast and Secure Authenticated Encryption Scheme
In this paper, we propose a new hardware friendly authen- ticated encryption (AE) scheme TriviA based on (i) a stream cipher for generating keys for the ciphertext and the tag, and (ii) a pairwise in- dependent hash to compute the tag. We have adopted one of the ISO- standardized stream ciphers for lightweight cryptography, namely Triv- ium, to obtain our underlying stream cipher. This new stream cipher has a state that is a little larger than the state of Trivium to accommodate a 128-bit secret key and IV. Our pairwise independent hash is also an adaptation of the EHC or “Encode-Hash-Combine” hash, that requires the optimum number of field multiplications and hence requires small hardware footprint. We have implemented the design in synthesizable RTL. Pre-layout synthesis, using 65 nm standard cell technology under typical operating conditions, reveals that TriviA is able to achieve a high throughput of 91.2 Gbps for an area of 24.4 KGE. We prove that our construction has at least 128-bit security for privacy and 124-bit security of authenticity under the assumption that the underlying stream cipher produces a pseudorandom bit stream
PudgyTurtle: variable-length, keystream-dependent encoding to resist time-memory tradeoff attacks
PudgyTurtle is a way to use keystream to encode plaintext before XOR-based (stream cipher-like) encryption. It makes stream ciphers less efficient -- a typical implementation requiring about five times as much keystream and producing about twice as much ciphertext -- but also more robust against time-memory-data tradeoff attacks. PudgyTurtle can operate alongside any keystream generator, and thus functions somewhat like an encryption mode for stream ciphers. Here, we introduce the mechanics or PudgyTurtle and discuss its design motivations
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