Security analysis of NIST-LWC contest finalists

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringTraditional cryptographic standards are designed with a desktop and server environment in mind, so, with the relatively recent proliferation of small, resource constrained devices in the Internet of Things, sensor networks, embedded systems, and more, there has been a call for lightweight cryptographic standards with security, performance and resource requirements tailored for the highly-constrained environments these devices find themselves in. In 2015 the National Institute of Standards and Technology began a Standardization Process in order to select one or more Lightweight Cryptographic algorithms. Out of the original 57 submissions ten finalists remain, with ASCON and Romulus being among the most scrutinized out of them. In this dissertation I will introduce some concepts required for easy understanding of the body of work, do an up-to-date revision on the current situation on the standardization process from a security and performance standpoint, a description of ASCON and Romulus, and new best known analysis, and a comparison of the two, with their advantages, drawbacks, and unique traits.Os padrões criptográficos tradicionais foram elaborados com um ambiente de computador e servidor em mente. Com a proliferação de dispositivos de pequenas dimensões tanto na Internet of Things, redes de sensores e sistemas embutidos, apareceu uma necessidade para se definir padrões para algoritmos de criptografia leve, com prioridades de segurança, performance e gasto de recursos equilibrados para os ambientes altamente limitados em que estes dispositivos operam. Em 2015 o National Institute of Standards and Technology lançou um processo de estandardização com o objectivo de escolher um ou mais algoritmos de criptografia leve. Das cinquenta e sete candidaturas originais sobram apenas dez finalistas, sendo ASCON e Romulus dois desses finalistas mais examinados. Nesta dissertação irei introduzir alguns conceitos necessários para uma fácil compreensão do corpo deste trabalho, assim como uma revisão atualizada da situação atual do processo de estandardização de um ponto de vista tanto de segurança como de performance, uma descrição do ASCON e do Romulus assim como as suas melhores análises recentes e uma comparação entre os dois, frisando as suas vantagens, desvantagens e aspectos únicos

The Inverse S-Box, Non-linear Polynomial Relations and Cryptanalysis of Block Ciphers

Abstract. This paper is motivated by the design of AES. We consider a broader question of cryptanalysis of block ciphers having very good non-linearity and diffusion. Can we expect anyway, to attacks such ciphers, clearly designed to render hopeless the main classical attacks? Recently a lot of attention have been drawn to the existence of multivariate algebraic relations for AES (and other) S-boxes. Then, if the XSL-type algebraic attacks on block ciphers [11] are shown to work well, the answer would be positive. In this paper we show that the answer is certainly positive for many other constructions of ciphers. This is not due to an algebraic attack, but to new types of generalised linear cryptanalysis, highly-nonlinear in flavour. We present several constructions of somewhat special practical block ciphers, seemingly satisfying all the design criteria of AES and using similar S-boxes, and yet being extremely weak. They can be generalised, and evolve into general attacks that can be applied- potentially- to any block cipher. Key Words: block ciphers, AES, Rijndael, interpolation attack on block ciphers, fractional transformations, homographic functions, multivariate equations

Inversion using a new low-dimensional representation of complex binary geological media based on a deep neural network

Efficient and high-fidelity prior sampling and inversion for complex geological media is still a largely unsolved challenge. Here, we use a deep neural network of the variational autoencoder type to construct a parametric low-dimensional base model parameterization of complex binary geological media. For inversion purposes, it has the attractive feature that random draws from an uncorrelated standard normal distribution yield model realizations with spatial characteristics that are in agreement with the training set. In comparison with the most commonly used parametric representations in probabilistic inversion, we find that our dimensionality reduction (DR) approach outperforms principle component analysis (PCA), optimization-PCA (OPCA) and discrete cosine transform (DCT) DR techniques for unconditional geostatistical simulation of a channelized prior model. For the considered examples, important compression ratios (200 - 500) are achieved. Given that the construction of our parameterization requires a training set of several tens of thousands of prior model realizations, our DR approach is more suited for probabilistic (or deterministic) inversion than for unconditional (or point-conditioned) geostatistical simulation. Probabilistic inversions of 2D steady-state and 3D transient hydraulic tomography data are used to demonstrate the DR-based inversion. For the 2D case study, the performance is superior compared to current state-of-the-art multiple-point statistics inversion by sequential geostatistical resampling (SGR). Inversion results for the 3D application are also encouraging

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

MILP-aided Cryptanalysis of Round Reduced ChaCha

The inclusion of ChaCha20 and Poly1305 into the list of supported ciphers in TLS 1.3 necessitates a security evaluation of those ciphers with all the state-of-the-art tools and innovative cryptanalysis methodologies. Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) has been successfully applied to find more accurate characteristics of several ciphers such as SIMON and SPECK. In our research, we use MILP-aided cryptanalysis to search for differential characteristics, linear approximations and integral properties of ChaCha. We are able to find differential trails up to 2 rounds and linear trails up to 1 round. However, no integral distinguisher has been found, even for 1 round

Nonlinear Approximations in Cryptanalysis Revisited

International audienceThis work studies deterministic and non-deterministic nonlinear approximations for cryptanalysis of block ciphers and cryptographic permutations and embeds it into the well-understood framework of linear cryptanalysis. For a deterministic (i.e., with correlation ±1) nonlinear approximation we show that in many cases, such a nonlinear approximation implies the existence of a highly-biased linear approximation. For non-deterministic nonlinear approximations, by transforming the cipher under consideration by conjugating each keyed instance with a fixed permutation, we are able to transfer many methods from linear cryptanalysis to the nonlinear case. Using this framework we in particular show that there exist ciphers for which some transformed versions are significantly weaker with regard to linear cryptanalysis than their original counterparts