ANALYSIS OF SECURITY MEASURES FOR SEQUENCES

Stream ciphers are private key cryptosystems used for security in communication and data transmission systems. Because they are used to encrypt streams of data, it is necessary for stream ciphers to use primitives that are easy to implement and fast to operate. LFSRs and the recently invented FCSRs are two such primitives, which give rise to certain security measures for the cryptographic strength of sequences, which we refer to as complexity measures henceforth following the convention. The linear (resp. N-adic) complexity of a sequence is the length of the shortest LFSR (resp. FCSR) that can generate the sequence. Due to the availability of shift register synthesis algorithms, sequences used for cryptographic purposes should have high values for these complexity measures. It is also essential that the complexity of these sequences does not decrease when a few symbols are changed. The k-error complexity of a sequence is the smallest value of the complexity of a sequence obtained by altering k or fewer symbols in the given sequence. For a sequence to be considered cryptographically ‘strong’ it should have both high complexity and high error complexity values. An important problem regarding sequence complexity measures is to determine good bounds on a specific complexity measure for a given sequence. In this thesis we derive new nontrivial lower bounds on the k-operation complexity of periodic sequences in both the linear and N-adic cases. Here the operations considered are combinations of insertions, deletions, and substitutions. We show that our bounds are tight and also derive several auxiliary results based on them. A second problem on sequence complexity measures useful in the design and analysis of stream ciphers is to determine the number of sequences with a given fixed (error) complexity value. In this thesis we address this problem for the k-error linear complexity of 2n-periodic binary sequences. More specifically: 1. We characterize 2n-periodic binary sequences with fixed 2- or 3-error linear complexity and obtain the counting function for the number of such sequences with fixed k-error linear complexity for k = 2 or 3. 2. We obtain partial results on the number of 2n-periodic binary sequences with fixed k-error linear complexity when k is the minimum number of changes required to lower the linear complexity

Studies on error linear complexity measures for multisequences

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Topics on Register Synthesis Problems

Pseudo-random sequences are ubiquitous in modern electronics and information technology. High speed generators of such sequences play essential roles in various engineering applications, such as stream ciphers, radar systems, multiple access systems, and quasi-Monte-Carlo simulation. Given a short prefix of a sequence, it is undesirable to have an efficient algorithm that can synthesize a generator which can predict the whole sequence. Otherwise, a cryptanalytic attack can be launched against the system based on that given sequence. Linear feedback shift registers (LFSRs) are the most widely studied pseudorandom sequence generators. The LFSR synthesis problem can be solved by the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm, by constructing a system of linear equations, by the extended Euclidean algorithm, or by the continued fraction algorithm. It is shown that the linear complexity is an important security measure for pseudorandom sequences design. So we investigate lower bounds of the linear complexity of different kinds of pseudorandom sequences. Feedback with carry shift registers (FCSRs) were first described by Goresky and Klapper. They have many good algebraic properties similar to those of LFSRs. FCSRs are good candidates as building blocks of stream ciphers. The FCSR synthesis problem has been studied in many literatures but there are no FCSR synthesis algorithms for multi-sequences. Thus one of the main contributions of this dissertation is to adapt an interleaving technique to develop two algorithms to solve the FCSR synthesis problem for multi-sequences. Algebraic feedback shift registers (AFSRs) are generalizations of LFSRs and FCSRs. Based on a choice of an integral domain R and π ∈ R, an AFSR can produce sequences whose elements can be thought of elements of the quotient ring R/(π). A modification of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm, Xu\u27s algorithm solves the synthesis problem for AFSRs over a pair (R, π) with certain algebraic properties. We propose two register synthesis algorithms for AFSR synthesis problem. One is an extension of lattice approximation approach but based on lattice basis reduction and the other one is based on the extended Euclidean algorithm

Idempotent and p-potent quadratic functions: distribution of nonlinearity and co-dimension

The Walsh transform QˆQ^ of a quadratic function Q:Fpn→FpQ:Fpn→Fp satisfies |Qˆ(b)|∈{0,pn+s2}|Q^(b)|∈{0,pn+s2} for all b∈Fpnb∈Fpn , where 0≤s≤n−10≤s≤n−1 is an integer depending on Q. In this article, we study the following three classes of quadratic functions of wide interest. The class C1C1 is defined for arbitrary n as C1={Q(x)=Trn(∑⌊(n−1)/2⌋i=1aix2i+1):ai∈F2}C1={Q(x)=Trn(∑i=1⌊(n−1)/2⌋aix2i+1):ai∈F2} , and the larger class C2C2 is defined for even n as C2={Q(x)=Trn(∑(n/2)−1i=1aix2i+1)+Trn/2(an/2x2n/2+1):ai∈F2}C2={Q(x)=Trn(∑i=1(n/2)−1aix2i+1)+Trn/2(an/2x2n/2+1):ai∈F2} . For an odd prime p, the subclass DD of all p-ary quadratic functions is defined as D={Q(x)=Trn(∑⌊n/2⌋i=0aixpi+1):ai∈Fp}D={Q(x)=Trn(∑i=0⌊n/2⌋aixpi+1):ai∈Fp} . We determine the generating function for the distribution of the parameter s for C1,C2C1,C2 and DD . As a consequence we completely describe the distribution of the nonlinearity for the rotation symmetric quadratic Boolean functions, and in the case p>2p>2 , the distribution of the co-dimension for the rotation symmetric quadratic p-ary functions, which have been attracting considerable attention recently. Our results also facilitate obtaining closed formulas for the number of such quadratic functions with prescribed s for small values of s, and hence extend earlier results on this topic. We also present the complete weight distribution of the subcodes of the second order Reed–Muller codes corresponding to C1C1 and C2C2 in terms of a generating function

On the joint 2-adic complexity of binary multisequences

Joint 2-adic complexity is a new important index of the cryptographic security for multisequences. In this paper, we extend the usual Fourier transform to the case of multisequences and derive an upper bound for the joint 2-adic complexity. Furthermore, for the multisequences with pn-period, we discuss the relation between sequences and their Fourier coefficients. Based on the relation, we determine a lower bound for the number of multisequences with given joint 2-adic complexity

Rendiconti dell'Istituto di Matematica dell'Università di Trieste. An International Journal of Mathematics. Vol. 44 (2012)

Rendiconti dell’Istituto di Matematica dell’Università di Trieste was founded in 1969 by Arno Predonzan, with the aim of publishing original research articles in all fields of mathematics and has been the first Italian mathematical journal to be published also on-line. The access to the electronic version of the journal is free. All published articles are available on-line. The journal can be obtained by subscription, or by reciprocity with other similar journals. Currently more than 100 exchange agreements with mathematics departments and institutes around the world have been entered in

on the expected value of the joint 2-adic complexity of periodic binary multisequences

Recently people show some interest in the word-based stream ciphers. The theory of such stream ciphers requires the study of the complexity of multisequences. The 2-adic complexity is the FCSR analog of the linear complexity, and it is very u