A new class of codes for Boolean masking of cryptographic computations

We introduce a new class of rate one-half binary codes: {\bf complementary information set codes.} A binary linear code of length $2n$ and dimension $n$ is called a complementary information set code (CIS code for short) if it has two disjoint information sets. This class of codes contains self-dual codes as a subclass. It is connected to graph correlation immune Boolean functions of use in the security of hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives. Such codes permit to improve the cost of masking cryptographic algorithms against side channel attacks. In this paper we investigate this new class of codes: we give optimal or best known CIS codes of length $<132.$ We derive general constructions based on cyclic codes and on double circulant codes. We derive a Varshamov-Gilbert bound for long CIS codes, and show that they can all be classified in small lengths $\le 12$ by the building up construction. Some nonlinear permutations are constructed by using $\Z_4$-codes, based on the notion of dual distance of an unrestricted code.Comment: 19 pages. IEEE Trans. on Information Theory, to appea

2^n Bordered Constructions of Self-Dual codes from Group Rings

Self-dual codes, which are codes that are equal to their orthogonal, are a widely studied family of codes. Various techniques involving circulant matrices and matrices from group rings have been used to construct such codes. Moreover, families of rings have been used, together with a Gray map, to construct binary self-dual codes. In this paper, we introduce a new bordered construction over group rings for self-dual codes by combining many of the previously used techniques. The purpose of this is to construct self-dual codes that were missed using classical construction techniques by constructing self-dual codes with different automorphism groups. We apply the technique to codes over finite commutative Frobenius rings of characteristic 2 and several group rings and use these to construct interesting binary self-dual codes. In particular, we construct some extremal self-dual codes length 64 and 68, constructing 30 new extremal self-dual codes of length 68

Construction of isodual codes from polycirculant matrices

Double polycirculant codes are introduced here as a generalization of double circulant codes. When the matrix of the polyshift is a companion matrix of a trinomial, we show that such a code is isodual, hence formally self-dual. Numerical examples show that the codes constructed have optimal or quasi-optimal parameters amongst formally self-dual codes. Self-duality, the trivial case of isoduality, can only occur over \F_2 in the double circulant case. Building on an explicit infinite sequence of irreducible trinomials over \F_2, we show that binary double polycirculant codes are asymptotically good