Essential algebraic structure within the AES

Abstract. One difficulty in the cryptanalysis of the Advanced Encryption Standard AES is the tension between operations in the two fields GF (2 8) and GF (2). This paper outlines a new approach that avoids this conflict. We define a new block cipher, the BES, that uses only simple algebraic operations in GF (2 8). Yet the AES can be regarded as being identical to the BES with a restricted message space and key space, thus enabling the AES to be realised solely using simple algebraic operations in one field GF (2 8). This permits the exploration of the AES within a broad and rich setting. One consequence is that AES encryption can be described by an extremely sparse overdetermined multivariate quadratic system over GF (2 8), whose solution would recover an AES key

Projective aspects of the AES inversion

We consider the nonlinear function used in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This nonlinear function is essentially inversion in the finite field GF(28), which is most naturally considered as a projective transformation. Such a viewpoint allows us to demonstrate certain properties of this AES nonlinear function. In particular, we make some comments about the group generated by such transformations, and we give a characterisation for the values in the AES Difference or XOR Table for the AES nonlinear function and comment on the geometry given by this XOR Table