Techniques for Cryptanalysis of Block Ciphers

Block ciphers are widely used to protect information over the Internet, so assessing their strength in the case of malicious adversaries is critical to public trust. Such security evaluations, called cryptanalysis, expose weak points of the ciphers and can be used to develop attack techniques, thus cryptanalytic techniques also direct designers on ways to develop more secure block ciphers. In this book the authors describe the cryptanalytic toolbox for block ciphers. The book starts with the differential and linear attacks, and their extensions and generalizations. Then the more advanced attacks such as the boomerang and rectangle attacks are discussed, along with their related-key variants. Finally, other attacks are explored, in particular combined attacks that are built on top of other attacks. The book covers both the underlying concepts at the heart of these attacks and the mathematical foundations of the analysis itself. These are complemented by an extensive bibliography and numerous examples, mainly involving widely deployed block ciphers. The book is intended as a reference book for graduate students and researchers in the field of cryptography. Block ciphers are widely used to protect information over the Internet, so assessing their strength in the case of malicious adversaries is critical to public trust. Such security evaluations, called cryptanalysis, expose weak points of the ciphers and can be used to develop attack techniques, thus cryptanalytic techniques also direct designers on ways to develop more secure block ciphers. In this book the authors describe the cryptanalytic toolbox for block ciphers. The book starts with the differential and linear attacks, and their extensions and generalizations. Then the more advanced attacks such as the boomerang and rectangle attacks are discussed, along with their related-key variants. Finally, other attacks are explored, in particular combined attacks that are built on top of other attacks. The book covers both the underlying concepts at the heart of these attacks and the mathematical foundations of the analysis itself. These are complemented by an extensive bibliography and numerous examples, mainly involving widely deployed block ciphers. The book is intended as a reference book for graduate students and researchers in the field of cryptography.