Stream Ciphers

This is the unique book on cross-fertilisations between stream ciphers and number theory. It systematically and comprehensively covers known connections between the two areas that are available only in research papers. Some parts of this book consist of new research results that are not available elsewhere. In addition to exercises, over thirty research problems are presented in this book. In this revised edition almost every chapter was updated, and some chapters were completely rewritten. It is useful as a textbook for a graduate course on the subject, as well as a reference book for researchers in related fields. · Unique book on interactions of stream ciphers and number theory. · Research monograph with many results not available elsewhere. · A revised edition with the most recent advances in this subject. · Over thirty research problems for stimulating interactions between the two areas. · Written by leading researchers in stream ciphers and number theory.

It is now a decade since the appearance of W. Diffie and M. E. Hellmann's startling paper, "New Directions in Cryptography". This paper not only established the new field of public-key cryptography but also awakened scientific interest in secret-key cryptography, a field that had been the almost exclusive domain of secret agencies and mathematical hobbyist. A number of ex cellent books on the science of cryptography have appeared since 1976. In the main, these books thoroughly treat both public-key systems and block ciphers (i. e. secret-key ciphers with no memo ry in the enciphering transformation) but give short shrift to stream ciphers (i. e. , secret-key ciphers wi th memory in the enciphering transformation). Yet, stream ciphers, such as those . implemented by rotor machines, have played a dominant role in past cryptographic practice, and, as far as I can determine, re main still the workhorses of commercial, military and diplomatic secrecy systems. My own research interest in stream ciphers found a natural re sonance in one of my doctoral students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Rainer A. Rueppe1. As Rainer was completing his dissertation in late 1984, the question arose as to where he should publish the many new results on stream ciphers that had sprung from his research.

In cryptography, ciphers is the technical term for encryption and decryption algorithms. They are an important sub-family that features high speed and easy implementation and are an essential part of wireless internet and mobile phones. Unlike block ciphers, stream ciphers work on single bits or single words and need to maintain an internal state to change the cipher at each step. Typically stream ciphers can reach higher speeds than block ciphers but they can be more vulnerable to attack. Here, mathematics comes into play. Number theory, algebra and statistics are the key to a better understanding of stream ciphers and essential for an informed decision on their safety. Since the theory is less developed, stream ciphers are often skipped in books on cryptography. This book fills this gap. It covers the mathematics of stream ciphers and its history, and also discusses many modern examples and their robustness against attacks. Part I covers linear feedback shift registers, non-linear combinations of LFSRs, algebraic attacks and irregular clocked shift registers. Part II studies some special ciphers including the security of mobile phones, RC4 and related ciphers, the eStream project and the blum-blum-shub generator and related ciphers. Stream Ciphers requires basic knowledge of algebra and linear algebra, combinatorics and probability theory and programming. Appendices in Part III help the reader with the more complicated subjects and provides the mathematical background needed. It covers, for example, complexity, number theory, finite fields, statistics, combinatorics. Stream Ciphers concludes with exercises and solutions and is directed towards advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and computer science.

This book provides the most complete description, analysis, and comparative studies of modern standardized and most common stream symmetric encryption algorithms, as well as stream modes of symmetric block ciphers. Stream ciphers provide an encryption in almost real-time regardless of the volume and stream bit depth of converted data, which makes them the most popular in modern real-time IT systems. In particular, we analyze the criteria and performance indicators of algorithms, as well as the principles and methods of designing stream ciphers. Nonlinear-feedback shift registers, which are one of the main elements of stream ciphers, have been studied in detail. The book is especially useful for scientists, developers, and experts in the field of cryptology and electronic trust services, as well as for the training of graduate students, masters, and bachelors in the field of information security.

This book is almost entirely concerned with stream ciphers, concentrating on a particular mathematical model for such ciphers which are called additive natural stream ciphers. These ciphers use a natural sequence generator to produce a periodic keystream. Full definitions of these concepts are given in Chapter 2. This book focuses on keystream sequences which can be analysed using number theory. It turns out that a great deal of information can be deducted about the cryptographic properties of many classes of sequences by applying the terminology and theorems of number theory. These connections can be explicitly made by describing three kinds of bridges between stream ciphering problems and number theory problems. A detailed summary of these ideas is given in the introductory Chapter 1. Many results in the book are new, and over seventy percent of these results described in this book are based on recent research results.

Secure message transmission is of extreme importance in today's information-based society. Stream encryption is a practically important means to this end. This monograph is devoted to a new aspect of stream ciphers, namely the stability theory of stream ciphers, with the purpose of developing bounds on complexity which can form part of the basis for a general theory of data security and of stabilizing stream-cipher systems. The approach adopted in this monograph is new. The topic is treated by introducing measure indexes on the security of stream ciphers, developing lower bounds on these indexes, and establishing connections among them. The treatment involves the stability of boolean functions, the stability of linear complexity of key streams, the period stability of key streams, and the stability of source codes. Misleading ideas about stream ciphers are exposed and new viewpoints presented. The numerous measure indexes and bounds on them that are introduced here, the approach based on spectrum techniques, andthe ten open problems presented will all be useful to the reader concerned with analyzing and designing stream ciphers for securing data.

RC4 Stream Cipher and Its Variants is the first book to fully cover the popular software stream cipher RC4. With extensive expertise in stream cipher cryptanalysis and RC4 research, the authors focus on the analysis and design issues of RC4. They also explore variants of RC4 and the eSTREAM finalist HC-128.After an introduction to the vast field of

Cryptography is now ubiquitous – moving beyond the traditional environments, such as government communications and banking systems, we see cryptographic techniques realized in Web browsers, e-mail programs, cell phones, manufacturing systems, embedded software, smart buildings, cars, and even medical implants. Today's designers need a comprehensive understanding of applied cryptography. After an introduction to cryptography and data security, the authors explain the main techniques in modern cryptography, with chapters addressing stream ciphers, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and 3DES, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), block ciphers, the RSA cryptosystem, public-key cryptosystems based on the discrete logarithm problem, elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC), digital signatures, hash functions, Message Authentication Codes (MACs), and methods for key establishment, including certificates and public-key infrastructure (PKI). Throughout the book, the authors focus on communicating the essentials and keeping the mathematics to a minimum, and they move quickly from explaining the foundations to describing practical implementations, including recent topics such as lightweight ciphers for RFIDs and mobile devices, and current key-length recommendations. The authors have considerable experience teaching applied cryptography to engineering and computer science students and to professionals, and they make extensive use of examples, problems, and chapter reviews, while the book’s website offers slides, projects and links to further resources. This is a suitable textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses and also for self-study by engineers.