Refinements of the ALRED construction and MAC security claims

We present three security claims for iterated MAC functions. Next, we propose Alred, a construction method for MAC functions based on a block cipher that has provable security in the absence of internal collisions. We apply this construction to AES resulting in two MAC functions: Alpha-MAC and Pelican. We provide a model for describing different types of internal collisions in Alred and provide evidence that the security claims we propose are usable for MAC functions that use the Alred construction. Finally, we provide a motivation for the security claims that accompany Pelican.