In this paper we introduce an open framework for the benchmarking of lightweight block ciphers on a multitude of embedded platforms. Our framework is able to evaluate execution time, RAM footprint, as well as (binary) code size, and allows a user to define a custom “figure of merit” according to which all evaluated candidates can be ranked. We used the framework to benchmark various implementat...

Wireless sensor network (WSN) commonly requires lower level security for public information gathering, whilst body sensor network (BSN) must be secured with strong authenticity to protect personal health information. First in this paper, some practical problems with the Message Authentication Codes (MACs), which are suggested in the current security architectures for WSN, are reconsidered. The ...

Security mechanisms to protect our systems and data from malicious adversaries have become essential. Strong encryption algorithms are an important building block of these solutions. However, each application has its own requirements and it is not always possible to find a cipher that meets them all. This work compares unrolled combinatorial hardware implementations of six lightweight block cip...

We analyze the security of elastic block ciphers in general to show that an attack on an elastic version of block cipher implies a polynomial time related attack on the fixed-length version of the block cipher. We relate the security of the elastic version of a block cipher to the fixed-length version by forming a reduction between the versions. Our method is independent of the specific block c...

In CRYPTO 2014 Albrecht et al. brought in a 20-round iterative lightweight block cipher PRIDE which is based on a good linear layer for achieving a tradeoff between security and efficiency. A recent analysis is presented by Zhao et al.. Inspired by their work, we use an automatic search method to find out 56 iterative differential characteristics of PRIDE, containing 24 1-round iterative charac...

The lightweight encryption algorithm (LEA) is a 128-bit block cipher introduced in 2013. It is based on Addition, rotation, XOR operations for 32-bit words. Because of its structure, it is useful for several devices to achieve a high speed of encryption and low-power consumption. However, side-channel attacks on LEA implementations have not been examined. In this study, we perform a power analy...

This paper proposes some techniques to improve algebraic fault analysis (AFA). Firstly, we show that building the decryption equation set of a cipher can accelerate the solving procedure. Secondly, we propose a method to represent the injected faults with algebraic equations when the accurate fault location is unknown. We take Piccolo as an example to illustrate our AFA and compare it with prev...

Abstract Hummingbird is a recently proposed ultra-lightweight cryptographic algorithm targeted for resource-constrained devices like RFID tags, smart cards, and wireless sensor nodes. In this paper, we describe efficient hardware implementations of a stand-alone Hummingbird component in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices. We implement an encryption only core and an encryption/decrypti...

In this paper we propose a new block cipher, DESL (DES Lightweight), which is based on the classical DES (Data Encryption Standard) design, but unlike DES it uses a single S-box repeated eight times. On this account we adapt well-known DES S-box design criteria, such that they can be applied to the special case of a single S-box. Furthermore, we show that DESL is resistant against certain types...