A novel architecture with scalable security having expandable computational complexity for stream ciphers

Abstract

Stream cipher designs are difficult to implement since they are prone to weaknesses based on usage, with properties being similar to one-time pad besides keystream is subjected to very strict requirements. Contemporary stream cipher designs are highly vulnerable to algebraic cryptanalysis based on linear algebra, in which the inputs and outputs are formulated as multivariate polynomial equations. Solving a nonlinear system of multivariate equations will reduce the complexity, which in turn yields the targeted secret information. Recently, Addition Modulo has been suggested over logic XOR as a mixing operator to guard against such attacks. However, it has been observed that the complexity of Modulo Addition can be drastically decreased with the appropriate formulation of polynomial equations and probabilistic conditions. A new design for Addition Modulo is proposed. The framework for the new design is characterized by user-defined expandable security for stronger encryption and does not impose changes in existing layout for any stream cipher such as SNOW 2.0, SOSEMANUK, CryptMT, Grain Family, etc. The structure of the proposed design is highly scalable, which boosts the algebraic degree and thwarts the probabilistic conditions by maintaining the original hardware complexity without changing the integrity of the Addition Modulo.