Cryptanalysis of the SIMON Family of Block Ciphers

Hoda A.  Alkhzaimi; Martin M.  Lauridsen

Paper 2013/543

Cryptanalysis of the SIMON Family of Block Ciphers

Hoda A. Alkhzaimi and Martin M. Lauridsen

Abstract

Recently, the U.S National Security Agency has published the specifications of two families of lightweight block ciphers, SIMON and SPECK, in ePrint report 2013/404. The ciphers are developed with optimization towards both hardware and software in mind. While the specification paper discusses design requirements and performance of the presented lightweight ciphers thoroughly, no security assessment is given. This paper is a move towards filling that cryptanalysis gap for the SIMON family of ciphers. We present a series of observations on the presented construction that, in some cases, yield attacks, while in other cases may provide basis of further analysis by the cryptographic community. Specifically, we obtain attacks using classical- as well as truncated differentials. In the former case, we show how the smallest version of SIMON, Simon32/64, exhibits a strong differential effect.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Secret-key cryptography
Publication info: Preprint. MINOR revision.
Keywords: lightweight block cipher Feistel SIMON differential cryptanalysis impossible differentials rotational cryptanalysis weak keys
Contact author(s): mmeh @ dtu dk
History: 2013-08-30: received
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2013/543
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2013/543,
      author = {Hoda A.  Alkhzaimi and Martin M.  Lauridsen},
      title = {Cryptanalysis of the {SIMON} Family of Block Ciphers},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2013/543},
      year = {2013},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/543}
}