Paper 2024/213

A Note on Adversarial Online Complexity in Security Proofs of Duplex-Based Authenticated Encryption Modes

Abstract

This note examines a nuance in the methods employed for counting the adversarial online complexity in the security proofs of duplex-based modes, with a focus on authenticated encryption. A recent study by Gilbert et al., reveals an attack on a broad class of duplex-based authenticated encryption modes. In particular, their approach to quantifying the adversarial online complexity, which capture realistic attack scenarios, includes certain queries in the count which are not in the security proofs. This note analyzes these differences and concludes that the attack of Gilbert et al, for certain parameter choices, matches the security bound.