Paper 2025/2142

Differential cryptanalysis of An optimized novel lightweight block cipher for image encryption

Khaled Hosseini, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS)
Sadegh Sadeghi, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS)
Abstract

This paper presents a security analysis of the ARX-based lightweight block cipher proposed by Mohanapriya and Nithish (Sci Rep 15, 36060 (2025)) for image encryption in IoT environments. The cipher employs a 64-bit key and a 64-bit block size, relying on Addition, Rotation, and XOR (ARX) operations. Our analysis demonstrates that the full-round version of this cipher is vulnerable to differential cryptanalysis. In fact, the cipher can be distinguished from a random permutation using $2^{41}$ chosen plaintexts. Consequently, the designers' security claims are not fully supported.

Note: Preprint.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Attacks and cryptanalysis
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
Lightweight block cipherDifferential distinguishersImage encryption
Contact author(s)
khaled h @ iasbs ac ir
s sadeghi @ iasbs ac ir
History
2025-11-29: approved
2025-11-23: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2025/2142
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/2142,
      author = {Khaled Hosseini and Sadegh Sadeghi},
      title = {Differential cryptanalysis of An optimized novel lightweight block cipher for image encryption},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/2142},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/2142}
}
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