On the Role of the Inner State Size in Stream Ciphers

Erik Zenner

2004

Abstract

Many modern stream ciphers consist of a keystream generator and an initialisation function. In fielded systems, security of the keystream generator is often based on a large inner state rather than an inherently secure design. As a consequence, an increasing number of attacks on stream ciphers exploit the (re-)initialisation of large inner states by a weak initialisation function. In this paper, we propose a strict separation of keystream generator and initialisation function in stream cipher design. After giving lower bounds on the necessary inner state size, we show how a secure stream cipher can be constructed from a weak keystram generator. We introduce the notion of inner state size efficiency and compare it for a number of fielded stream ciphers, indicating that a secure cipher can be based on reasonable inner state sizes. Concluding, we ask a number of open questions that may give rise to a new field of research that is concerned with the security of initialisation functions.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Zenner E. (2004). On the Role of the Inner State Size in Stream Ciphers . In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Security in Information Systems - Volume 1: WOSIS, (ICEIS 2004) ISBN 972-8865-07-4, pages 237-250. DOI: 10.5220/0002676702370250


in Bibtex Style

@conference{wosis04,
author={Erik Zenner},
title={On the Role of the Inner State Size in Stream Ciphers},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Security in Information Systems - Volume 1: WOSIS, (ICEIS 2004)},
year={2004},
pages={237-250},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002676702370250},
isbn={972-8865-07-4},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Security in Information Systems - Volume 1: WOSIS, (ICEIS 2004)
TI - On the Role of the Inner State Size in Stream Ciphers
SN - 972-8865-07-4
AU - Zenner E.
PY - 2004
SP - 237
EP - 250
DO - 10.5220/0002676702370250