On the Security of the XOR Sandwiching Paradigm for Multiple Keyed Block Ciphers

Ruth Ng Ii-Yung, Khoongming Khoo, Raphael C.-W. Phan

2013

Abstract

While block cipher design is relatively mature, advances in computational power mean that the keylength of block ciphers, upon which the security relies entirely, becomes less resistant to cryptanalysis over time. Therefore, the security for a block cipher with a particular keylength typically is seen to last for at most some decades. One common approach to strengthen a block cipher’s security is based on increasing its keylength. In the literature, two strategies have emerged: multiple keyed multiple encryption and multiple keyed XOR sandwiching. Known attacks on these such as Meet-in-the-Middle(Merkle and Hellman, 1981; van Oorschot and Wiener, 1991; Lucks, 1998) and Related-Key (J. Kelsey and Wagner, 1996; Choi et al., 1996; Vaudenay, 2011; Phan, 2004) attacks, show that Triple Encryption is significantly weaker than a brute-force attack would suggest, especially for block ciphers with small keys, such as the Data Encryption Standard (DES). This paper provides a comprehensive analysis on the security of the XOR sandwiching paradigm against known attacks for the case of multiple keyed triple encryption, without loss of generality, using DES as the underlying block cipher. In particular, we focus on DES-XEXEXEX variants, based on 2-Key and 3-Key Triple-DES, which involve performing the XOR for key-whitening before and after each encryption with an additional 64-bit key. One of the conclusions to be drawn from this work is the increased strength obtained from the XOR sandwiching paradigm while requiring little in terms of additional computational resources.

References

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Ng Ii-Yung R., Khoo K. and C.-W. Phan R. (2013). On the Security of the XOR Sandwiching Paradigm for Multiple Keyed Block Ciphers . In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT, (ICETE 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-73-0, pages 305-312. DOI: 10.5220/0004505903050312


in Bibtex Style

@conference{secrypt13,
author={Ruth Ng Ii-Yung and Khoongming Khoo and Raphael C.-W. Phan},
title={On the Security of the XOR Sandwiching Paradigm for Multiple Keyed Block Ciphers},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT, (ICETE 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={305-312},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004505903050312},
isbn={978-989-8565-73-0},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT, (ICETE 2013)
TI - On the Security of the XOR Sandwiching Paradigm for Multiple Keyed Block Ciphers
SN - 978-989-8565-73-0
AU - Ng Ii-Yung R.
AU - Khoo K.
AU - C.-W. Phan R.
PY - 2013
SP - 305
EP - 312
DO - 10.5220/0004505903050312