Zero-correlation linear attack on reduced-round SKINNY

Abstract

At ToSC 2019, Ankele et al. proposed a novel idea for constructing zero-correlation linear distinguishers in a related-tweakey model. This paper further clarifies this principle and gives a search model for zero-correlation distinguishers. As a result, for the first time, the authors construct 14-round and 16-round zero-correlation linear distinguishers for SKINNY-n-2n and SKINNY-n-3n, respectively, which are both two rounds longer than Anekele et al.’s. Based on these distinguishers, the paper presents related-tweakey zero-correlation linear attacks on 21-round SKINNY-n-2n and 25-round SKINNY-n-3n, respectively.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

tweakable block cipher / zero-correlation / related-tweakey / SKINNY

Yi Zhang is currently a master candidate of the Department of Applied Mathematics, PLA SSF Information Engineering University, China. His current research interests include block cipher cryptanalysis

Ting Cui is currently a PhD supervisor at the Department of Applied Mathematics, PLA SSF Information Engineering University, China. His current research interests include cryptography and cyberspace security

Congjun Wang is currently a PhD candidate of the Department of Applied Mathematics, PLA SSF Information Engineering University, China. His current research interests include block cipher design and cryptanalysis

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on how to improve this paper. Thanks to Dr. Hadipour for pointing out the theoretical flaws in our paper and providing an improved result of zero-correlation linear attacks on SKINNY [25]. This work was sponsored by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan (No. 222300420100) and the Foundation of Key Laboratory of National Defense Science and Technology, China (61421030107).

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2023 Higher Education Press 2023, corrected publication 2023