Serpent (cipher)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2008) |
 Serpent's linear mixing stage | |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Designers | Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, Lars Knudsen |
| First published | 1998-08-21 |
| Derived from | Square |
| Certification | AES finalist |
| Cipher detail | |
| Key sizes | 128, 192 or 256 bits |
| Block sizes | 128 bits |
| Structure | Substitution-permutation network |
| Rounds | 32 |
| Best public cryptanalysis | |
| All known attacks are computationally infeasible. A 2011 attack breaks 11 round Serpent (all key sizes) with 2116 known plaintexts, 2107.5 time and 2104 memory (as described in [1]). The same paper also describes two attacks which break 12 rounds of Serpent-256. The first requires 2118 known plaintexts, 2228.8 time and 2228 memory. The other attack requires 2116 known plaintexts and 2121 memory but also requires 2237.5 time. | |
Serpent is a symmetric key block cipher which was a finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) contest, where it came second to Rijndael. Serpent was designed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars Knudsen.
Like other AES submissions, Serpent has a block size of 128 bits and supports a key size of 128, 192 or 256 bits.[2] The cipher is a 32-round substitution-permutation network operating on a block of four 32-bit words. Each round applies one of eight 4-bit to 4-bit S-boxes 32 times in parallel. Serpent was designed so that all operations can be executed in parallel, using 32 1-bit slices. This maximizes parallelism, but also allows use of the extensive cryptanalysis work performed on DES.
Serpent took a more conservative approach to security than the other AES finalists, opting for a larger security margin: the designers deemed 16 rounds to be sufficient against known types of attack, but specified 32 rounds as insurance against future discoveries in cryptanalysis.
The Serpent cipher is in the public domain and has not been patented. There are no restrictions or encumbrances whatsoever regarding its use. As a result, anyone is free to incorporate Serpent in their software (or hardware implementations) without paying license fees.
Rijndael vs. Serpent
Rijndael is a substitution-linear transformation network with ten, twelve, or fourteen rounds, depending on the key size, and with block sizes of 128 bits, 192 bits, or 256 bits, independently specified. Serpent is a substitution-permutation network which has thirty-two rounds, plus an initial and a final permutation to simplify an optimized implementation. The round function in Rijndael consists of three parts: a nonlinear layer, a linear mixing layer, and a key-mixing XOR layer. The round function in Serpent consists of key-mixing XOR, thirty-two parallel applications of the same 4×4 S-box, and a linear transformation, except in the last round, wherein another key-mixing XOR replaces the linear transformation. The nonlinear layer in Rijndael uses an 8×8 S-box whereas Serpent uses eight different 4×4 S-boxes. The 32 rounds means that Serpent has a higher security margin than Rijndael; however, Rijndael with 10 rounds is faster and easier to implement for small blocks.[citation needed] Hence, Rijndael was selected as the winner in the AES competition.
Serpent-0 vs. Serpent-1
The original Serpent, Serpent-0, was presented at the 5th workshop on Fast Software Encryption, but a somewhat tweaked version, Serpent-1, was submitted to the AES competition. The AES submission paper discuss the changes, which include key scheduling differences.
Security
The XSL attack, if effective, would weaken Serpent (though not as much as it would weaken Rijndael, which became AES). However, many cryptanalysts believe that once implementation considerations are taken into account the XSL attack would be more expensive than a brute force attack.[citation needed]
In 2000, a paper by Kohno et al. presents a meet-in-the-middle attack against 6 of 32 rounds of Serpent and an amplified boomerang attack against 9 of 32 rounds in Serpent.[3]
A 2001 attack by Eli Biham, Orr Dunkelman and Nathan Keller presents a linear cryptanalysis attack that breaks 10 of 32 rounds of Serpent-128 with 2118 known plaintexts and 289 time, and 11 rounds of Serpent-192/256 with 2118 known plaintexts and 2187 time.[4]
A 2011 attack by Hongjun Wu, Huaxiong Wang and Phong Ha Nguyen, also using linear cryptanalysis, breaks 11 rounds of Serpent-128 with 2116 known plaintexts, 2107.5 time and 2104 memory.[1]
The same paper also describes two attacks which break 12 rounds of Serpent-256. The first requires 2118 known plaintexts, 2228.8 time and 2228 memory. The other attack requires 2116 known plaintexts and 2121 memory but also requires 2237.5 time.
See also
- Tiger - hash function by the same authors.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Huaxiong Wang, Hongjun Wu and Phong Ha Nguyen (2011). "Improving the Algorithm 2 in Multidimensional Linear Cryptanalysis". ACISP 2011. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22497-3_5.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Ross J. Anderson (2006-10-23). "Serpent: A Candidate Block Cipher for the Advanced Encryption Standard". University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
- ^ Tadayoshi Kohno, John Kelsey, and Bruce Schneier (2000). "Preliminary Cryptanalysis of Reduced-Round Serpent".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Eli Biham, Orr Dunkelman and Nathan Keller (2001). "Linear Cryptanalysis of Reduced Round Serpent". FSE 2001.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
Further reading
- Anderson, Ross; Biham, Eli; Knudsen, Lars (1998). "Cryptography - 256 bit ciphers: Reference (AES submission) implementation".
- Biham, Eli. "Serpent - A New Block Cipher Proposal for AES".
- Halbfinger, David M (2008-05-05). "In Pellicano Case, Lessons in Wiretapping Skills". The New York Times.
- Stajano, Frank (2006-02-10). "Serpent reference implementation". University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.
