Serpent: A new block cipher proposal

Abstract

We propose a new block cipher as a candidate for the Advanced Encryption Standard. Its design is highly conservative, yet still allows a very efficient implementation. It uses the well-understood DES S-boxes in a new structure that simultaneously allows a more rapid avalanche, a more efficient bitslice implementation, and an easy analysis that enables us to demonstrate its security against all known types of attack. With a 128-bit block size and a 256-bit key, it is almost as fast as DES on a wide range of platforms, yet conjectured to be at least as secure as three-key triple-DES.