A new variant of PMAC: Beyond the birthday bound

Abstract

We propose a PMAC-type mode of operation that can be used as a highly secure MAC (Message Authentication Code) or PRF (Pseudo-Random Function). Our scheme is based on the assumption that the underlying n-bit blockcipher is a pseudo-random permutation. Our construction, which we call PMAC-Plus, involves extensive modification to PMAC, requiring three blockcipher keys. The PMAC-Plus algorithm is a first rate-1 (i.e., one blockcipher call per n-bit message block) blockcipher-based MAC secure against O(22n/3) queries, increasing the O(22n/2) security of PMAC at a low additional cost. Our analysis uses some of the security-proof techniques developed with the sum construction (Eurocrypt 2000) and with the encrypted-CBC sum construction (CT-RSA 2010). © 2011 International Association for Cryptologic Research.