Automatic search of attacks on round-reduced AES and applications

Abstract

In this paper, we describe versatile and powerful algorithms for searching guess-and-determine and meet-in-the-middle attacks on byte-oriented symmetric primitives. To demonstrate the strengh of these tool, we show that they allows to automatically discover new attacks on round-reduced AES with very low data complexity, and to find improved attacks on the AES-based MACs Alpha-MAC and Pelican-MAC, and also on the AES-based stream cipher LEX. Finally, the tools can be used in the context of fault attacks. These algorithms exploit the algebraically simple byte-oriented structure of the AES. When the attack found by the tool are practical, they have been implemented and validated. © 2011 International Association for Cryptologic Research.