Cryptographic algorithms play an important role in the security architecture of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Choosing the most storage- and energy-efficient block cipher is essential, due to the facts that these networks are meant to operate without human intervention for a long period of time with little energy supply, and that available storage is scarce on these sensor nodes. However, to our knowledge, no systematic work has been done in this area so far. We construct an evaluation framework in which we first identify the candidates of block ciphers suitable for WSNs, based on existing literature and authoritative recommendations. For evaluating and assessing these candidates, we not only consider the security properties but also the storage- and energy-efficiency of the candidates. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we select the most suitable ciphers for WSNs, namely Skipjack, MISTY1, and Rijndael, depending on the combination of available memory and required security (energy efficiency being implicit). In terms of operation mode, we recommend Output Feedback Mode for pairwise links but Cipher Block Chaining for group communications.

/pdf/survey-and-benchmark-of-block-ciphers-for-wireless-sensor-1utfn198l6.pdf

Survey and benchmark of block ciphers for wireless sensor networks

Choosing the most storage- and energy-efficient block cipher specifically for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is not as straightforward as it seems. To our knowledge so far, there is no systematic evaluation framework for the purpose. In this paper, we have identified the candidates of block ciphers suitable for WSNs based on existing literature. For evaluating and assessing these candidates, we have devised a systematic framework that not only considers the security properties but also the storage- and energy-efficency of the candidates. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we have selected the suitable ciphers for WSNs, namely Rijndael for high security and energy efficiency requirements; and MISTY1 for good storage and energy efficiency.

Survey and Benchmark of Block Ciphers for Wireless Sensor Networks

Block ciphers encrypt blocks of plaintext, messages, into blocks of ciphertext under the action of a secret key, and the process of encryption is reversed by decryption which uses the same user-supplied key. Block ciphers are fundamental to modern cryptography, in fact they are the most widely used cryptographic primitive useful in their own right, and in the construction of other cryptographic mechanisms. In this book the authors provide a technically detailed, yet readable, account of the state of the art of block cipher analysis, design, and deployment. The authors first describe the most prominent block ciphers and give insights into their design. They then consider the role of the cryptanalyst, the adversary, and provide an overview of some of the most important cryptanalytic methods. The book will be of value to graduate and senior undergraduate students of cryptography and to professionals engaged in cryptographic design. An important feature of the presentation is the authors' exhaustive bibliography of the field, each chapter closing with comprehensive supporting notes.

The Block Cipher Companion

We observe that when conducting an impossible differential cryptanalysis on Camellia and MISTY1, their round structures allow us to partially determine whether a candidate pair is useful by guessing only a small fraction of the unknown required subkey bits of a relevant round at a time, instead of guessing all of them at once. Taking advantage of the early abort technique, we improve a previous impossible differential attack on 6-round MISTY1 without the FL functions, and present impossible differential cryptanalysis of 11-round Camellia-128 without the FL functions, 13-round Camellia-192 without the FL functions and 14- round Camellia-256 without the FL functions. The presented results are better than any previously published cryptanalytic results on Camellia and MISTY1 without the FL functions.

Improving the efficiency of impossible differential cryptanalysis of reduced Camellia and MISTY1

This paper studies the security of the block ciphers ARIA and Camellia against impossible differential cryptanalysis. Our work improves the best impossible differential cryptanalysis of ARIA and Camellia known so far. The designers of ARIA expected no impossible differentials exist for 4-round ARIA. However, we found some nontrivial 4-round impossible differentials, which may lead to a possible attack on 6-round ARIA. Moreover, we found some nontrivial 8-round impossible differentials for Camellia, whereas only 7-round impossible differentials were previously known. By using the 8-round impossible differentials, we presented an attack on 12-round Camellia without FL/FL-1 layers.

Impossible differential cryptanalysis of reduced-round ARIA and Camellia

Camellia is a block cipher cooperatively designed by NTT and Mitsubshi Electric Corporation and submitted to NESSIE. In this paper, we present truncated differential cryptanalysis of modified Camellia reduced to 7 and 8 rounds. For modified Camellia with 7 rounds we can find 8-bit key with 3 ? 281 plaintexts and for modified Camellia with 8 rounds we can find 16-bit key with 3 ? 282 plaintexts.

Seonhee Yoon

Papers

Truncated Differential Cryptanalysis of Camellia

Differential and linear cryptanalysis for 2-round SPNs