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Spectral analysis of ZUC-256

Yang, Jing LU ; Johansson, Thomas LU orcid and Maximov, Alexander LU (2020) In IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology 2020(1). p.266-288
Abstract

In this paper we develop a number of generic techniques and algorithms in spectral analysis of large linear approximations for use in cryptanalysis. We apply the developed tools for cryptanalysis of ZUC-256 and give a distinguishing attack with complexity around 2236 . Although the attack is only 220 times faster than exhaustive key search, the result indicates that ZUC-256 does not provide a source with full 256-bit entropy in the generated keystream, which would be expected from a 256-bit key. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first known academic attack on full ZUC-256 with a computational complexity that is below exhaustive key search.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
5G Mobile System Security, Stream Cipher, ZUC-256
in
IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
volume
2020
issue
1
pages
23 pages
publisher
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
external identifiers
  • scopus:85084736039
ISSN
2519-173X
DOI
10.13154/tosc.v2020.i1.266-288
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e9e2f4d4-638a-4d07-9c0b-f0b050c3d92e
date added to LUP
2020-06-10 15:44:51
date last changed
2023-09-10 04:25:23
@article{e9e2f4d4-638a-4d07-9c0b-f0b050c3d92e,
  abstract     = {{<p>In this paper we develop a number of generic techniques and algorithms in spectral analysis of large linear approximations for use in cryptanalysis. We apply the developed tools for cryptanalysis of ZUC-256 and give a distinguishing attack with complexity around 2<sup>236</sup> . Although the attack is only 2<sup>20</sup> times faster than exhaustive key search, the result indicates that ZUC-256 does not provide a source with full 256-bit entropy in the generated keystream, which would be expected from a 256-bit key. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first known academic attack on full ZUC-256 with a computational complexity that is below exhaustive key search.</p>}},
  author       = {{Yang, Jing and Johansson, Thomas and Maximov, Alexander}},
  issn         = {{2519-173X}},
  keywords     = {{5G Mobile System Security; Stream Cipher; ZUC-256}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{266--288}},
  publisher    = {{Ruhr-Universität Bochum}},
  series       = {{IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology}},
  title        = {{Spectral analysis of ZUC-256}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.13154/tosc.v2020.i1.266-288}},
  doi          = {{10.13154/tosc.v2020.i1.266-288}},
  volume       = {{2020}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}