Partitioning cryptanalysis

In cryptography, partitioning cryptanalysis is a form of cryptanalysis for block ciphers. Developed by Carlo Harpes in 1995, the attack is a generalization of linear cryptanalysis. Harpes originally replaced the bit sums (affine transformations) of linear cryptanalysis with more general balanced Boolean functions. He demonstrated a toy cipher that exhibits resistance against ordinary linear cryptanalysis but is susceptible to this sort of partitioning cryptanalysis. In its full generality, partitioning cryptanalysis works by dividing the sets of possible plaintexts and ciphertexts into efficiently-computable partitions such that the distribution of ciphertexts is significantly non-uniform when the plaintexts are chosen uniformly from a given block of the partition. Partitioning cryptanalysis has been shown to be more effective than linear cryptanalysis against variants of DES and CRYPTON. A specific partitioning attack called mod n cryptanalysis uses the congruence classes modulo some integer for partitions.

References

• Carlo Harpes, Gerard G. Kramer, James L. Massey (May 1995). "A Generalization of Linear Cryptanalysis and the Applicability of Matsui's Piling-up Lemma" (PDF/PostScript). Advances in Cryptology — Eurocrypt '95. Saint-Malo: Springer-Verlag. pp. 24–38. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/322881.html. Retrieved 9 September 2007. 
• Thomas Jakobsen (1995) (PDF/PostScript). Security Against Generalized Linear Cryptanalysis and Partitioning Cryptanalysis. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/48892.html. Retrieved 9 September 2007. 
• T. Jakobsen; C. Harpes (1996). "Bounds On Non-Uniformity Measures For Generalized Linear Cryptanalysis And Partitioning Cryptanalysis" (PDF/PostScript). Pragocrypt '96. Prague: Czech Technical University Publishing House. pp. 467–479. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/jakobsen96bounds.html. Retrieved 9 September 2007. 
• C. Harpes; J. Massey (January 1997). "Partitioning Cryptanalysis" (PDF/PostScript). 4th International Workshop in Fast Software Encryption (FSE '97). Haifa: Springer-Verlag. pp. 13–27. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/323185.html. Retrieved 9 September 2007. 
• {{cite conference

|author     = Marine Minier, Henri Gilbert
|title      = Stochastic Cryptanalysis of Crypton
|conference = 7th International Workshop in Fast Software Encryption (FSE 2000)
|pages      = 121–133
|publisher  = Springer-Verlag
|date       = April 2000
|location   = New York City 
|url        = http://www.mathmagic.cn/Crypt1998-2003/bibs/1978/19780121.htm
|format     = PDF
|access-date = 10 September 2007

• Thomas Baignères, Pascal Junod, Serge Vaudenay (December 2004). "How Far Can We Go Beyond Linear Cryptanalysis?". Advances in Cryptology — ASIACRYPT 2004. Jeju Island: Springer-Verlag. pp. 432–450. http://crypto.junod.info/a04.pdf. Retrieved 9 September 2007. 
• Gaëtan Leurent (October 2015). "Differential and Linear Cryptanalysis of ARX with Partitioning". Cryptology ePrint Archive. https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/968.pdf. Retrieved 10 October 2015.