The QARMAv2 Family of Tweakable Block Ciphers

Authors

  • Roberto Avanzi Arm Germany, GmbH, Grasbrunn, Germany; Caesarea Rothschild Institute, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
  • Subhadeep Banik Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
  • Orr Dunkelman Computer Science Department, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
  • Maria Eichlseder Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
  • Shibam Ghosh Computer Science Department, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
  • Marcel Nageler Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
  • Francesco Regazzoni Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland; University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46586/tosc.v2023.i3.25-73

Keywords:

Tweakable Block Ciphers, Lightweight Cryptography, Reflection Ciphers, Memory Encryption, Memory Integrity, Message Authentication Codes

Abstract

We introduce the QARMAv2 family of tweakable block ciphers. It is a redesign of QARMA (from FSE 2017) to improve its security bounds and allow for longer tweaks, while keeping similar latency and area. The wider tweak input caters to both specific use cases and the design of modes of operation with higher security bounds. This is achieved through new key and tweak schedules, revised S-Box and linear layer choices, and a more comprehensive security analysis. QARMAv2 offers competitive latency and area in fully unrolled hardware implementations.
Some of our results may be of independent interest. These include: new MILP models of certain classes of diffusion matrices; the comparative analysis of a full reflection cipher against an iterative half-cipher; our boomerang attack framework; and an improved approach to doubling the width of a block cipher.

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Published

2023-09-19

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

The QARMAv2 Family of Tweakable Block Ciphers. (2023). IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, 2023(3), 25-73. https://doi.org/10.46586/tosc.v2023.i3.25-73