The eSTREAM Project

Abstract

The origins of eSTREAM can be traced back to the 2004 RSA Data Security Conference. There, as part of the Cryptographer’s Panel, Adi Shamir made some insightful comments on the state of stream ciphers. In particular, with AES [8] deployment being so wide-spread, Shamir wondered whether there remained a need for a stream cipher of dedicated design. As arguments against, one might observe that for most applications, the use of the AES in an appropriate stream cipher mode [9] frequently offers a perfectly adequate solution. Some also doubt our understanding of how best to design a dedicated stream cipher, a view somewhat supported by the lack of surviving stream ciphers in the NESSIE project [1]. However, as counter-arguments Shamir went on to identify two areas where a dedicated stream cipher might conceivably offer some advantage over block ciphers: (1) where exceptionally high throughput is required in software and (2) where exceptionally low resource consumption is required in hardware.