Skip to main content

MARC: Modified ARC4

  • Conference paper
Foundations and Practice of Security (FPS 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 7743))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 1296 Accesses

Abstract

RC4, often referred to as Alleged RC4 (ARC4) in open literature, was and probably still is the most popular stream cipher. Although some weaknesses in its key scheduling algorithm have been reported and new faster and claimed secure stream ciphers have been proposed, ARC4 is likely to remain as a big player in cryptographic applications. In this paper, we propose a new variant of ARC4, called Modified ARC4 (MARC), which enhances the security of ARC4 by modifying its key scheduling algorithm and improves the performance by modifying its pseudo-random generation algorithm. MARC retains the simplicity of ARC4 and is faster than most software-efficient finalists of eStream.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schneier, B.: Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Fluhrer, S., Mantin, I., Shamir, A.: Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4. In: Vaudenay, S., Youssef, A.M. (eds.) SAC 2001. LNCS, vol. 2259, pp. 1–24. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. RSA Security Response to Weaknesses in Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4, http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2009

  4. Wu, H.: The Stream Cipher HC-128, http://www.ecrypt.eu.org/stream/hcpf.html

  5. Boesgaard, M., et al.: The Stream Cipher Rabbit. eSTREAM report 2005/024 (2005), http://www.ecrypt.eu.org/stream/papers.html

  6. Bernstein, D.J.: Salsa20/8 and Salsa20/12. eSTREAM report 2006/007 (2006), http://www.ecrypt.eu.org/stream/papers.html

  7. Berbain, C., et al.: Sosemanuk, a fast software-oriented stream cipher. eSTREAM report 2005/027 (2005), http://www.ecrypt.eu.org/stream/papers.html

  8. Paul, S., Preneel, B.: A New Weakness in the RC4 Keystream Generator and an Approach to Improve the Security of the Cipher. In: Roy, B., Meier, W. (eds.) FSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3017, pp. 245–259. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Zoltak, B.: VMPC One-Way Function and Stream Cipher. In: Roy, B., Meier, W. (eds.) FSE 2004. LNCS, vol. 3017, pp. 210–225. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Maitra, S., Paul, G.: Analysis of RC4 and Proposal of Additional Layers for Better Security Margin. In: International Conference on Cryptology in India. IIT, Kharagpur (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Khine, L.L.: A New Variant of RC4 Stream Cipher. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 50 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Roos, A.: A Class of Weak Keys in the RC4 Stream Cipher. Posting to sci.crypt (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Golić, J.D.: Linear Statistical Weakness of Alleged RC4 Keystream Generator. In: Fumy, W. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 1997. LNCS, vol. 1233, pp. 226–238. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Klein, A.: Attacks on the RC4 Stream Cipher. Designs, Codes and Cryptography 48, 269–286 (2008)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Tews, E., Weinmann, R.-P., Pyshkin, A.: Breaking 104 Bit WEP in Less Than 60 Seconds. In: Kim, S., Yung, M., Lee, H.-W. (eds.) WISA 2007. LNCS, vol. 4867, pp. 188–202. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Runkin, A., et al.: Statistical Test Suite for Random and Pseudo Random Number Generators for Cryptographic Applications. NIST special publication 800-22

    Google Scholar 

  17. Marsaglia, G.: DIEHARD Battery of Tests. New version, http://www.csis.hku.hk/~diehard/

  18. L’Ecuyer, P., Simard, R.J.: Testu01: A C Library for Empirical Testing of Random Number Generators. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 33(4) (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Soong, T.T.: Fundamentals of Probability and Statistics for Engineers, p. 327. John-Wiley and Sons Ltd. (2004) ISBN: 0470868147

    Google Scholar 

  20. Marsaglia, G., Tsang, W.: Some Difficult-to-Pass Tests of Randomness. Journal Statistical Software 7(3) (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Leitner, F.V.: Source Code Optimization, http://www.linux-kongress.org/2009/slides/compiler_survey_felix_von_leitner.pdf

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Zheng, J., Li, J. (2013). MARC: Modified ARC4. In: Garcia-Alfaro, J., Cuppens, F., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., Miri, A., Tawbi, N. (eds) Foundations and Practice of Security. FPS 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7743. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37119-6_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37119-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-37118-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-37119-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics