IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences
Online ISSN : 1745-1337
Print ISSN : 0916-8508
Special Section on Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications
New Analysis Based on Correlations of RC4 PRGA with Nonzero-Bit Differences
Atsuko MIYAJIMasahiro SUKEGAWA
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2010 Volume E93.A Issue 6 Pages 1066-1077

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Abstract

RC4 is the stream cipher proposed by Rivest in 1987, which is widely used in a number of commercial products because of its simplicity and substantial security. RC4 exploits shuffle-exchange paradigm, which uses a permutation S. Many attacks have been reported so far. No study, however, has focused on correlations in the Pseudo-Random Generation (PRGA) between two permutations S and S' with some differences, nevertheless such correlations are related to an inherent weakness of shuffle-exchange-type PRGA. In this paper, we investigate the correlations between S and S' with some differences in the initial round. We show that correlations between S and S' remain before “i” is in the position where the nonzero-bit difference exists in the initial round, and that the correlations remain with non negligible probability even after “i” passed by the position. This means that the same correlations between S and S' will be observed after the 255-th round. This reveals an inherent weakness of shuffle-exchange-type PRGA.

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© 2010 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
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