An S-box Design Using Irreducible Polynomial with Affine Transformation for Lightweight Cipher

Abstract

Traditional cryptographic block cipher algorithms are often unsuitable for low-resource profiled IoT (Internet of Things) devices. A lightweight cryptographic algorithm is thus mandated. The S boxes are often called the heart of a cryptographic protocol, as a considerable amount of resource and time complexities are associated with the design of an S box. A lightweight S box will consume less memory, less power and less time, ensuring a high-level Shanon’s property of confusion. This paper proposes a lightweight S box design to meet all the requirements of lightweight cryptographic ciphers. The proposed method applies a couple of transformations- the multiplicative inverse in the Galois field $({2}^{4})$ and affine transformations on selected irreducible polynomials to create $4\times 4$ S-boxes. Several cryptanalyses such as balance test, bijection property, difference distribution table test, and Boomerang Connectivity were performed to demonstrate the robust characteristics of the proposed method.