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Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security pp 722–725Cite as

Linear Cryptanalysis for Block Ciphers

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Related Concepts

Block Ciphers; FEAL

Definition

Linear cryptanalysis is a known plaintext attack in which the attacker studies probabilistic linear relations (called linear approximations) between parity bits of the plaintext, the ciphertext, and the secret key. Given an approximation with high probability, the attacker obtains an estimate for the parity bit of the secret key by analyzing the parity bits of the known plaintexts and ciphertexts. Using auxiliary techniques, he or she can usually extend the attack to find more bits of the secret key.

Background

Linear cryptanalysis is a powerful method of cryptanalysis of block ciphers introduced by Matsui in 1993 [13]. The attack in its current form was first applied to the Data Encryption Standard (DES), but an early variant of linear cryptanalysis, developed by Matsui and Yamagishi, was already successfully used to attack FEAL in 1992 [ 12].

Theory

The next section provides some more details about the attack algorithm. Sections...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. FDEF, Campus Limpertsberg, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Alex Biryukov Professor & Christophe De Cannière

Authors
  1. Alex Biryukov Professor
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  2. Christophe De Cannière
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Henk C. A. van Tilborg

  2. Center for Secure Information Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4422, USA

    Sushil Jajodia

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Biryukov, A., De Cannière, C. (2011). Linear Cryptanalysis for Block Ciphers. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_589

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