Seminar, 26th May 1998

[ Changed 22th May 1998 ]


Speaker:
Philip Michael Hawkes, University of Queensland

Date:
Tuesday 26th May 1998 at 16:15

Place:
Room TP4, Computer Laboratory

Title:
DIFFERENTIAL-LINEAR WEAK KEY CLASSES OF IDEA


The International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA) is a well known block cipher which is used, for example, in the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) package. In this talk, the largest known weak key classes of IDEA and reduced-round IDEA are constructed. For some of these classes, membership is determined by a differential-linear test while encrypting with a single key. In particular, $8.5$-round IDEA has a weak key class of $2^{63}$ keys (one in every $2^{65}$ keys) for which membership is determined in such a manner. A related-key differential-linear attack on 4-round IDEA is presented which is successful for all keys. Large weak key classes are found for 4.5- to 6.5-round and 8-round IDEA for which membership of these classes is determined by similar related-key differential-linear tests.


Seminar, 26th May 1998 / Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk