Nonlinear 4 × 4 MDS diffusion layers

Abstract

Nonlinear diffusion layers are less studied in cryptographic literature, up to now. In 2018, Liu, Rijmen and Leander studied nonlinear non-MDS diffusion layers and mentioned some advantages of them. As they stated, nonlinear diffusion layers could make symmetric ciphers more resistant against statistical and algebraic cryptanalysis. In this paper, we examine nonlinear MDS mappings and present a family of 4 × 4 nonlinear MDS diffusion layers. Then, we discuss the optimized implementation of the proposed family in software-oriented applications.

Subject Classification: (2010):

• 11T71
• 94A60
• 14G50

Keywords:

• Nonlinear MDS diffusion layer
• Multi-permutation
• Symmetric cryptography
• Cryptanalysis