Evolutionary algorithms-assisted construction of cryptographic boolean functions

Claude Carlet, Domagoj Jakobovic, Stjepan Picek

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
85 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the last few decades, evolutionary algorithms were successfully applied numerous times for creating Boolean functions with good cryptographic properties. Still, the applicability of such approaches was always limited as the cryptographic community knows how to construct suitable Boolean functions with deterministic algebraic constructions. Thus, evolutionary results so far helped to increase the confidence that evolutionary techniques have a role in cryptography, but at the same time, the results themselves were seldom used. This paper considers a novel problem using evolutionary algorithms to improve Boolean functions obtained through algebraic constructions. To this end, we consider a recent generalization of Hidden Weight Boolean Function construction, and we show that evolutionary algorithms can significantly improve the cryptographic properties of the functions. Our results show that the genetic algorithm performs by far the best of all the considered algorithms and improves the nonlinearity property in all Boolean function sizes. As there are no known algebraic techniques to reach the same goal, we consider this application a step forward in accepting evolutionary algorithms as a powerful tool in the cryptography domain.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGECCO 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages565-573
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781450383509
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO 2021 - Virtual, Online, France
Duration: 10 Jul 202114 Jul 2021

Publication series

NameGECCO 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference

Conference

Conference2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO 2021
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityVirtual, Online
Period10/07/2114/07/21

Keywords

  • Boolean function
  • Cryptography
  • Hidden weight boolean function
  • Secondary construction

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