A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design

Jongsung Kim; Raphael C.W. Phan

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38

A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design

Jongsung Kim, Raphael C.W. Phan

Malaysia Sch of Information Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Skipjack is a block cipher designed by the NSA for use in US government phones, and commercial mobile and wireless products by AT&T. Among its initial implementations in hardware were the Clipper chip and Fortezza PC cards, which have since influenced the private communications market to be compatible with this technology. For instance, the Fortezza card comes in PCMCIA interface and is a very easy plug-n-play device to add on to mobile and wireless systems to provide encryption for wireless transmissions. Initially classified when it was first proposed, Skipjack was declassified in 1998 and sparked numerous security analyses from security researchers worldwide because it provides insight into the state-of-the-art security design techniques used by a highly secretive government intelligence agency such as the NSA. In this paper, commemorating over a decade since Skipjack's public revelation, we revisit the security of Skipjack against cryptanalytic results and discuss why certain attack approaches fare better with reference to Skipjack's design structure.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings
Pages	368-381
Number of pages	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38
Publication status	Published - 2009
Event	International Conference on Information Security and Assurance 2009 - Seoul, Korea, South Duration: 25 Jun 2009 → 27 Jun 2009 Conference number: 3rd https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.5555/1633804 (Proceedings)

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	5576 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	International Conference on Information Security and Assurance 2009
Abbreviated title	ISA 2009
Country/Territory	Korea, South
City	Seoul
Period	25/06/09 → 27/06/09
Internet address	https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.5555/1633804 (Proceedings)

Keywords

Block Ciphers
Cryptanalysis
Distinguisher
NSA
Skipjack

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38

Cite this

Kim, J., & Phan, R. C. W. (2009). A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design. In Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings (pp. 368-381). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 5576 LNCS). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38

Kim, Jongsung ; Phan, Raphael C.W. / A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design. Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings. 2009. pp. 368-381 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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Kim, J & Phan, RCW 2009, A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design. in Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 5576 LNCS, pp. 368-381, International Conference on Information Security and Assurance 2009, Seoul, Korea, South, 25/06/09. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38

A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design. / Kim, Jongsung; Phan, Raphael C.W.
Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings. 2009. p. 368-381 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 5576 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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Kim J, Phan RCW. A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design. In Advances in Information Security and Assurance - Third International Conference and Workshops, ISA 2009, Proceedings. 2009. p. 368-381. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-02617-1_38

A cryptanalytic view of the NSA's skipjack block cipher design

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

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