Grain: a stream cipher for constrained environments. (30th May 2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hell, Martin; Johansson, Thomas; Meier, Willi
• Is Part Of: International journal of wireless and mobile computing. Volume 2:Number 1(2007)
• Page Start: 86
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2007-05-30
• Subjects: stream ciphers -- hardware efficient -- constrained environments -- linear feedback shift register -- nonlinear filters -- computer security; Mobile computing -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Periodicals; 004.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-1084

Abstract

A new stream cipher, Grain, is proposed. The design targets hardware environments where gate count, power consumption and memory is very limited. It is based on two shift registers and a non-linear output function. The cipher has the additional feature that the speed can be increased at the expense of extra hardware. The key size is 80 bits and no attack faster than exhaustive key search has been identified. The hardware complexity and throughput compares favourably to other hardware oriented stream ciphers like E0 and A5/1.