Feedback shift registers with carry operation (FCSR’s) are described, implemented, and analyzed with respect to memory requirements, initial loading, period, and distributional properties of their output sequences. Many parallels with the theory of linear feedback shift registers (LFSR’s) are presented, including a synthesis algorithm (analogous to the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm for LFSR’s) which, for any pseudorandom sequence, constructs the smallest FCSR which will generate the sequence. These techniques are used to attack the summation cipher. This analysis gives a unified approach to the study of pseudorandom sequences, arithmetic codes, combiners with memory, and the Marsaglia-Zaman random number generator. Possible variations on the FCSR architecture are indicated at the end. Index Terms – Binary sequence, shift register, stream cipher, combiner with memory, cryptanalysis, 2-adic numbers, arithmetic code, 1/q sequence, linear span. 1

A new class of feedback register, based on ramified extensions of the 2-adic numbers, is described. An algebraic framework for the analysis of these registers and the sequences they output is given. This framework parallels that of linear feedback shift registers. As one consequence of this, a method for cracking summation ciphers is given. These registers give rise to new measures of cryptologic security.

This paper presents a new algorithm for cryptanalytically attacking stream ciphers. There is an associated measure of security, the 2-adac 8pan. In order for a stream cipher to be secure, its Zadic span must be large. This attack exposes a weakness of Rueppel and Massey's summation combiner. The algorithm, based on De Weger and Mahler's rational approximation theory for 2-adic numbers, synthesizes a shortest feedback with cam shaft qwter that outputs a particular key stream, given a small number of bits of the key stream. It is adaptive in that it does not neeed to know the number of available bits beforehand.