Abstract. We propose a family of compression functions built from fixed-key blockciphers and investigate their collision and preimage security in the ideal-cipher model. The constructions have security approaching and in many cases equaling the security upper bounds found in previous work of the authors [24]. In particular, we describe a 2n-bit to n-bit compression function using three n-bit permutation calls that has collision security N 0.5,whereN =2 n, and we describe 3n-bit to 2n-bit compression functions using five and six permutation calls and having collision security of at least N 0.55 and N 0.63. Key words: blockcipher-based hashing, collision-resistant hashing, compression functions, cryptographic hash functions, ideal-cipher model. 1

Abstract. The design of cryptographic hash functions is a very complex and failure-prone process. For this reason, this paper puts forward a completely modular and fault-tolerant approach to the construction of a full-fledged hash function from an underlying simpler hash function H and a further primitive F (such as a block cipher), with the property that collision resistance of the construction only relies on H, whereas indifferentiability from a random oracle follows from F being ideal. In particular, the failure of one of the two components must not affect the security property implied by the other component. The Mix-Compress-Mix (MCM) approach by Ristenpart and Shrimpton (ASIACRYPT 2007) envelops the hash function H between two injective mixing steps, and can be interpreted as a first attempt at such a design. However, the proposed instantiation of the mixing steps, based on block ciphers, makes the resulting hash function impractical: First, it cannot be evaluated online, and second, it produces larger hash values than H, while only inheriting the collision-resistance guarantees for the shorter output. Additionally, it relies on a trapdoor one-way permutation, which seriously compromises the use of the resulting hash function for random oracle instantiation in certain scenarios. This paper presents the first efficient modular hash function with online evaluation and short output length. The core of our approach are novel block-cipher based designs for the mixing steps of the MCM approach which rely on significantly weaker assumptions: The first mixing step is realized without any computational assumptions (besides the underlying cipher being ideal), whereas the second mixing step only requires a oneway permutation without a trapdoor, which we prove to be the minimal assumption for the construction of injective random oracles. 1

Abstract. The pervasive diffusion of electronic devices in security and privacy sensitive applications has boosted research in cryptography. In this context, the study of lightweight algorithms has been a very active direction over the last years. In general, symmetric cryptographic primitives are good candidates for low-cost implementations. For example, several previous works have investigated the performances of block ciphers on various platforms. Motivated by the recent SHA3 competition, this paper extends these studies to another family of cryptographic primitives, namely hash functions. We implemented different algorithms on an ATMEL AVR ATtiny45 8-bit microcontroller, and provide their performance evaluation using different figures. All the implementations were carried out with the goal of minimizing the code size and memory utilization, and evaluated using a common interface. As part of our contribution, we additionally decided to make all the corresponding source codes available on a web page, under an open-source license. We hope that this paper provides a good basis for researchers and embedded system designers who need to include more and more functionalities in next generation smart devices. 1