A new S-box construction method meeting strict avalanche criterion

Abstract

S-box is the main security component in lightweight block ciphers. Finding new algorithms and technical applications to generate S-box is still a current research topic. We proposed an S-box construction method that satisfies the strict avalanche criterion. It includes a nonlinear layer and a diffusion layer. These layers enable the constructed S-box to maintain good nonlinearity, differential uniformity, strict avalanche criterion, and a high number of algebraic terms. Secondly, we listed 20 existing classic 4 × 4 S-boxes and tested their cryptographic properties such as nonlinearity, difference uniformity, strict avalanche criterion, algebraic degree, algebraic item number, and fixed point. At the same time, the test results are compared with the proposed S-box. The results show that these cryptographic properties of our proposed S-box are superior to other S-boxes. In addition, we evaluated the proposed S-box hardware implementation overhead. To evaluate our S-box more objectively, we tested the above 20 S-boxes hardware implementation overhead under the same conditions, and the results show that the S-box we constructed achieved a good balance between cryptographic properties and hardware overhead.