ALICA: A Multi-S-Box Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm Based on Generalized Feistel Structure

Abstract

With the development of science and technology, IoT devices have already become ubiquitous in the public eye. Through the perception layer, the collected data are displayed or transmitted to the server backend for analysis. Due to the increasing integration of IoT devices into people’s daily lives, privacy issues, such as data leaks, have received more attention. Most sensor nodes, such as temperature and pressure sensors in marine environments, have low computing power, storage capacity, and significant underlying heterogeneity, making it challenging to implement a standardized data security protection solution. Data security in the nodes is seriously challenged as a result. It is of great significance to design a lightweight block cipher for the Internet of Things (IoT) environment, which can ensure the security of node information. A new lightweight block cipher algorithm called ALICA is proposed in this paper, which is well-suited for the low computing power and heterogeneous device environment at the lower layers. A generalized Feistel structure and a linear structure with XOR and shift operations are used to achieve ease of software implementation. Two different S-boxes are used to create the nonlinear structure of the password, thereby enhancing the robust security of the cipher. In addition, the cipher adopts a design approach that prioritizes software efficiency while also considering hardware implementation efficiency. This makes it more suitable for low computing power, storage capacity, and resource-limited IoT sensor nodes at the lower layers.