On the relationships between perfect nonlinear functions and universal hash families

Abstract

In this paper, the relationships between perfect nonlinear (in brief, PN) functions and optimal universal hash families are discussed. We point out the equivalence of constructions between them, i.e., from PN functions, one can obtain optimal universal hash families and vice versa. As an application of our construction, a message authentication code is proposed, which provides better resistance to substitution attack than a known construction given by Carlet et al. in 2006. More generally, the connections between functions with given differential uniformity and some universal hash families are studied.