Survey of design and security evaluation of authenticated encryption algorithms in the CAESAR competition

Abstract

The Competition for Authenticated Encryption: Security, Applicability, and Robustness (CAESAR) supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an ongoing project calling for submissions of authenticated encryption (AE) schemes. The competition itself aims at enhancing both the design of AE schemes and related analysis. The design goal is to pursue new AE schemes that are more secure than advanced encryption standard with Galois/counter mode (AES-GCM) and can simultaneously achieve three design aspects: security, applicability, and robustness. The competition has a total of three rounds and the last round is approaching the end in 2018. In this survey paper, we first introduce the requirements of the proposed design and the progress of candidate screening in the CAESAR competition. Second, the candidate AE schemes in the final round are classified according to their design structures and encryption modes. Third, comprehensive performance and security evaluations are conducted on these candidates. Finally, the research trends of design and analysis of AE for the future are discussed.