Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST

This paper studies quantum linear key-recovery attacks on block ciphers. The first such attacks were last-rounds attacks proposed by Kaplan et al. (ToSC 2016), which combine a linear distinguisher with a guess of a partial key. However, the most efficient classical attacks use the framework propose...

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Main Authors: Kaveh Bashiri, Xavier Bonnetain, Akinori Hosoyamada, Nathalie Lang, André Schrottenloher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ruhr-Universität Bochum 2025-06-01
Series:IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
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Online Access:https://ojs.ub.rub.de/index.php/ToSC/article/view/12246
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author Kaveh Bashiri
Xavier Bonnetain
Akinori Hosoyamada
Nathalie Lang
André Schrottenloher
author_facet Kaveh Bashiri
Xavier Bonnetain
Akinori Hosoyamada
Nathalie Lang
André Schrottenloher
author_sort Kaveh Bashiri
collection DOAJ
description This paper studies quantum linear key-recovery attacks on block ciphers. The first such attacks were last-rounds attacks proposed by Kaplan et al. (ToSC 2016), which combine a linear distinguisher with a guess of a partial key. However, the most efficient classical attacks use the framework proposed by Collard et al. (ICISC 2007), which computes experimental correlations using the Fast Walsh-Hadamard Transform. Recently, Schrottenloher (CRYPTO 2023) proposed a quantum version of this technique, in which one uses the available data to create a quantum correlation state, which is a superposition of subkey candidates where the amplitudes are the corresponding correlations. A limitation is that the good subkey is not marked in this state, and cannot be found easily. In this paper, we combine the correlation state with another distinguisher. From here, we can use Amplitude Amplification to recover the right key. We apply this idea to Feistel ciphers and exemplify different attack strategies on LOKI91 before applying our idea on the CAST-128 and CAST-256 ciphers. We demonstrate the approach with two kinds of distinguishers, quantum distinguishers based on Simon’s algorithm and linear distinguishers. The resulting attacks outperform the previous Grover-meet-Simon attacks.
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series IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
spelling doaj-art-10426b595c3b45ae8bd34c7c49149d6a2025-08-20T02:09:44ZengRuhr-Universität BochumIACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology2519-173X2025-06-012025210.46586/tosc.v2025.i2.124-165Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CASTKaveh Bashiri0Xavier Bonnetain1Akinori Hosoyamada2Nathalie Lang3André Schrottenloher4Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), Bonn, GermanyUniversité de Lorraine, CNRS, Inria, LORIA, Nancy, FranceNTT Social Informatics Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan; NTT Research Center for Theoretical Quantum Information, Atsugi, JapanBauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar, GermanyUniv Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, Rennes, France This paper studies quantum linear key-recovery attacks on block ciphers. The first such attacks were last-rounds attacks proposed by Kaplan et al. (ToSC 2016), which combine a linear distinguisher with a guess of a partial key. However, the most efficient classical attacks use the framework proposed by Collard et al. (ICISC 2007), which computes experimental correlations using the Fast Walsh-Hadamard Transform. Recently, Schrottenloher (CRYPTO 2023) proposed a quantum version of this technique, in which one uses the available data to create a quantum correlation state, which is a superposition of subkey candidates where the amplitudes are the corresponding correlations. A limitation is that the good subkey is not marked in this state, and cannot be found easily. In this paper, we combine the correlation state with another distinguisher. From here, we can use Amplitude Amplification to recover the right key. We apply this idea to Feistel ciphers and exemplify different attack strategies on LOKI91 before applying our idea on the CAST-128 and CAST-256 ciphers. We demonstrate the approach with two kinds of distinguishers, quantum distinguishers based on Simon’s algorithm and linear distinguishers. The resulting attacks outperform the previous Grover-meet-Simon attacks. https://ojs.ub.rub.de/index.php/ToSC/article/view/12246Quantum cryptanalysisLinear cryptanalysisFast Fourier TransformCAST
spellingShingle Kaveh Bashiri
Xavier Bonnetain
Akinori Hosoyamada
Nathalie Lang
André Schrottenloher
Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
Quantum cryptanalysis
Linear cryptanalysis
Fast Fourier Transform
CAST
title Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
title_full Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
title_fullStr Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
title_full_unstemmed Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
title_short Improved Quantum Linear Attacks and Application to CAST
title_sort improved quantum linear attacks and application to cast
topic Quantum cryptanalysis
Linear cryptanalysis
Fast Fourier Transform
CAST
url https://ojs.ub.rub.de/index.php/ToSC/article/view/12246
work_keys_str_mv AT kavehbashiri improvedquantumlinearattacksandapplicationtocast
AT xavierbonnetain improvedquantumlinearattacksandapplicationtocast
AT akinorihosoyamada improvedquantumlinearattacksandapplicationtocast
AT nathalielang improvedquantumlinearattacksandapplicationtocast
AT andreschrottenloher improvedquantumlinearattacksandapplicationtocast