interesting paper on eprint archive

[Perry E. Metzger]

The consensus from a few of my friends is that this paper (by
Warren Smith) is a bit eccentrically written but not obviously
flawed. Whether it is of any practical importance at all remains to be
seen -- there may be no way to apply the results.

http://eprint.iacr.org/2007/248

     Abstract. We describe a new simple but more powerful form of linear
     cryptanalysis. It appears to break AES (and undoubtably other
     cryptosystems too, e.g. SKIPJACK). The break is ``nonconstructive,''
     i.e. we make it plausible (e.g. prove it in certain approximate
     probabilistic models) that a small algorithm for quickly determining
     AES-256 keys from plaintext-ciphertext pairs exists -- but without
     constructing the algorithm. The attack's runtime is comparable to
     performing $64^w$ encryptions where $w$ is the (unknown) minimum
     Hamming weight in certain binary linear error-correcting codes
     (BLECCs) associated with AES-256. If $w < 43$ then our attack is
     faster than exhaustive key search; probably $w < 10$. (Also there
     should be ciphertext-only attacks if the plaintext is natural English.)

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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