Paper 2012/425 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2012/425 ↗
The Stream Cipher Core of the 3GPP Encryption Standard 128-EEA3: Timing Attacks and Countermeasures
Abstract
The core of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) encryption standard 128-EEA3 is a stream cipher called ZUC. It was designed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and proposed for inclusion in the cellular wireless standards called “Long Term Evolution” or “4G”. The LFSR-based cipher uses a 128-bit key. In this paper, we first show timing attacks on ZUC that can recover, with about 71.43% success rate, (i) one bit of the secret key immediately, and (ii) information involving 6 other key bits. The time, memory and data requirements of the attacks are negligible. While we see potential improvements to the attacks, we also suggest countermeasures.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
PDF- Category
- Secret-key cryptography
- Publication info
- Preprint.
- History
- 2015-10-01: last updated
- 2012-08-05: published
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2012/425
- License
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2012/425,
author = {Gautham Sekar},
title = {The Stream Cipher Core of the 3GPP Encryption Standard 128-EEA3: Timing Attacks and Countermeasures},
howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2012/425},
year = {2012},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/425}
}