IAESR: IoT-oriented authenticated encryption based on iShadow round function.

Area of Science:

• Cryptography
• Computer Engineering
• Information Security

Background:

• Increasing popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and embedded systems drives demand for security and resource efficiency.
• Traditional authenticated encryption (AE) algorithms are often too complex and resource-intensive for lightweight devices.
• Lightweight devices require simple, efficient encryption algorithms that minimize processing power, storage, and energy consumption while maintaining security.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a theoretical lightweight AE scheme tailored for resource-constrained environments like IoT.
• To enhance the existing Shadow lightweight block cipher into an improved version (iShadow).
• To integrate iShadow with a duplex sponge structure, creating the IoT-oriented authenticated encryption based on the iShadow round function (IAESR).

Main Methods:

• Enhancement of the Shadow algorithm to create the improved Shadow (iShadow) algorithm.
• Combination of iShadow with the duplex sponge structure to develop the IAESR scheme.
• Utilizing sponge capacity for provable security bounds (IND-CPA, IND-CCA) and duplex mode for single-pass processing and memory efficiency.

Main Results:

• IAESR achieves provable security bounds against generic attacks with adversarial advantage limited to O(q^2/2^c).
• The duplex mode reduces memory overhead by reusing the permutation state.
• iShadow's ARX operations result in low energy consumption (0.4-0.5 µJ/byte on 32-b microcontrollers), outperforming AES-GCM by 20-30%.

Conclusions:

• The IAESR scheme effectively balances security and efficiency for lightweight IoT devices.
• IAESR provides IND-CCA secure confidentiality and integrity (INT-PTXT) through its sponge construction.
• The proposed scheme is well-suited for resource-constrained scenarios, ensuring secure communication in IoT applications.