Combinatorial Optimization in Cryptography
Karlo Knežević · 2017
The known attacks on different cryptosystems lead to a number of criteria that the implemented cryptographic algorithms (ciphers) must satisfy. The design of cryptographic systems needs to consider various characteristics simultaneously, which can be regarded as a multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem. Evolutionary computation present a range of problem-solving techniques based on the principles of biological evolution. Evolutionary algorithms can quickly offer satisfactory solution to combinatorial optimization problems. Evolutionary computation can be also used in evolving pseudorandom number generators which play important role as a countermeasure against side channel attacks. The purpose of this paper is to give a state-of-the-art overview of the evolutionary computation area in symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, as well as for the evolving pseudorandom number generators. In symmetric cryptosystem, one of the important components is the substitution box which can be successfully built by evolutionary algorithm. In asymmetric cryptosystem, evolutionary algorithms can be used to speed-up some discrete mathematic operations, like modular exponentiation.