PARC: A PRINCE-Based Pseudo-Random Number Generator with a Hardware-Efficient Reflective Architecture
W.A.S. Wijesinghe · 2025
The proliferation of resource-constrained devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) has intensified the demand for lightweight cryptographic primitives. While the PRINCE block cipher is well-regarded for its efficiency, a formal statistical analysis of its use in standard Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) modes like Counter (CTR) and Output Feedback (OFB) has not, to our knowledge, been previously published. This paper provides the first empirical analysis of PRINCE in these modes, revealing a critical statistical weakness-a failure of the Linear Complexity test-in the widely-used CTR implementation. To address this identified vulnerability, we introduce the Prince Alpha-Reflective Counter (PARC) generator, a novel PRNG architecture specifically designed to leverage the cipher's unique alpha-reflection property. Our comparative analysis using the NIST SP 800-22 test suite demonstrates that the PARC generator rectifies the flaw in CTR mode and successfully passes all 15 major statistical tests. This validates PARC as a demonstrably more secure and robust alternative for high-performance applications in FPGAs and other constrained environments.