More differentially 6-uniform power functions

In this paper, we study the differential spectra of differentially 6-uniform functions among the family of monomials \(\big \{x\mapsto x^{2^t-1},\; 1<t<n\big \}\) defined in \(\mathbb {F}_{2^{n}}\) . We show that the functions \(x\mapsto x^{2^t-1}\) when \(t=\frac{n-1}{2},\; \frac{n+3}{2}\) with odd \(n\) have a differential spectrum similar to the one of the function \(x\mapsto x^7\) which belongs to the same family. We also study the functions \(x\mapsto x^{2^t-1}\) when \(t=\frac{kn+1}{3},\frac{(3-k)n+2}{3}\) with \(kn\equiv 2\,\mathrm{mod}\,3\) which are known to be differentially 6-uniform and show that their complete differential spectrum can be provided under an assumption related to a new formulation of the Kloosterman sum. To provide the differential spectra for these functions, a recent result of Helleseth and Kholosha regarding the number of roots of polynomials of the form \(x^{2^t+1}+x+a\) is widely used in this paper. A discussion regarding the non-linearity and the algebraic degree of the vectorial functions \(x\mapsto x^{2^t-1}\) is also proposed.     

On a conjecture of differentially 8-uniform power functions

Let \(m \ge 5\) be an odd integer. For \(d=2^m+2^{(m+1)/2}+1\) or \(d=2^{m+1}+3\), Blondeau et al. conjectured that the power function \(F_d=x^d\) over \(\mathrm {GF}(2^{2m})\) is differentially 8-uniform in which all values \(0, \, 2, \, 4,\, 6,\, 8\) appear. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture and compute the differential spectrum of \(F_d\) for both values of d.     

Constructing new differentially 4-uniform permutations from the inverse function

Two new families of differentially 4-uniform permutations over ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^{2m}}$ are constructed by modifying the values of the inverse function on some subfield of ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^{2m}}$ and by applying affine transformations on the function. The resulted 4-uniform permutations have high nonlinearity and algebraic degree. A family of differentially 6-uniform permutations with high nonlinearity and algebraic degree is also constructed by making the modification on an affine subspace of ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^{2m}}$.     

Constructing differentially 4-uniform permutations over GF(22m ) from quadratic APN permutations over GF(22m+1)

In this paper, by means of the idea proposed by Carlet (ACISP 1-15, 2011), differentially 4-uniform permutations with the best known nonlinearity over \({\mathbb{F}_{2^{2m}}}\) are constructed using quadratic APN permutations over \({\mathbb{F}_{2^{2m+1}}}\) . Special constructions are given using the Gold functions. The algebraic degree of the constructions and their compositional inverses is also investigated. One construction and its compositional inverse both have algebraic degree m + 1 over \({\mathbb{F}_2^{2m}}\) .     

On weakly APN functions and 4-bit S-Boxes

S-Boxes are important security components of block ciphers. We provide theoretical results on necessary or sufficient criteria for an (invertible) 4-bit S-Box to be weakly APN. Thanks to a classification of 4-bit invertible S-Boxes achieved independently by De Cannière and Leander–Poschmann, we can strengthen our results with a computer-aided proof. We also propose a class of 4-bit S-Boxes which are very strong from a security point of view.     

Equivalences of quadratic APN functions

The following conjecture due to Y. Edel is affirmatively solved: two quadratic APN (almost perfect nonlinear) functions are CCZ-equivalent if and only if they are extended affine equivalent.     

Plateaudness of Kasami APN functions

It is shown that the Kasami function defined on ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^n}$ with n even is plateaued. This generalizes a result [3, Theorem 11], where the restriction $(n,3)=1$ is assumed. The result is used to establish the CCZ-inequivalence of the Kasami function defined on ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^n}$ with n even to the other known monomial APN functions [4].     

Further results on differentially 4-uniform permutations over F_(2~2m)

We present several new constructions of differentially 4-uniform permutations over F22 mby modifying the values of the inverse function on some subsets of F22 m. The resulted differentially 4-uniform permutations have high nonlinearities and algebraic degrees, which provide more choices for the design of crytographic substitution boxes.     

Trims and extensions of quadratic APN functions

Designs, Codes and Cryptography - In this work, we study functions that can be obtained by restricting a vectorial Boolean function $$F :\mathbb {F}_{2}^n \rightarrow \mathbb {F}_{2}^n$$ to an...     

New semifields, PN and APN functions

We describe a method of proving that certain functions ${f:F\longrightarrow F}$ defined on a finite field F are either PN-functions (in odd characteristic) or APN-functions (in characteristic 2). This method is illustrated by giving short proofs of the APN-respectively the PN-property for various families of functions. The main new contribution is the construction of a family of PN-functions and their corresponding commutative semifields of dimension 4s in arbitrary odd characteristic. It is shown that a subfamily of order p ^4s for odd s > 1 is not isotopic to previously known examples.     

On the symmetric properties of APN functions

We study the symmetric properties of APN functions as well as the structure and properties of the range of an arbitrary APN function. We prove that there is no permutation of variables that preserves the values of an APN function. Upper bounds for the number of symmetric coordinate Boolean functions in an APN function and its coordinate functions invariant under a cyclic shift are obtained. For n ≤ 6, some upper bounds for the maximal number of identical values of an APN function are given and a lower bound is found for different values of an arbitrary APN function of n variables.     

On the equivalence of quadratic APN functions

Establishing the CCZ-equivalence of a pair of APN functions is generally quite difficult. In some cases, when seeking to show that a putative new infinite family of APN functions is CCZ inequivalent to an already known family, we rely on computer calculation for small values of n. In this paper we present a method to prove the inequivalence of quadratic APN functions with the Gold functions. Our main result is that a quadratic function is CCZ-equivalent to the APN Gold function x^2r+1{x^{2^r+1}} if and only if it is EA-equivalent to that Gold function. As an application of this result, we prove that a trinomial family of APN functions that exist on finite fields of order 2 ⁿ where n ≡ 2 mod 4 are CCZ inequivalent to the Gold functions. The proof relies on some knowledge of the automorphism group of a code associated with such a function.     

Relating three nonlinearity parameters of vectorial functions and building APN functions from bent functions

We survey the properties of two parameters introduced by C. Ding and the author for quantifying the balancedness of vectorial functions and of their derivatives. We give new results on the distribution of the values of the first parameter when applied to F + L, where F is a fixed function and L ranges over the set of linear functions: we show an upper bound on the nonlinearity of F by means of these values, we determine then the mean of these values and we show that their maximum is a nonlinearity parameter as well, we prove that the variance of these values is directly related to the second parameter. We briefly recall the known constructions of bent vectorial functions and introduce two new classes obtained with Gregor Leander. We show that bent functions can be used to build APN functions by concatenating the outputs of a bent (n, n/2)-function and of some other (n, n/2)-function. We obtain this way a general infinite class of quadratic APN functions. We show that this class contains the APN trinomials and hexanomials introduced in 2008 by L. Budaghyan and the author, and a class of APN functions introduced, in 2008 also, by Bracken et al.; this gives an explanation of the APNness of these functions and allows generalizing them. We also obtain this way the recently found Edel?CPott cubic function. We exhibit a large number of other sub-classes of APN functions. We eventually design with this same method classes of quadratic and non-quadratic differentially 4-uniform functions.     

On quadratic APN functions and dimensional dual hyperovals

In this paper we characterize the d-dimensional dual hyperovals in PG(2d + 1, 2) that can be obtained by Yoshiara’s construction (Innov Incid Geom 8:147–169, 2008) from quadratic APN functions and state a one-to-one correspondence between the extended affine equivalence classes of quadratic APN functions and the isomorphism classes of these dual hyperovals.     

Not-all-equal 3-SAT and 2-colorings of 4-regular 4-uniform hypergraphs

In this paper, we continue our study of 2-colorings in hypergraphs (see, Henning and Yeo, 2013). A hypergraph is 2-colorable if there is a 2-coloring of the vertices with no monochromatic hyperedge. It is known (see Thomassen, 1992) that every 4-uniform 4-regular hypergraph is 2-colorable. Our main result in this paper is a strengthening of this result. For this purpose, we define a vertex in a hypergraph $H$ to be a free vertex in $H$ if we can 2-color $V\left(H\right)?\left\{v\right\}$ such that every hyperedge in $H$ contains vertices of both colors (where $v$ has no color). We prove that every 4-uniform 4-regular hypergraph has a free vertex. This proves a conjecture in Henning and Yeo (2015). Our proofs use a new result on not-all-equal 3-SAT which is also proved in this paper and is of interest in its own right.