The group generated by the round functions of a block ciphers is a widely investigated problem. We identify a large class of block ciphers for which such group is easily guaranteed to be primitive. Our class includes the AES and the SERPENT.

No abstract

We propose a new syndrome variety, which can be used to decode cyclic codes. We present also a generalization to erasure and error decoding. We can exhibit a polynomial whose roots give the error locations, once it has been specialized to a given syndrome. This polynomial has degree t in the variable corresponding to the error locations and its coefficients are polynomials in the syndromes.

Abstract. We define a cipher that is an extension of GOST, and study the permutation group generated by its round functions. We show that, under minimal assumptions on the components of the cipher, this group is the alternating group on the plaintext space. This we do by first showing that the group is primitive, and then applying the O'Nan-Scott classification of primitive groups.

Abstract. In a previous paper, we had proved that the permutation group generated by the round functions of an AES-like cipher is primitive. Here we apply the O'Nan Scott classification of primitive groups to prove that this group is the alternating group.