PhD Position F/M Security of ASCON and Lightweight Symmetric Primitives against Quantum Attackers
Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : PhD Position
About the research centre or Inria department
The Inria Centre at Rennes University is one of Inria's eight centres and has more than thirty research teams. The Inria Centre is a major and recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem: highly innovative PMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education players, laboratories of excellence, technological research institute, etc.
Context
This PhD position takes place within the ASCON-CAT project, which studies the resistance of the
ASCON cipher family against quantum attacks. ASCON-CAT aims at combining the expertise of its
members in cryptography, quantum computing and physical implementations to assess the security
levels of ASCON, and increase our understanding of the quantum security of symmetric cryptosystems
as a whole.
In 2018, the NIST launched a competition to select a new family of lightweight symmetric authenti-
cated encryption algorithms, therefore recognizing the importance that lightweight cryptography has
taken in industrial applications and research. After five years of competition, ASCON was selected
for standardization, and is now expected to become a major commercial standard. In parallel,
many other lightweight designs have been proposed throughout the competition and later on.
Mainstream symmetric primitives are widely believed to retain a good level of security against
hypothetical quantum adversaries. However, the past few years have shown that a lot can be
said about the quantum security of symmetric ciphers.The goal of ASCON-CAT is to tackle
this challenge on the high-profile target ASCON. Within this project, the goal of this PhD
will be to analyze the impact of quantum cryptanalysis families on ASCON and develop
dedicated attacks.
The ASCON-CAT project is a collaboration between Alice&Bob (Paris), Thales SIX (Gennevilliers)
and Inria Rennes.The PhD student will be jointly supervised with the cryptography group at
Thales SIX and is expected to collaborate regularly with the group.
Assignment
The PhD candidate will study different categories of attacks and analyze their impact
on the ASCON cipher family and related targets. These categories will notably include:
- Linear and differential attacks
- Algebraic attacks (including Meet-in-the-middle attacks on hashing or Duplex encryption modes
It is expected that some of the observations made on ASCON and / or cryptanalysis techniques will
lead to results on other similar lightweight primitives.
More information on the research to be carried out in this project as well as relevant
bibliographic references are available on this document.
Main activities
The PhD candidate will contribute to the research activities of the CAPSULE team
and collaborate with the ASCON-CAT project partners.
- Analyze existing families of attacks and build a bibliography of applicable attacks
- Design new attack algorithms and analyze their costs
The candidate will also communicate her/his work through publications and
communications in conferences, workshops or seminars.
Skills
The ideal candidate will have the following skills:
- A strong level in English for written and oral communication
- Relational skills (working in a team)
- A background in cryptography and / or algorithmics
- Programming skills in Python or other languages
- Notions of quantum computing
Benefits package
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Possibility of teleworking (90 days per year) and flexible organization of working hours
- Partial payment of insurance costs
Remuneration
Monthly gross salary: 2100€ during the 2 1st years and 2200€ during the 3rd year.
General Information
- Theme/Domain : Algorithmics, Computer Algebra and Cryptology
- Town/city : Rennes
- Inria Center : Centre Inria de l'Université de Rennes
- Starting date : 2024-10-01
- Duration of contract : 3 years
- Deadline to apply : 2024-08-22
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.
Instruction to apply
Please submit online : your resume, cover letter and letters of recommendation eventually
Defence Security :
This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy :
As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Contacts
- Inria Team : CAPSULE
-
PhD Supervisor :
Schrottenloher Andre / andre.schrottenloher@inria.fr
The keys to success
About Inria
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.