PIPO: A Lightweight Block Cipher with Efficient Higher-Order Masking Software Implementations

In this paper, we introduce a new lightweight 64-bit block cipher PIPO (PIPO stands for “Plug-In” and “Plug-Out”, representing its use in side-channel protected and unprotected environments, respectively.) supporting a 128 or 256-bit key. It is a byte-oriented and bitsliced cipher that offers excellent performance in 8-bit AVR software implementations. In particular, PIPO allows for efficient higher-order masking implementations, since it uses a minimal number of nonlinear operations. Our implementations demonstrate that PIPO outperforms existing block ciphers (for the same block and key lengths) in both side-channel protected and unprotected environments, on an 8-bit AVR. Furthermore, PIPO records competitive round-based hardware implementations. For the nonlinear layer of PIPO, we have developed a new lightweight 8-bit S-box that provides an efficient bitsliced implementation including only 11 nonlinear bitwise operations. Furthermore, its differential and linear branch numbers are both 3. This characteristic enables PIPO to thwart differential and linear attacks with fewer rounds. The security of PIPO has been scrutinized with regards to state-of-the-art cryptanalysis.