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Definition
In a self-synchronizing, or asynchronous, stream cipher, the keystream depends on the secret key of the scheme, but also of a fixed number, say t, of ciphertext digits (that have already been produced, or read; this distinguishes it from a synchronous stream cipher).
Background
The idea of self-synchronization was patented in 1946 and has the advantage that the receiver will automatically synchronize with the keystream generator after receiving t ciphertext digits.
Example
A simple example of a self-synchronizing stream cipher is a block cipher in cipher-feedback mode (CFB).
Theory
A self-synchronizing stream cipher can be viewed as depicted in Fig. 1.
Self-synchronizing stream cipher
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Recommended Reading
Rueppel RA (1986) Analysis and design of stream ciphers. Springer, Berlin
Maurer UM (1991) New approaches to the design of self-synchronizing stream ciphers. Advances in Cryptology – Eurocrypt’91. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 547. Springer, pp 458–471
Daemen J, Govaerts R, Vandewalle J (1992) On the design of high speed self-synchronizing stream ciphers. Singapore ICCS-ISITA’92 conference proceedings, pp 279–283
Guillot P, Mesnager S (2005) Non-linearity and security of self synchronizing stream ciphers. 2005 International symposium on nonlinear theory and its applications, Belgium, 18–21 Oct 2005
Daemen J, Kitsos P (2008) The self-synchronizing stream cipher moustique, new stream cipher designs. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 4986. Springer, pp 210–223
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Fontaine, C. (2011). Self-Synchronizing Stream Cipher. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_371
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