The Lightweight Encryption Algorithm (also known as LEA) is a 128-bit block cipher developed by South Korea in 2013 to provide confidentiality in high-speed environments such as big data and cloud computing, as well as lightweight environments such as IoT devices and mobile devices. LEA has three different key lengths: 128, 192, and 256 bits. LEA encrypts data about 1.5 to 2 times faster than AES, the most widely used block cipher in various software environments.
LEA is one of the cryptographic algorithms approved by the Korean Cryptographic Module Validation Program (KCMVP) and is the national standard of Republic of Korea (KS X 3246). LEA is included in the ISO/IEC 29192-2:2019 standard (Information security - Lightweight cryptography - Part 2: Block ciphers).
Specification
The block cipher LEA consisting of ARX operations (modular Addition: , bitwise Rotation: , , and bitwise XOR ) for 32-bit words processes data blocks of 128 bits and has three different key lengths: 128, 192, and 256 bits. LEA with a 128-bit key, LEA with a 192-bit key, and LEA with a 256-bit key are referred to as “LEA-128”, “LEA-192”, and “LEA-256”, respectively. The number of rounds is 24 for LEA-128, 28 for LEA-192, and 32 for LEA-256.
Encryption
Let be a 128-bit block of plaintext and be a 128-bit block of ciphertext, where and () are 32-bit blocks. Let () be 192-bit round keys, where () are 32-bit blocks. Here is the number of rounds for the LEA algorithm. The encryption operation is described as follows:
for to
Decryption
The decryption operation is as follows:
for down to
Key schedule
The key schedule of LEA supports 128, 192, and 256-bit keys and outputs 192-bit round keys () for the data processing part.
Key schedule for LEA-128
Let be a 128-bit key, where () are 32-bit blocks. The key schedule for LEA-128 takes and four 32-bit constants () as inputs and outputs twenty-four 192-bit round keys (). The key schedule operation for LEA-128 is as follows:
for to
Key schedule for LEA-192 Let be a 192-bit key, where () are 32-bit blocks. The key schedule for LEA-192 takes and six 32-bit constants () as inputs and outputs twenty-eight 192-bit round keys (). The key schedule operation for LEA-192 is as follows:
for to
Key schedule for LEA-256 Let be a 256-bit key, where () are 32-bit blocks. The key schedule for LEA-192 takes and eight 32-bit constants () as inputs and outputs thirty-two 192-bit round keys (). The key schedule operation for LEA-256 is as follows:
for to
Constant values The eight 32-bit constant values () used in the key schedule are given in the following table.
+Constant values used in the key schedule 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0xc3efe9db 0x44626b02 0x79e27c8a 0x78df30ec 0x715ea49e 0xc785da0a 0xe04ef22a 0xe5c40957
Security
As of 2019, no successful attack on full-round LEA is known. As is typical for iterated block ciphers, reduced-round variants have been attacked. The best published attacks on LEA in the standard attack model (CPA/CCA with unknown key) are boomerang attacks and differential linear attacks. The security margin to the whole rounds ratio is greater than 37% against various existing cryptanalytic techniques for block ciphers.
+Security of LEA-128 (24 rounds) Attack type Attacked rounds Differential 14 Truncated differential 14 Linear 13 Zero correlation 10 Boomerang 15 Impossible differential 12 Integral 9 Differential linear 15 Related-key differential 13
+Security margins of LEA Block ciphers Rounds (Attacked / Total) Security margins LEA-128 15 / 24 37.50% LEA-192 16 / 28 42.85% LEA-256 18 / 32 43.75%
Performance
LEA has very good performance in a general-purpose software environment. In particular, it is possible to encrypt at a rate of about 1.5 to 2 times on average, compared to AES, the most widely used block cipher in various software environments. The tables below compare the performance of LEA and AES using FELICS (Fair Evaluation of Lightweight Cryptographic Systems), a benchmarking framework for evaluation of software implementations of lightweight cryptographic primitives.
+FELICS scenario 1 – Enc. + Dec. + KeySetup / 128-byte CBC-Encryption (Code: bytes, RAM: bytes, Time: cycles) Platform LEA-128 LEA-192 LEA-256 AES-128 AVR Code 1,684 2,010 2,150 3,010 RAM 631 943 1,055 408 Time 61,020 80,954 92,194 58,248 MSP Code 1,130 1,384 1,468 2,684 RAM 626 942 1,046 408 Time 47,339 56,540 64,001 86,506 ARM Code 472 536 674 3,050 RAM 684 968 1,080 452 Time 17,417 20,640 24,293 83,868
+FELICS scenario 2 – Enc. / 128-bit CTR-Encryption (Code: bytes, RAM: bytes, Time: cycles) Platform LEA-128 LEA-192 LEA-256 AES-128 AVR Code 906 1,210 1,306 1,246 RAM 80 80 80 81 Time 4,023 4,630 5,214 3,408 MSP Code 722 1,014 1,110 1,170 RAM 78 78 78 80 Time 2,814 3,242 3,622 4,497 ARM Code 628 916 1,012 1,348 RAM 92 100 100 124 Time 906 1,108 1,210 4,044
Test vectors
Test vectors for LEA for each key length are as follows. All values are expressed in hexadecimal form.
LEA-128 Key: 0f 1e 2d 3c 4b 5a 69 78 87 96 a5 b4 c3 d2 e1 f0 Plaintext: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f Ciphertext: 9f c8 4e 35 28 c6 c6 18 55 32 c7 a7 04 64 8b fd LEA-192 Key: 0f 1e 2d 3c 4b 5a 69 78 87 96 a5 b4 c3 d2 e1 f0 f0 e1 d2 c3 b4 a5 96 87 Plaintext: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f Ciphertext: 6f b9 5e 32 5a ad 1b 87 8c dc f5 35 76 74 c6 f2 LEA-256 Key: 0f 1e 2d 3c 4b 5a 69 78 87 96 a5 b4 c3 d2 e1 f0 f0 e1 d2 c3 b4 a5 96 87 78 69 5a 4b 3c 2d 1e 0f Plaintext: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f Ciphertext: d6 51 af f6 47 b1 89 c1 3a 89 00 ca 27 f9 e1 97
Implementations
LEA is free for any use: public or private, commercial or non-commercial. The source code for distribution of LEA implemented in C, Java, and Python can be downloaded from KISA's website. In addition, LEA is contained in Crypto++ library, a free C++ class library of cryptographic schemes.
KCMVP
LEA is one of the cryptographic algorithms approved by the Korean Cryptographic Module Validation Program (KCMVP).
Standardization
LEA is included in the following standards.
KS X 3246, 128-bit block cipher LEA (in Korean)
ISO/IEC 29192-2:2019, Information security - Lightweight cryptography - Part 2: Block ciphers
References