Exploring Differential-Based Distinguishers and Forgeries for ASCON

Automated methods have become crucial components when searching for distinguishers against symmetric-key cryptographic primitives. While MILP and SAT solvers are among the most popular tools to model ciphers and perform cryptanalysis, other methods with different performance profiles are appearing. In this article, we explore the use of Constraint Programming (CP) for differential cryptanalysis on the Ascon authenticated encryption family (first choice of the CAESAR lightweight applications portfolio and current finalist of the NIST LWC competition) and its internal permutation. We first present a search methodology for finding differential characteristics for Ascon with CP, which can easily find the best differential characteristics already reported by the Ascon designers. This shows the capability of CP in generating easily good differential results compared to dedicated search heuristics. Based on our tool, we also parametrize the search strategies in CP to generate other differential characteristics with the goal of forming limited-birthday distinguishers for 4, 5, 6 and 7 rounds and rectangle attacks for 4 and 5 rounds of the Ascon internal permutation. We propose a categorization of the distinguishers into black-box and non-black-box to better differentiate them as they are often useful in different contexts. We also obtained limited-birthday distinguishers which represent currently the best known distinguishers for 4, 5 and 6 rounds under the category of non-black-box distinguishers. Leveraging again our tool, we have generated forgery attacks against both reduced-rounds Ascon-128 and Ascon-128a, improving over the best reported results at the time of writing. Finally, using the best differential characteristic we have found for 2 rounds, we could also improve a recent attack on round-reduced Ascon-Hash.

Coexistence of serotonin syndrome and neuroleptic malignant syndrome: does it exist?

We report a 21-year-old man with bipolar disorder who was on a stable dose of escitalopram and risperidone. Tramadol and cough syrup (dextromethorphan) were added for his recent attack of upper respiratory tract infection. However, he developed various neurological symptoms. Haloperidol and ondansetron were added after hospitalisation. However, his condition deteriorated. A diagnosis of serotonin syndrome (SS) was made, and cyproheptadine was started. Cyproheptadine provided relief in most of the symptoms within 48 hours except for the presence of fever and rigidity. The addition of bromocriptine provided a complete resolution of the symptoms. We considered the presence of both SS and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) in this case. There are four similar cases in the literature. We discussed a diagnostic and therapeutic approach for patients who are on both serotonergic agents and neuroleptics and develop SS-like or NMS-like clinical features.

Revisiting Multivariate Ring Learning with Errors and Its Applications on Lattice-Based Cryptography

The “Multivariate Ring Learning with Errors” problem was presented as a generalization of Ring Learning with Errors (RLWE), introducing efficiency improvements with respect to the RLWE counterpart thanks to its multivariate structure. Nevertheless, the recent attack presented by Bootland, Castryck and Vercauteren has some important consequences on the security of the multivariate RLWE problem with “non-coprime” cyclotomics; this attack transforms instances of m-RLWE with power-of-two cyclotomic polynomials of degree n=∏ini into a set of RLWE samples with dimension maxi{ni}. This is especially devastating for low-degree cyclotomics (e.g., Φ4(x)=1+x2). In this work, we revisit the security of multivariate RLWE and propose new alternative instantiations of the problem that avoid the attack while still preserving the advantages of the multivariate structure, especially when using low-degree polynomials. Additionally, we show how to parameterize these instances in a secure and practical way, therefore enabling constructions and strategies based on m-RLWE that bring notable space and time efficiency improvements over current RLWE-based constructions.

Safe Light Weight Cipher using Ethernet and Pentatop Number

Current essential factor in this world to send a sensitive information over the unsecured network like the internet is security. Protection of sensitive data is becoming a major raising problem due to rising technologies. A recent attack on Electronic Mail of CBI shows that attacker’s efficiency rate. Standard cryptographic algorithms can be exploited by the attackers frequently and unable to apply for standard devices because of their energy consumption due to high computation with slow processing. Lightweight cryptography based algorithms can reduce these problems. This paper deals with symmetric key cryptography technique to encrypt the data where the sender and receiver share a common key which can also be called a secret key cryptography. To encrypt and decrypt the data, randomly generated Pentatope Number has used as a key. Next level of security will be provided using EHA (Ethernet Hardware Address or MAC Address) which is globally unique, to provide secure data transmission. The increasing of attacks on related key attacks motivates this. In particular, we investigate the efficiency impact comparatively other standard algorithms and observed that applications do not always use cryptographic algorithms without their intended use.

Portrail of Afghan Refugees in the Wake of APS Attack

After the Russian invasion in 1979, most of the disturbed Afghans fled their homes. A huge number of refugees rushed to Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan. Their influx increases infrastructure problems in the targeted countries. According to the United nations available resources, more than 4 million registered Afghan refugees, took shelter in Pakistan. These refugees were given nominated spaces throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & Baluchistan to live there. After the fall of Kabul, refugees remained in Pakistani provinces. During their stay, so many incidents took place in Pakistan. According to the intelligence reports, in many terrorists' activities, Afghan refugees found responsible. The recent attack of Army Public School showed a strong connection between Afghan refugees' involvement in the incident. Pakistani Media also portrayed them with angles.

Closure and Defeat

After arguing that infallibilism faces serious problems, this chapter turns to consider objections levelled at fallibilism. Chapters 5 and 6 consider the objection that fallibilism undermines closure for knowledge. In reply, it’s been argued that closure fails for reasons quite independently of the fallibilism–infallibilism debate, specifically because of defeat. If that’s right, then closure provides no reason to prefer infallibilism over fallibilism. However, the very idea of defeat has come under recent attack. This and the next chapter provide an extended defence of a variety of kinds of defeat. This chapter provides a positive argument for rebutting and undermining defeat. It also examines and rejects some recent objections to rebutting defeat, including Lasonen-Aarnio’s objection that rebutting defeat fails to answer the dogmatism puzzle.

The Evidential Impact of Explanatory Considerations

Explanationism is an attractive family of theories of epistemic justification. In broad terms, explanationism is the idea that what a person is justified in believing depends on their explanatory position. At its core, explanationism involves commitment to the claim that the fact p would best explain a body of evidence if p were true is itself evidence that p is true. In slogan form: explanatoriness is evidentially relevant. Despite its plausibility, explanationism has been criticized for various reasons. This chapter strengthens the case for explanationism by defending it from a recent attack by Elliott Sober and William Roche.

After Islamic State, Middle East fissures will deepen

Significance The salafi-jihadist group has lost almost all the territory it formerly held in Iraq and Syria. The recent attack on a mosque in Egypt’s Sinai also significantly reduced its local support. Arabic-language media are already looking to the next stages of Middle East conflict. Impacts The negative impact of IS losing its Raqqa propaganda centre on its efforts to control the narrative will be temporary. Following IS's loss of the Syria-Iraq border, Arabic press focus on the confrontation between Iran and US-linked forces will rise. The disappearance of IS as a territorial threat will likely increase divisions among Middle Eastern states.