Speeding up counter mode in software and hardware

Shay Gueron, Vlad Krasnov

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Counter mode is one of the standard modes of operation for block ciphers. It has performance advantages due to its high parallelism. For a given key and a 96-bit IV, a 128-bit ciphertext block is computed by XOR-ing the corresponding plaintext block with the encryption of a unique 128-bit Counter Block. The Counter Block values are generated by incrementing a 32-bit counter that is concatenated to the 96-bit IV. In this paper, we show how to leverage the fact that the only 32 bits of the Counter Block are incremented, to gain a noticeable improvement in software implementations, and savings in hardware implementations for AES-CTR mode. We show a new optimization that speeds up a table-based software implementation by a factor of 1.11x on the 2nd Generation Intel Core Processor, and by 1.08x when using the AES-NI. This optimization speeds up the CTR mode by a factor of 1.18x on the 4th Generation Intel Core Processor.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationITNG 2014 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Technology
Subtitle of host publicationNew Generations
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages338-340
Number of pages3
ISBN (Print)9781479931873
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event11th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, ITNG 2014 - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Duration: 7 Apr 20149 Apr 2014

Publication series

NameITNG 2014 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations

Conference

Conference11th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, ITNG 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLas Vegas, NV
Period7/04/149/04/14

Keywords

  • AES
  • AES-CCM
  • AES-CTR
  • AESGCM
  • Component
  • Counter mode
  • Optimization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems

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