# High performance GHASH and impacts of a class of unconventional bases

3 DALI - Digits, Architectures et Logiciels Informatiques
LIRMM - Laboratoire d'Informatique de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier, UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia
Abstract : This work presents a new method to compute the GHASH function involved in the Galois/Counter Mode of operation for block ciphers. If $X= X_1\dots X_n$ is a bit string made of $n$ blocks of 128 bits each, then the GHASH function essentially computes $X_1H^n + X_2H^{n-1} + \cdots+ X_nH$, where $H$ is the hash key and an element of the binary field $\Fd_{2^{128}}$. This operation is usually computed by using $n$ successive multiply-and-add operations over $\Fd_{2^{128}}$. Our proposed method replaces all but a fixed number of those multiplications by additions on the field. This is achieved by using the characteristic polynomial of $H$. We present both how to use this polynomial to speed up the GHASH function and how to efficiently compute it for each session that uses a new $H$. We also show that the proposed technique can be parallelized to compute GHASH even faster. In order to try to completely eliminate the need for a field multiplication, we investigate a different set of bases for the field element representation and report their architectural and possible security impacts.
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Document type :
Journal articles

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00813634
Contributor : Christophe Negre <>
Submitted on : Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 9:29:57 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - 3:20:01 PM

### Citation

Nicolas Méloni, Christophe Negre, Anwar Hasan. High performance GHASH and impacts of a class of unconventional bases. Journal of Cryptographic Engineering, Springer, 2011, 1 (3), pp.201-218. ⟨10.1007/s13389-011-0013-z⟩. ⟨hal-00813634⟩

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