MARS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Mars (disambiguation).

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher which was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process (AES). MARS was selected as a finalist. The design team included Don Coppersmith who had been involved in the creation of the previous Data Encryption Standard (DES) twenty years earlier. It was specifically designed to resist future advances in cryptography by adopting a layered, compartmentalized approach. In IBM's official report, it was stated that MARS and Serpent were the only two finalists to implement any form of safety net with regards to would-be advances in cryptographic mathematics.

MARS has a 128-bit block size and a variable key size of between 128 and 448 bits (in 32-bit increments). Unlike most block ciphers, MARS has a heterogeneous structure: several rounds of a cryptographic core are "jacketed" by unkeyed mixing rounds.

[edit] External links

• IBM's page on MARS
• SCAN's entry on MARS
• John Savard's description of MARS

Block ciphers v • d • e
Algorithms: 3-Way | AES | Akelarre | Anubis | BaseKing | Blowfish | C2 | Camellia | CAST-128 | CAST-256 | CMEA | Cobra | Crab | CS-Cipher | DEAL | DES | DES-X | DFC | E2 | FEAL | FROG | G-DES | GOST | Grand Cru | Hasty Pudding Cipher | Hierocrypt | ICE | IDEA | IDEA NXT | Iraqi | KASUMI | KHAZAD | Khufu and Khafre | Libelle | LOKI89/91 | LOKI97 | Lucifer | MacGuffin | Madryga | MAGENTA | MARS | Mercy | MESH | MISTY1 | MMB | MULTI2 | NewDES | NOEKEON | NUSH | Q | RC2 | RC5 | RC6 | REDOC | Red Pike | S-1 | SAFER | SC2000 | SEED | Serpent | SHACAL | SHARK | Skipjack | SMS4 | Square | TEA | Triple DES | Twofish | XTEA
Design: Feistel network | Key schedule | Product cipher | S-box | SPN   Attacks: Brute force | Linear / Differential / Integral cryptanalysis | Mod n | Related-key | Slide | XSL
Standardization: AES process | CRYPTREC | NESSIE   Misc: Avalanche effect | Block size | IV | Key size | Modes of operation | Piling-up lemma | Weak key
Cryptography v • d • e
History of cryptography | Cryptanalysis | Cryptography portal | Topics in cryptography
Symmetric-key algorithm | Block cipher | Stream cipher | Public-key cryptography | Cryptographic hash function | Message authentication code | Random numbers