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We consider a generalized construction of stream ciphers with forward security. The design framework is modular: it is built from a so-called layer function that updates the key and (optionally) the nonce and generates a new pseudorandom output stream. We analyze the generalized construction for four different instantiations: two possible layer functions that are in turn instantiated with either a block cipher or a pseudorandom function. We prove that each of these instantiations gives a stream cipher that is pseudorandom and forward secure in the multi-user setting with a very tight bound. A comprehensive analysis shows that the two block cipher based instantiations achieve very similar bounds. For the pseudorandom function based instantiations there is no clear winner: either layer can be beneficial over the other one, depending on the choice of parameters. By instantiating the pseudorandom function with a generic construction such as the sum of permutations, we obtain a highly efficient and competitive stream cipher based on an n-bit block cipher that is secure beyond the $2^{\text {n}/2}$ birthday bound.

Designing a secure construction has always been a fascinating area for the researchers in the field of symmetric key cryptography. This research aimed to make contributions to the design of secure block cipher in the ideal cipher model whose underlying primitive is a family of n − b i t to n − b i t random permutations indexed by secret key. Our target construction of a secure block ciphers denoted as E [ s ] is built on a simple XOR operation and two block cipher invocations, under the assumptions that the block cipher in use is a pseudorandom permutation. One out of these two block cipher invocations produce a subkey that is derived from the secret key. It has been accepted that at least two block cipher invocations with XOR operations are required to achieve beyond birthday bound security. In this paper, we investigated the E [ s ] instances with the advanced proof technique and efficient block cipher constructions that bypass the birthday-bound up to 2 n provable security was achieved. Our study provided new insights to the block cipher that is beyond birthday bound security.