Cryptanalysis of Two Alternating Moduli Weak PRFs

In this work, we present new cryptanalytic attacks on recently proposed, theory-inspired constructions of weak pseudorandom functions (weak-PRFs). We demonstrate attacks on several such designs, showing that the initial security arguments require significant refinement. Methodologically, our approach relies on novel observations about the structure of cyclic matrices, applications of Wagner’s generalized birthday technique, and conversion into polynomial systems over F3. These findings highlight the need for a more careful analysis of those weak-PRF candidates.

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Publication Details

Journal
IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
Published
2026-03-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.46586/tosc.v2026.i1.95-118
Primary Topic
Coding theory and cryptography
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Cryptanalysis of Two Alternating Moduli Weak PRFs

Kai Hu, Håvard Raddum, Arne Sandrib, Gregor Leander et al.
IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology
Coding theory and cryptography
article

Cryptanalysis of Two Alternating Moduli Weak PRFs

Kai Hu, Håvard Raddum, Arne Sandrib, Gregor Leander, Aleksei Udovenko
article en

Abstract

In this work, we present new cryptanalytic attacks on recently proposed, theory-inspired constructions of weak pseudorandom functions (weak-PRFs). We demonstrate attacks on several such designs, showing that the initial security arguments require significant refinement. Methodologically, our approach relies on novel observations about the structure of cyclic matrices, applications of Wagner’s generalized birthday technique, and conversion into polynomial systems over F3. These findings highlight the need for a more careful analysis of those weak-PRF candidates.

IACR Transactions on Symmetric CryptologyVol. 2026(1)
University of Luxembourg (LU), Simula Research Laboratory (NO), Simula UiB, University of Bergen (NO), Shandong University of Science and Technology (CN), Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Government of Jiangsu Province, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, Universität Innsbruck
Openalex Percentile: Top 24%
Coding theory and cryptography
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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