Established in 2014, we are a group of cryptography researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Supported by university and government research fundings, we focus on research of symmetric-key cryptology and privacy-preserving technologies. We are physically hosted by the Division of Mathematical Sciences of the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and have been part of Temasek Laboratories @ NTU, Coding and Cryptography Research Group, and Strategic Centre for Research in Privacy-Preserving Technologies and Systems (SCRIPTS). 

Recent Research Topics: 
Recent Services:
  • FSE 2020 (PC: Zhenzhen Bao, Ling Song); EUROCRYPT 2020 (PC: Jian Guo)
  • FSE 2019 (PC: Jian Guo, Ling Song); ASIACRYPT 2019 (PC: Zhenzhen Bao, Jian Guo)
  • FSE 2018 (PC: Jian Guo); EUROCRYPT 2018 (PC: Jian Guo); ASIACRYPT 2018 (PC: Ling Song)
  • FSE 2017 (PC: Jian Guo); ASIACRYPT 2017 (PC: Jian Guo)
Hiring: 
  • 2019/09: CATF has 3 open positions of (senior) postdoc research fellow for two years, on symmetric-key cryptography including but not limited to quantum attacks , cryptanalysis of AES and SHA-3, FHE/MPC friendly designs, automatic tools or machine learning for cryptanalysis (advertised here: https://www.iacr.org/jobs).
  • 2019/09: The SCRIPTS centre has several open positions for postdocs and senior research scientists on topics of Fully Homomorphic Encryption, Multi-Party Computation, Searchable Encryption, Differential Privacy, and systems research (advertised here: https://www.iacr.org/jobs).

News:
2019/12: Invited talk at ASK 2019 on "Generic Attacks on Hash Combiners" by Zhenzhen Bao.
2019/03: Invited talk at FSE 2019 on "Security of SHA-3 and Related Constructions" by Jian Guo.
2018-03-05: Joint with L. Song, J. Guo, and D. Shi, the paper entitled "New MILP Modeling: Improved Conditional Cube Attacks to Keccak-based Constructions" won the Kejte cryptanalysis prize.
2018-02-08: Joint with C. Chaigneau, T. Fuhr, H. Gilbert, J. Guo, J. Jean, J. R. Reinhard, L. Song, the paper entitled "Key-Recovery Attacks on Full Kravatte" won the Best Paper Award of FSE 2018. The paper broke the full Kravatte (a PRF design based on the SHA-3 round function), and several subsequent patched versions.
2017-02-26: We solved the 6-round collision challenge of Keccak[r=1440,c=160,nr=6], refer to this announcement and acknowledgement by the Keccak Team.
2016-12-12: Meicheng solved the 4-round preimage challenge of Keccak[r=1440, c=160, nr=4], refer to this announcement and acknowledgement by the Keccak Team.
2016-08-15: CLOC+SILC is selected into the 3rd round of CAESAR competition.
2016-08-01: PHOTON is now part of ISO lightweight hash function standards ISO/IEC 29192-5:2016.
2016-07-11: We solved the 5-round collision challenge of Keccak[r=640,c=160, nr=5], refer to this announcement and acknowledgement by the Keccak Team.
2016-05-27: We solved the 5-round collision challenge of Keccak[r=1440,c=160, nr=5], refer to this announcement and acknowledgement by the Keccak Team.
2016-04-25: We solved the 3-round preimage challenge of Keccak[r=1440, c=160, nr=3] and Keccak[r=640, c=160, nr=3], refer to this announcement and acknowledgement by the Keccak Team.

Members

Team Leader:

Jian Guo

Email: guojian@ntu.edu.sg

Interests: Symmetric-Key Cryptography, Privacy-Preserving Technologies


Members:

Zhenzhen Bao

Email: zzbao@ntu.edu.sg

Interests: Symmetric-Key Cryptography, Privacy-Preserving Technologies


Shun Li

Email: lishun93@sjtu.edu.cn

Interests: Symmetric-Key Cryptography, Privacy-Preserving Technologies


PhD Students:

Guozhen Liu (with Weidong Qiu)

Affiliation: Information and Safety Engineering College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. 09/2014 - 

Topic: Cryptanalysis

Email: liuguozhen@sjtu.edu.cn


Haoyang Wang (with Thomas Peyrin)

Affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 07/2016 - 

Topic: Cryptanalysis

Email: wang1153@e.ntu.edu.sg


Yi Tu

Affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 07/2018 - 

Topic: Cryptanalysis and Machine Learning

Email: tuyi0002@e.ntu.edu.sg


Thi Minh Phuong Pham 

Affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 07/2019 - 

Topic: Quantum Cryptanalysis

Email: pham0079@e.ntu.edu.sg


Visitors:

Senyang Huang  Haifa University, Israel 17/09/2019 - 07/12/2019
Wenying Zhang  Shandong Normal University, China 27/08/2018 - 20/08/2019
Zheng Gong  South China Normal University, China 21/01/2019 - 15/02/2019
Kazuhiko Minematsu  NEC, Japan 12/12/2018 - 14/12/2018
Tetsu Iwata  Nagoya University, Japan 12/02/2018 - 22/02/2018
Tetsu Iwata  Nagoya University, Japan 17/10/2016 - 31/03/2017
Jingmei Liu  Xidian University, China 01/03/2016 - 01/03/2017
Lei Wang  Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China 04/02/2017 - 10/02/2017
Vesselin Velichkov  Luxembourg University, Luxembourg 12/12/2016 - 16/12/2016
Qingju Wang  Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 08/08/2016 - 15/10/2016
Florian Mendel  Graz University of Technology, Austria 28/09/2015 - 30/10/2015
Lei Zhang  Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 26/09/2015 - 10/10/2015
Lei Wang  Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China 20/09/2015 - 04/10/2015
Liting Zhang  Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 28/08/2015 - 27/10/2015
Bing Sun  National University of Defense Technology, China 13/07/2015 - 12/10/2015
Bin Zhang  Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 17/11/2014 - 21/11/2014


Exchange Students:

Li Ma Institute of Information Engineering, China 20/11/2019 - 20/05/2020
Jiayuan Ye University of Science and Technology of China 04/07/2019 - 30/09/2019
Yongqing Li Shandong University, China 25/07/2019 - 16/09/2019
Shun Li Institute of Information Engineering, China 03/05/2019 - 17/05/2019
Phuong Pham Thi Minh VNU University of Science, Vietnam 21/01/2019 - 20/04/2019
Eik List Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany 21/01/2019 - 08/02/2019
Tao Ye Guilin University of Electronic Technology, China 19/11/2018 - 18/12/2018
Xianrui Qin Shandong University, China 14/09/2018 - 10/12/2018
Tingting Cui Shandong University, China 10/02/2017 - 25/08/2017
Jiale Guo Shandong University, China 10/11/2016 - 02/03/2017
Ning Luo Shandong University, China 10/11/2016 - 14/02/2017
Guozhen Liu Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China 15/07/2016 - 31/02/2017
Guohong Liao South China Normal University, China 15/07/2016 - 12/10/2016
Kexin Qiao Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 01/12/2015 - 31/05/2016
Haoyang Wang Shandong University, China 01/08/2015 - 31/08/2015
Jingyuan Zhao Shandong University, China 17/02/2015 - 16/05/2015

Past Members:

Name  Duration @ CATF Current Position
Ling Song  02/2016 - 05/2019 Associate Researcher, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Subhadeep Banik  03/2016 - 06/2017 Senior Scientist, EPFL, Switzerland
Meicheng Liu  05/2015 - 09/2016 Associate Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Publications

2019

[041] G. Liu, W. Qiu, Y. Tu: New Techniques for Searching Differential Trails in Keccak, FSE 2020/ToSC 2019 Issue 4
[040] Z. Bao, L. Ding, J. Guo, H. Wang, W. Zhang: Improved Meet-in-the-Middle Preimage Attacks against AES Hashing Modes, FSE 2020/ToSC 2019 Issue 4
[039] W. Zhang, M. Cao, J. Guo, E. Pasalic: Improved Security Evaluation of SPN Block Ciphers and its Applications in the Single-key Attack on SKINNY, FSE 2020/ToSC 2019 Issue 4
[038] Z. Bao, J. Guo, T. Iwata, K. Minematsu: ZOCB and ZOTR: Tweakable Blockcipher Modes for Authenticated Encryption with Full Absorption, FSE 2020/ToSC 2019 Issue 2
[037] Z. Bao, I. Dinur, J. Guo, G. Leurent, L. Wang: Generic Attacks on Hash Combiners, Journal of Cryptology 2019 [web]
[036] J. Guo, G. Liao, G. Liu, M. Liu, K. Qiao, L. Song: Practical Collision Attacks against Round-Reduced SHA-3, Journal of Cryptology 2019 [web]
[035] L. Song, X. Qin, L. Hu: Boomerang Connectivity Table Revisited: Applications to SKINNY and AES, FSE 2019/ToSC 2019 Issue 1
[034] Z. Bao, J. Guo, S. Ling, Y. Sasaki: PEIGEN – a Platform for Evaluation, Implementation, and Generation of S-boxes, FSE 2019/ToSC 2019 Issue 1 [web]
[033] R. Ankele, C. Dobraunig, J. Guo, E. Lambooij, G. Leander, Y. Todo: Zero-Correlation Attacks on Tweakable Block Ciphers with Linear Tweakey Expansion, FSE 2019/ToSC 2019 Issue 1

2018

[032] C. Cid, T. Huang, T. Peyrin, Y. Sasaki, L. Song: Boomerang Connectivity Table: a New Cryptanalysis Tool, EUROCRYPT 2018
[031] Z. Bao, J. Guo, L. Wang: Functional Graph and Its Applications in Generic Attacks on Iterated Hash Constructions, FSE 2018 / ToSC 2018 Issue 1 [Experiment codes]
[030] C. Chaigneau, T. Fuhr, H. Gilbert, J. Guo, J. Jean, J. R. Reinhard, L. Song: Key-Recovery Attacks on Full Kravatte, FSE 2018 / ToSC 2018 Issue 1
              ~ the Best Paper Award, invited to JoC ~
[029] P. Derbez, T. Iwata, L. Sun, S. Sun, Y. Todo, H. Wang, Meiqin Wang: Cryptanalysis of AES-PRF and Its Dual. FSE 2019 / ToSC 2018 Issue 2
[028] L. Song, J. Guo, D. Shi, S. Ling: New MILP Modeling: Improved Conditional Cube Attacks on Keccak-based Constructions. ASIACRYPT 2018 [Verification codes][Model]
[027] L. Song, J. Guo: Cube-Attack-Like Cryptanalysis of Round-Reduced Keccak Using MILP. FSE 2019/ToSC 2018 Issue 3 [Verification codes]
[026] Y. Liu, Y. Sasaki, L. Song, G. Wang, Cryptanalysis of Reduced sLiSCP Permutation in Sponge-Hash and Duplex-AE Modes, SAC 2018

2017

    [025] Z. Bao, L. Wang, J. Guo, D. Gu: Functional Graph Revisited: Updates on (Second) Preimage Attacks on Hash Combiners, CRYPTO 2017. [Experiment codes]
    [024] L. Song, G. Liao, J. Guo: Non-Full Sbox Linearization: Applications to Collision Attacks on Round-Reduced Keccak, CRYPTO 2017. [Keccak GPU implementations]
    [023] K. Qiao, L. Song, M. Liu, J. Guo: New Collision Attacks on Round-Reduced Keccak, EUROCRYPT 2017.
    [022] S. Banik, S. Pandey, T. Peyrin, Y. Sasaki, S. Sim, Y. Todo: GIFT: A Small Present. CHES 2017.
    [021] S. Banik, T. Isobe, T. Cui, J. Guo: Some Cryptanalysis Results on Lizard, FSE 2018 / ToSC 2017 Issue 4
    [020] G. Liu, M. Ghosh, L. Song: Security Analysis of SKINNY under Related-Tweakey Settings, FSE 2018 / ToSC 2017 Issue 3
    [019] C. Cid, T. Huang, T. Peyrin, Y. Sasaki, L. Song: Cryptanalysis of Deoxys and its Internal Tweakable Block Ciphers, FSE 2018 / ToSC 2017 Issue 3
    [018] S. Banik, A. Bogdanov, T. Isobe, M. B. Jepsen: Analysis of Software Countermeasures for Whitebox Encryption, FSE 2017 / ToSC 2017 Issue 1.
    [017] S. Banik, A. Bogdanov, F. Regazzoni: Efficient Configurations for Block Ciphers with Unified ENC/DEC Paths. IEEE HOST 2017
    [016] G. Zhang, M. Liu, A distinguisher on PRESENT-like permutations with application to SPONGENT. Journal of Science China Information Sciences, 2017
    [015] S. Banik, T. Isobe and M. Morii: Analysis and Improvements of the Full Spritz Stream Cipher. IEICE Transactions A, 2017.
    [014] R. Ankele, S. Banik, A. Chakrabarti, E. List, F. Mendel, S. Sim, G. Wang: Related Key Impossible Differential Attack on Reduced Round SKINNY. ACNS 2017.

    2016

    [013] L. Wang, J. Guo, G. Zhang, J. Zhao, D. Gu: How to Build Fully Secure Tweakable Blockciphers from Classical Blockciphers, ASIACRYPT 2016.
    [012] J. Guo, M. Liu, L. Song: Linear Structures: Applications to Cryptanalysis of Round-Reduced Keccak, ASIACRYPT 2016.
    [011] B. Sun, M. Liu, J. Guo, L. Qu, V. Rijmen: New Insights on AES-Like SPN Ciphers, CRYPTO 2016.
    [010] B. Sun, M. Liu, J. Guo, V. Rijmen, R. Li: Provable Security Evaluation of Structures against Impossible Differential and Zero Correlation Linear Cryptanalysis, EUROCRYPT 2016.
    [009] M. Liu, S. Sim: Lightweight MDS Generalized Circulant Matrices, FSE 2016.
    [008] S. Banik, T. Isobe: Cryptanalysis of the Full Spritz Stream Cipher, FSE 2016.
    [007] J. Guo, J. Jean, I. Nikolić, Y. Sasaki: Meet-in-the-Middle Attacks on Classes of Contracting and Expanding Feistel Constructions, FSE 2017 / ToSC 2016 Issue 2.
    [006] J. Guo, J. Jean, I. Nikolić, K. Qiao, Y. Sasaki, S. M. Sim: Invariant Subspace Attack Against Midori64 and The Resistance Criteria for S-box Designs, FSE 2017 / ToSC 2016 Issue 1.
    [005] S. Banik, A. Bogdanov, T. Fanni, C. Sau, L. Raffo, F. Palumbo, F. Regazzoni: Adaptable AES Implementation with Power gating Support, ACM Computing Frontiers 2016.
    [004] L. Song, Z. Huang, Q. Yang: Automatic Differential Analysis of ARX Block Ciphers with Application to SPECK and LEA, ACISP 2016.
    [003] D. Sijacic, A. Kidmose, B. Yang, S. Banik, B. Bilgin, A. Bogdanov, I. Verbauwhede: Hold your breath, PRIMATEs are lightweight. SAC 2016.
    [002] S. Jha, S. Banik, T. Isobe, T. Ohigashi. Some results on the use of RC4 in TLS. Indocrypt 2016.
    [001] S. Banik, A. Bogdanov, F. Regazzoni. Atomic-AES: A Compact Implementation of the AES Encryption/Decryption Core. Indocrypt 2016.