An introduction to block cipher cryptanalysis

Since the introduction of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) in the mid-1970s, block ciphers have played an ever-increasing role in cryptology. Because of the growing number of practical applications relying on their security, block ciphers have received, and are still receiving, a substantial amount of attention from academic cryptanalysts. This has led, over the last decades, to the development of several general techniques to analyze the security of block ciphers. This paper reviews the fundamental principles behind today's state of the art in block cipher cryptanalysis.