A survey of metaheuristic algorithms for the design of cryptographic Boolean functions

Boolean functions are mathematical objects used in diverse domains and have been actively researched for several decades already. One domain where Boolean functions play an important role is cryptography. There, the plethora of settings one should consider and cryptographic properties that need to be fulfilled makes the search for new Boolean functions still a very active domain. There are several options to construct appropriate Boolean functions: algebraic constructions, random search, and metaheuristics. In this work, we concentrate on metaheuristic approaches and examine the related works appearing in the last 25 years. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey work on this topic. Additionally, we provide a new taxonomy of related works and discuss the results obtained. Finally, we finish this survey with potential future research directions.

Automated summary

Boolean functions are mathematical objects that have been actively researched for several decades and play an important role in cryptography. This survey focuses on metaheuristic approaches to constructing Boolean functions and examines related works from the past 25 years. It provides a new taxonomy of related works and discusses the obtained results. Future research directions in this area are also discussed.