A lightweight block cipher based on combinatorial substitution structures
Afreen Rahmat Khatoona.rkhatoon15@gmail.comDepartment of Electronics & Communication EngineeringUniversity College of EngineeringOsmania UniversityHyderabad, Telangana, 500007, IndiaView full profile → , Mohammed Wahed Ali Khanmdwahedalikhan@gmail.comDepartment of CybersecurityVersos - Unleash the FutureRiyadh, 11353, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaView full profile → , Hafiz Munaam Hussain Tariqmunaamhussaintariq@hotmail.comDepartment of Computer Science and Information TechnologyNED University of Engineering and TechnologyKarachi, 75330, PakistanView full profile → , Tahreem Khantahreem.tariq92@gmail.comDepartment of Computer Science and Information TechnologyNED University of Engineering and TechnologyKarachi, 75330, PakistanView full profile →
* Corresponding author · click or hover a name for details
- Received:
- 01 Apr 2026
- Published Online:
- 31 Oct 2026
- Article type:
- Research Article
- Language:
- EN
- Article no.:
- JDMSC-3026
- Pages:
- 3997–4007
Abstract
The growing need to provide secure communication in lightweight but resource-constrained systems like Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems, requires the development of lightweight and yet powerful cryptographic primitives. This paper introduces a lightweight block ciphering system using combinatorial substitution structures (CSS) that uses discrete combinatorial mappings to build the very nonlinear substitution layers. The proposed model combines algebraic transformations with permutation-based diffusion to attain high confusion and diffusion properties, with low computational complexity. An elaborate mathematical model is created to examine the algebraic complexity and algebraic and statistical attack resistance. The cipher architecture uses optimally constructed S-boxes based on the principles of combinatorics, which increases resistance to the differential and linear cryptanalysis. Through experimental analysis, the proposed approach is shown to increase security performance and efficiency over the traditional lightweight ciphers, which makes it an appropriate solution to the limited computing resources.
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References
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