Using a Memetic Algorithm to Discover Secure S-Boxes

A Substitution-Box (S-Box) is a cryptographic primitive used in cyber security engineering. In this paper, we describe a Memetic Algorithm to search for so-called “Golden S-Boxes”, which have optimal cryptographic features. We replicate existing results on 4 × 4 S-Boxes to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, then describe further desirable S-Box properties to allow the algorithm to discover S-Boxes that are both secure and fast enough for lightweight cryptographic applications.