Boolean functions with five controllable cryptographic properties (Q1431615)

The paper gives three construction methods for balanced Boolean functions on \(\mathbb{Z}_2^{2k}\) and \(\mathbb{Z}_2^{2k+1}\) which satisfy the strict avalanche criterion (SAC), have good global avalanche characteristics (GAC) and are highly nonlinear and of high algebraic degree. Such Boolean functions are required for the design of \(S\)-boxes in cryptosystems. In order to guarantee the cryptographic properties of the defined functions, some new results on the so-called propagation criterion, a generalization of SAC, are proved and the sum-of-squares indicator related to GAC is improved. The obtained results continue and improve papers by \textit{P. Stănică} [Nonlinearity, local and global avalanche characteristics of balanced Boolean functions, Discrete Math. 248, No. 1--3, 181--193 (2002; Zbl 1020.94034)] and by \textit{X.-M. Zhang} and \textit{Y. Zheng} [GAC -- the criterion for global avalanche characteristics of cryptographic functions, J. UCS 1, 320--337 (1995; Zbl 0960.68572)].