On the constructions and nonlinearity of binary vector-output correlation-immune functions (Q1827568)

Correlation-immune functions, which were originally defined by \textit{T. Siegenthaler} [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 30, 776--780 (1984; Zbl 0554.94010)], are used in stream ciphers as combining functions for running-key generators that are resistant to correlation attacks. Functions with high nonlinearity also play a role in cryptography in terms of evaluating the security of certain cryptosystems. To increase the security, the combining functions should be chosen to be correlation immune functions with high nonlinearity. Vector-output Boolean functions increase the speed of the cipher system, and thus the authors study properties of vector-output correlation-immune functions. They look at methods for constructing these functions, discuss their nonlinearity, and give exact formulas for this nonlinearity in several specific cases.