Counter Chain: A New Block Cipher Mode of Operation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel block cipher mode of operation, which is known as the counter chain (CC) mode. The proposed CC mode integrates the cipher block chaining (CBC) block cipher mode of operation with the counter (CTR) mode in a consistent fashion. In the CC mode, the confidentiality and authenticity of data are assured by the CBC mode, while speed is achieved through the CTR mode. The proposed mode of operation overcomes the parallelization deficiency of the CBC mode and the chaining dependency of the counter mode. Experimental results indicate that the proposed CC mode achieves the encryption speed of the CTR mode, which is exceptionally faster than the encryption speed of the CBC mode. Moreover, our proposed CC mode provides better security over the CBC mode. In summary, the proposed CC block cipher mode of operation takes the advantages of both the Counter mode and the CBC mode, while avoiding their shortcomings.