Almost Perfect Nonlinear (APN) Functions

Background and definition

Almost perfect nonlinear (APN) functions are the class of [math]\displaystyle{ (n,n) }[/math] Vectorial Boolean Functions that provide optimum resistance to against differential attack. Intuitively, the differential attack against a given cipher incorporating a vectorial Boolean function [math]\displaystyle{ F }[/math] is efficient when fixing some difference [math]\displaystyle{ \delta }[/math] and computing the output of [math]\displaystyle{ F }[/math] for all pairs of inputs [math]\displaystyle{ (x_1,x_2) }[/math] whose difference is [math]\displaystyle{ \delta }[/math] produces output pairs with a difference distribution that is far away from uniform.

The formal definition of an APN function [math]\displaystyle{ F : \mathbb{F}_{2^n} \rightarrow \mathbb{F}_{2^n} }[/math] is usually given through the values

[math]\displaystyle{ \Delta_F(a,b) = | \{ x \in \mathbb{F}_{2^n} : F(x) + F(a+x) = b \}| }[/math]

which, for [math]\displaystyle{ a \ne 0 }[/math], express the number of input pairs with difference [math]\displaystyle{ a }[/math] that map to a given [math]\displaystyle{ b }[/math]. The existence of a pair [math]\displaystyle{ (a,b) \in \mathbb{F}_{2^n}^* \times \mathbb{F}_{2^n} }[/math] with a high value of [math]\displaystyle{ \Delta_F(a,b) }[/math] makes the function [math]\displaystyle{ F }[/math] vulnerable to differential cryptanalysis. This motivates the definition of differential uniformity as

[math]\displaystyle{ \Delta_F = \max \{ \Delta_F(a,b) : a \in \mathbb{F}_{2^n}^*, b \in \mathbb{F}_{2^n} \} }[/math]

which clearly satisfies [math]\displaystyle{ \Delta_F \ge 2 }[/math] for any function [math]\displaystyle{ F }[/math]. The functions meeting this lower bound are called almost perfect nonlinear (APN).