A Systematic Study on the Design of Odd-Sized Highly Nonlinear Boolean Functions via Evolutionary Algorithms

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Carlet, Claude, Đurasevic, Marko, Jakobovic, Domagoj, Picek, Stjepan, Mariot, Luca
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Carlet, Claude
Đurasevic, Marko
Jakobovic, Domagoj
Picek, Stjepan
Mariot, Luca
author_facet Carlet, Claude
Đurasevic, Marko
Jakobovic, Domagoj
Picek, Stjepan
Mariot, Luca
contents This paper focuses on the problem of evolving Boolean functions of odd sizes with high nonlinearity, a property of cryptographic relevance. Despite its simple formulation, this problem turns out to be remarkably difficult. We perform a systematic evaluation by considering three solution encodings and four problem instances, analyzing how well different types of evolutionary algorithms behave in finding a maximally nonlinear Boolean function. Our results show that genetic programming generally outperforms other evolutionary algorithms, although it falls short of the best-known results achieved by ad-hoc heuristics. Interestingly, by adding local search and restricting the space to rotation symmetric Boolean functions, we show that a genetic algorithm with the bitstring encoding manages to evolve a $9$-variable Boolean function with nonlinearity 241.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_17666
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Systematic Study on the Design of Odd-Sized Highly Nonlinear Boolean Functions via Evolutionary Algorithms
Carlet, Claude
Đurasevic, Marko
Jakobovic, Domagoj
Picek, Stjepan
Mariot, Luca
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Cryptography and Security
This paper focuses on the problem of evolving Boolean functions of odd sizes with high nonlinearity, a property of cryptographic relevance. Despite its simple formulation, this problem turns out to be remarkably difficult. We perform a systematic evaluation by considering three solution encodings and four problem instances, analyzing how well different types of evolutionary algorithms behave in finding a maximally nonlinear Boolean function. Our results show that genetic programming generally outperforms other evolutionary algorithms, although it falls short of the best-known results achieved by ad-hoc heuristics. Interestingly, by adding local search and restricting the space to rotation symmetric Boolean functions, we show that a genetic algorithm with the bitstring encoding manages to evolve a $9$-variable Boolean function with nonlinearity 241.
title A Systematic Study on the Design of Odd-Sized Highly Nonlinear Boolean Functions via Evolutionary Algorithms
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17666