Qunlu Liu^1,#, Fiza Liaquat^1,2,#, Qiqi Tang¹, Jun Yang^3,4, Shuai Qiu⁵, Amber Malik², Kang Ye^3,4, Kai Gao⁵, Jun Qin^3,4,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.94, No.11, pp. 3539-3562, 2025, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2025.071989 - 01 December 2025

Abstract Hydrangea macrophylla is a popular ornamental shrub with a lot of economic and aesthetic value. It is known for its different flower shapes (lacecap and mophead) and the way its flowers change color depending on the pH of the soil. Even though it is important for gardening, we still don’t know much about the molecular processes that lead to flower growth. The purpose of this study was to find and study SNP-related genes and transcription factors that are connected to the growth of H. macrophylla flowers. Genome-wide SNP analysis identified 11 SNPs associated with MYB transcription factors… More >

Jingya Feng¹, Ying Zhao^2,*, Tao Ye¹, Wei Feng^3,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.83, No.1, pp. 1491-1507, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.059882 - 26 March 2025

Abstract The efficient implementation of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is crucial for network data security. This paper presents novel hardware implementations of the AES S-box, a core component, using tower field representations and Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solvers. Our research makes several significant contributions to the field. Firstly, we have optimized the GF() inversion, achieving a remarkable 31.35% area reduction (15.33 GE) compared to the best known implementations. Secondly, we have enhanced multiplication implementations for transformation matrices using a SAT-method based on local solutions. This approach has yielded notable improvements, such as a 22.22% reduction in More >

Arkan Kh Shakr Sabonchi^*

Journal of Information Hiding and Privacy Protection, Vol.6, pp. 21-45, 2024, DOI:10.32604/jihpp.2024.058954 - 31 December 2024

Abstract Substitution boxes (S-boxes) are key components of symmetrical cryptosystems, acting as nonlinear substitution functions that hide the relationship between the encrypted text and input key. This confusion mechanism is vital for cryptographic security because it prevents attackers from intercepting the secret key by analyzing the encrypted text. Therefore, the S-box design is essential for the robustness of cryptographic systems, especially for the data encryption standard (DES) and advanced encryption standard (AES). This study focuses on the application of the firefly algorithm (FA) and metaheuristic lion optimization algorithm (LOA), thereby proposing a hybrid approach called the… More >

Yongjin Jeon, Seungjun Baek^#, Jongsung Kim^*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.141, No.1, pp. 545-561, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2024.052374 - 20 August 2024

Abstract Quantum computers accelerate many algorithms based on the superposition principle of quantum mechanics. The Grover algorithm provides significant performance to malicious users attacking symmetric key systems. Since the performance of attacks using quantum computers depends on the efficiency of the quantum circuit of the encryption algorithms, research research on the implementation of quantum circuits is essential. This paper presents a new framework to construct quantum circuits of substitution boxes (S-boxes) using system modeling. We model the quantum circuits of S-boxes using two layers: Toffoli and linear layers. We generate vector spaces based on the values… More >

Mohammad Mazyad Hazzazi¹, Muhammad Sajjad², Zaid Bassfar³, Tariq Shah^2,*, Ashwag Albakri⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.77, No.3, pp. 3659-3675, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.039013 - 26 December 2023

Abstract In block ciphers, the nonlinear components, also known as substitution boxes (S-boxes), are used with the purpose to induce confusion in cryptosystems. For the last decade, most of the work on designing S-boxes over the points of elliptic curves, chaotic maps, and Gaussian integers has been published. The main purpose of these studies is to hide data and improve the security levels of crypto algorithms. In this work, we design pair of nonlinear components of a block cipher over the residue class of Eisenstein integers (EI). The fascinating features of this structure provide S-boxes pair More >

Abid Mahboob¹, Muhammad Asif², Rana Muhammad Zulqarnain^3,*, Imran Saddique⁴, Hijaz Ahmad⁵, Sameh Askar⁶

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.77, No.2, pp. 2565-2578, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.040371 - 29 November 2023

Abstract Nowadays, one of the most important difficulties is the protection and privacy of confidential data. To address these problems, numerous organizations rely on the use of cryptographic techniques to secure data from illegal activities and assaults. Modern cryptographic ciphers use the non-linear component of block cipher to ensure the robust encryption process and lawful decoding of plain data during the decryption phase. For the designing of a secure substitution box (S-box), non-linearity (NL) which is an algebraic property of the S-box has great importance. Consequently, the main focus of cryptographers is to achieve the S-box… More >

Yazeed Yasin Ghadi¹, Mohammed S. Alshehri², Sultan Almakdi², Oumaima Saidani^3,*, Nazik Alturki³, Fawad Masood⁴, Muhammad Shahbaz Khan⁵

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.77, No.1, pp. 781-797, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.042777 - 31 October 2023

Abstract Securing digital image data is a key concern in today’s information-driven society. Effective encryption techniques are required to protect sensitive image data, with the Substitution-box (S-box) often playing a pivotal role in many symmetric encryption systems. This study introduces an innovative approach to creating S-boxes for encryption algorithms. The proposed S-boxes are tested for validity and non-linearity by incorporating them into an image encryption scheme. The nonlinearity measure of the proposed S-boxes is 112. These qualities significantly enhance its resistance to common cryptographic attacks, ensuring high image data security. Furthermore, to assess the robustness of… More >

Runlian Zhang^1,*, Rui Shu¹, Yongzhuang Wei¹, Hailong Zhang², Xiaonian Wu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.76, No.2, pp. 1911-1927, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.041187 - 30 August 2023

Abstract S-boxes can be the core component of block ciphers, and how to efficiently generate S-boxes with strong cryptographic properties appears to be an important task in the design of block ciphers. In this work, an optimized model based on the generative adversarial network (GAN) is proposed to generate 8-bit S-boxes. The central idea of this optimized model is to use loss function constraints for GAN. More specially, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) S-box is used to construct the sample dataset via the affine equivalence property. Then, three models are respectively built and cross-trained to generate… More >

Abid Mahboob¹, Muhammad Asif², Rana Muhammad Zulqarnain^3,*, Imran Siddique⁴, Hijaz Ahmad⁵, Sameh Askar⁶, Giovanni Pau⁷

Computer Systems Science and Engineering, Vol.47, No.2, pp. 2547-2562, 2023, DOI:10.32604/csse.2023.040855 - 28 July 2023

Abstract The rapid advancement of data in web-based communication has created one of the biggest issues concerning the security of data carried over the internet from unauthorized access. To improve data security, modern cryptosystems use substitution-boxes. Nowadays, data privacy has become a key concern for consumers who transfer sensitive data from one place to another. To address these problems, many companies rely on cryptographic techniques to secure data from illegal activities and assaults. Among these cryptographic approaches, AES is a well-known algorithm that transforms plain text into cipher text by employing substitution box (S-box). The S-box… More >

Musheer Ahmad¹, Reem Ibrahim Alkanhel^2,*, Naglaa F. Soliman², Abeer D. Algarni², Fathi E. Abd El-Samie³, Walid El-Shafai^3,4

Computer Systems Science and Engineering, Vol.47, No.2, pp. 2361-2380, 2023, DOI:10.32604/csse.2023.038439 - 28 July 2023

Abstract Patient privacy and data protection have been crucial concerns in E-healthcare systems for many years. In modern-day applications, patient data usually holds clinical imagery, records, and other medical details. Lately, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), equipped with cloud computing, has come out to be a beneficial paradigm in the healthcare field. However, the openness of networks and systems leads to security threats and illegal access. Therefore, reliable, fast, and robust security methods need to be developed to ensure the safe exchange of healthcare data generated from various image sensing and other IoMT-driven devices in… More >