PudgyTurtle Mode Resists Bit-Flipping Attacks

Cryptosystems employing a synchronous binary-additive stream cipher are susceptible to generic attack called ’bit-flipping’, in which the ciphertext is modified decrypt into fraudulent message. While authenticated encryption and message authentication codes can effectively negate this attack, modes also provide partial protection against bit-flipping. PudgyTurtle stream-cipher mode uses keystream encode (via an error-correcting code) encipher modulo-2 addition). Here, we describe behavior of during bit-flipping attacks demonstrate how it creates uncertainty about number, positions, identities decrypted bits that will be affected.