Spinning Top: A Novel Stream Cipher Constructed from Cellular Automata

DONG Youheng; ZHANG Yanshuo; LU Xiaojuan; WANG Caibing; ZHAO Geng; HUANG Yating

doi:10.12263/DZXB.20250820

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Spinning Top: A Novel Stream Cipher Constructed from Cellular Automata

PAPERS | 更新时间：2026-06-16

- Spinning Top: A Novel Stream Cipher Constructed from Cellular Automata
- ACTA ELECTRONICA SINICA Vol. 54, Issue 3, Pages: 1263-1279(2026)
- 作者机构：
  
  1.北京电子科技学院密码科学与技术系，北京 100071
  2.兴唐通信科技有限公司，北京 100089
- 作者简介：
- 基金信息：
  
  The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(3282024020;3282024019);National Key Research and Development Program of China(2024YFB3108105)
- DOI：10.12263/DZXB.20250820
  CLC： TN918;
- Received：19 September 2025，
  
  Accepted：02 March 2026，
  
  Published：25 March 2026
- 稿件说明：
移动端阅览
董有恒, 张艳硕, 鲁小娟, 等. Spinning Top：一种基于元胞自动机的新型序列密码算法[J]. 电子学报, 2026, 54(03): 1263-1279.

DONG Youheng, ZHANG Yanshuo, LU Xiaojuan, et al. Spinning Top: A Novel Stream Cipher Constructed from Cellular Automata[J]. Acta Electronica Sinica, 2026, 54(03): 1263-1279.
董有恒, 张艳硕, 鲁小娟, 等. Spinning Top：一种基于元胞自动机的新型序列密码算法[J]. 电子学报, 2026, 54(03): 1263-1279. DOI：10.12263/DZXB.20250820

DONG Youheng, ZHANG Yanshuo, LU Xiaojuan, et al. Spinning Top: A Novel Stream Cipher Constructed from Cellular Automata[J]. Acta Electronica Sinica, 2026, 54(03): 1263-1279. DOI：10.12263/DZXB.20250820

摘要

针对现有序列密码算法存在非线性度不足、硬件实现效率受限等问题，本文基于初等元胞自动机（Elementary Cellular Automata，ECA）提出了一种在硬件平台上性能优于ZUC（ZU Chongzhi）算法，且安全可靠的“旋转陀螺”（Spinning Top）序列密码算法。研究首次将弹性混沌规则引入序列密码构造，有效兼顾了均衡性、相关免疫性与混沌性，从而确保输出序列具备优良的统计特性与高度不可预测性，并利用该类规则设计了三ECA循环嵌合结构，该结构在不采用S盒的情况下能利用有限的硬件资源保证算法的非线性度。相关分析和实验表明，算法能够通过NIST SP800-22与Test U01的相关测试，随机性达标；可抵御区分攻击与猜测—确定攻击，且具备前向/后向安全性。性能上，FPGA平台（Zynq-7000/200 MHz）吞吐率理论上能够达到25~40 Gbps，相同时钟周期下是ZUC算法能够达到的最大吞吐率7.1 Gpbs的3~5倍以上，且资源占用还比ZUC略少。该研究提供了利用ECA进行高非线性序列密码设计的范式，实践中可适配工业互联网、6G算力网络等场景，为资源受限设备提供“低资源-高安全”的加密方案。

Abstract

To address the limitations of existing stream cipher algorithms in terms of insufficient nonlinearity and constrained hardware efficiency

this paper proposes a novel “Spinning Top” stream cipher algorithm based on elementary cellular automata (ECA). The proposed scheme demonstrates significantly higher performance than the standardized ZUC (ZU Chongzhi) algorithm on hardware platforms while ensuring strong security. For the first time

the concept of resilient chaotic rules is introduced into stream cipher design

jointly achieving balance

correlation immunity

and chaotic behavior. This ensures that the generated key-stream exhibits excellent statistical properties and high unpredictability. Furthermore

a cyclically embedded three-ECA structure is constructed

which ensures a high non-linearity without relying on S-boxes and with only limited hardware resources. Analytical evaluation and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm successfully passes the NIST SP800-22 and Test U01 suites

confirming statistical randomness. It also resists distinguishing attacks and guess-and-determine attacks

while providing both forward and backward security. In terms of performance

on the FPGA platform (Zynq-7000/200 MHz)

the algorithm achieves a theoretical throughput of 25~40 Gbps

which is 3~5 times higher than the maximum throughput of 7.1 Gbps achieved by ZUC

with slightly lower resource consumption. This study establishes a new paradigm for high non-linearity stream cipher design using ECA

and in practice

it offers a low-resource yet high-security encryption solution suitable for application scenarios such as the Industrial Internet and 6G computing power networks.

关键词

Keywords

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