In cryptography, Camellia is a block cipher that has been evaluated favorably by several organisations, including the European Union's NESSIE project (a selected algorithm), and the Japanese CRYPTREC project (a recommended algorithm). The cipher was developed jointly by Mitsubishi and NTT in 2000, and has similar design elements to earlier block ciphers (E2 and MISTY1) from these companies.

Camellia has a block size of 128 bits, and can use 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit keys — the same interface as the Advanced Encryption Standard. It is a Feistel cipher with either 18 rounds (if the key is 128 bits) or 24 rounds (if the key is 192 or 256 bits). Every six rounds, a logical transformation layer is applied: the so-called "FL-function" or its inverse. The cipher also uses input and output key whitening .

Although patented, Camellia is available under a royalty-free license [1].

References

• Kazumaro Aoki, Tetsuya Ichikawa, Masayuki Kanda, Mitsuru Matsui, Shiho Moriai, Junko Nakajima, Toshio Tokita. Camellia: A 128-Bit Block Cipher Suitable for Multiple Platforms — Design and Analysis. Selected Areas in Cryptography 2000, pp39–56.

External links

• Camellia home page
• RFC 3657 — Use of the Camellia Encryption Algorithm in Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)