KASUMI

KASUMI is a block cipher used in UMTS, GSM, and GPRS mobile communications systems. In UMTS, KASUMI is used in the confidentiality (f8) and integrity algorithms (f9) with names UEA1 and UIA1, respectively. In GSM, KASUMI is used in the A5/3 key stream generator and in GPRS in the GEA3 key stream generator.

KASUMI was designed for 3GPP to be used in UMTS security system by the Security Algorithms Group of Experts (SAGE), a part of the European standards body ETSI. Because of schedule pressures in 3GPP standardization, instead of developing a new cipher, SAGE agreed with 3GPP technical specification group (TSG) for system aspects of 3G security (SA3) to base the development on an existing algorithm that had already undergone some evaluation. They chose the cipher algorithm MISTY1 developed and patented by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The original algorithm was slightly modified for easier hardware implementation and to meet other requirements set for 3G mobile communications security.

KASUMI is named after the original algorithm MISTY1 — 霞み (hiragana かすみ, romaji kasumi) is the Japanese word for "mist".

In January 2010, Orr Dunkelman, Nathan Keller, and Adi Shamir, released a paper showing that they could break Kasumi with a related key attack and very modest computational resources. Interestingly, the attack is ineffective against MISTY.