Probabilistic Versus Deterministic Algebraic Cryptanalysis—A Performance Comparison

In this work, the performance of probabilistic algebraic attacks is compared to classical (fast) algebraic attacks in the context of their application to certain linear beedback shift register (LFSR)-based stream ciphers. Using some results from coding theory it is shown that in terms of time complexity classical deterministic algebraic attacks are in general a more efficient cryptanalytic tool, unless the filtering function $F:{\hbox{GF}}\,(2)^{n} \rightarrow {\hbox{GF}}\,(2)^{m}$ has such a nonrandom structure that its cryptographic use is presumably refutable anyway.