Explanation of SAFER

Question

Give a brief explanation of the term SAFER.

Answer 1

SAFER (or Secure and Fast Encryption Routine) is the non-proprietary block cipher which is developed by Massey in 1993 for the Cylink Corporation. It is the byte-oriented algorithm with the 64-bit block size and, in one version, the 64-bit key size. It has the variable number of rounds (or maximum of 10), but a minimum of six rounds is suggested. Unlike most recent block ciphers, SAFER has somewhat dissimilar encryption and decryption procedures. Only byte-based operations are employed to makes sure its utility in smart card-based applications which have limited processing power. When primary announced, SAFER was intentional to be implemented with the key of length 64 bits and it was consequently named SAFER K-64. Another version of SAFER was intended that could handle 128-bit keys and was a named SAFER K-128.