@Article{AlvarezCubero:2015:AVL,
  author =       "Jos\'e \'Antonio Alvarez-Cubero and Pedro J. Zufiria",
  title =        "Algorithm xxx: VBF: A Library of C++ Classes for 
                  Vector Boolean Functions in Cryptography",
  journal =      "{ACM} Transactions on Mathematical Software",
  accepted =     "17 June 2015",
  upcoming =     "true", 
  abstract =     "
                  VBF is a collection of C++ classes designed for analyzing
                  vector Boolean functions (functions that map a Boolean
                  vector to another Boolean vector) from a cryptographic
                  perspective. This implementation uses the NTL library
                  from Victor Shoup, adding new modules which call NTL
                  functions and complement the existing ones making it
                  better suited to cryptography.  The class representing
                  a vector Boolean function can be initialized by several
                  alternative types of data structures such as <i> Truth
                  Table, Trace Representation, Algebraic Normal Form (ANF)</i>
                  among others.  The most relevant cryptographic criteria for
                  both block and stream ciphers as well as for hash functions
                  can be evaluated with VBF: it obtains the nonlinearity,
                  linearity distance, algebraic degree, linear structures,
                  frequency distribution of the absolute values of the Walsh
                  Spectrum or the Autocorrelation Spectrum, among others. In
                  addition, operations such as equality testing, composition,
                  inversion, sum, direct sum,  bricklayering (parallel
                  application of vector Boolean functions as employed in
                  Rijndael cipher), and adding coordinate functions of
                  two vector Boolean functions are presented. Finally,
                  three real applications of the library are described:
                  the first one analyzes the KASUMI block cipher, the
                  second one analyzes the Mini-AES cipher, and the third
                  one finds Boolean functions with very high nonlinearity,
                  a key property for robustness against linear attacks.",
}