Editing MARS (cipher) (section)

{{Short description|Block cipher}}
{{Infobox block cipher
| name          = MARS
| image         =
| caption       =
| designers     = [[IBM]]
| publish date  = 1998
| derived from  =
| derived to    =
| related to    = 
| certification = [[AES finalist]]
| key size      = 128 to 448 bits
| block size    = 128 bits
| structure     = Type-3 [[Feistel cipher|Feistel network]]<ref>{{cite conference |title=On Generalized Feistel Networks |last1=Hoang |first1=Viet Tung |last2=Rogaway |first2=Phillip |date=2010 |publisher=Springer |book-title=LNCS 6223 |pages=613–630 |location=USA |conference=CRYPTO 2010|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-14623-7_33 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
| rounds        = 32
| cryptanalysis =
}}

'''MARS''' is a [[block cipher]] that was [[IBM]]'s submission to the [[Advanced Encryption Standard process]]. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm.

The MARS design team included [[Don Coppersmith]], who had been involved in the creation of the previous [[Data Encryption Standard]] (DES) twenty years earlier.  The project was specifically designed to resist future advances in cryptography by adopting a layered, compartmentalized approach. 

[[IBM]]'s official report stated that MARS and [[Serpent (cipher)|Serpent]] were the only two finalists to implement any form of safety net with regard to would-be advances in cryptographic mathematics. The [[Twofish]] team made a similar statement about its cipher.<ref name="NIST-report-on-development-of-AES">{{citation
| author = NIST
| title = Report on the Development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
| url = http://csrc.nist.gov/archive/aes/round2/r2report.pdf
| publisher = NIST
| year = 2000
}}</ref>

MARS has a 128-bit [[block size (cryptography)|block size]] and a variable [[key size]] of between 128 and 448 bits (in 32-bit increments). Unlike most block ciphers, MARS has a heterogeneous structure: several rounds of a cryptographic core are "jacketed" by unkeyed mixing rounds, together with [[key whitening]].