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Rijndael S-box

substitution box used in the Rijndael cipher

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ3943308 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Rijndael S-box is a substitution box (lookup table) used in the Rijndael cipher, on which the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptographic algorithm is based.

Forward S-box

The S-box maps an 8-bit input, c, to an 8-bit output, s = S(c). Both the input and output are interpreted as polynomials over GF(2). First, the input is mapped to its multiplicative inverse in GF(28) = GF(2) [x]/(x8 + x4 + x3 + x + 1), Rijndael's finite field. Zero, as the identity, is mapped to itself. This transformation is known as the Nyberg S-box after its inventor Kaisa Nyberg. The multiplicative inverse is then transformed using the following affine transformation:

[

s

0

s

1

s

2

s

3

s

4

s

5

s

6

s

7

]

=

[

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

]

[

b

0

b

1

b

2

b

3

b

4

b

5

b

6

b

7

]

+

[

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

0

]

{\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}s_{0}\\s_{1}\\s_{2}\\s_{3}\\s_{4}\\s_{5}\\s_{6}\\s_{7}\end{bmatrix}}={\begin{bmatrix}1&0&0&0&1&1&1&1\\1&1&0&0&0&1&1&1\\1&1&1&0&0&0&1&1\\1&1&1&1&0&0&0&1\\1&1&1&1&1&0&0&0\\0&1&1&1&1&1&0&0\\0&0&1&1&1&1&1&0\\0&0&0&1&1&1&1&1\end{bmatrix}}{\begin{bmatrix}b_{0}\\b_{1}\\b_{2}\\b_{3}\\b_{4}\\b_{5}\\b_{6}\\b_{7}\end{bmatrix}}+{\begin{bmatrix}1\\1\\0\\0\\0\\1\\1\\0\end{bmatrix}}}

where [s7, ..., s0] is the S-box output and [b7, ..., b0] is the multiplicative inverse as a vector.

This affine transformation is the sum of multiple rotations of the byte as a vector, where addition is the XOR operation:

s

=

b

⊕

(

b

⋘

1

)

⊕

(

b

⋘

2

)

⊕

(

b

⋘

3

)

⊕

(

b

⋘

4

)

⊕

63

16

{\displaystyle s=b\oplus (b\lll 1)\oplus (b\lll 2)\oplus (b\lll 3)\oplus (b\lll 4)\oplus 63_{16}}

where b represents the multiplicative inverse,

⊕

{\displaystyle \oplus }

is the bitwise XOR operator,

⋘

{\displaystyle \lll }

is a left bitwise circular shift, and the constant 6316 = 011000112 is given in hexadecimal.

An equivalent formulation of the affine transformation is

s

i

=

b

i

⊕

b

(

i

+

4

)

mod

⁡

8

⊕

b

(

i

+

5

)

mod

⁡

8

⊕

b

(

i

+

6

)

mod

⁡

8

⊕

b

(

i

+

7

)

mod

⁡

8

⊕

c

i

{\displaystyle s_{i}=b_{i}\oplus b_{(i+4)\operatorname {mod} 8}\oplus b_{(i+5)\operatorname {mod} 8}\oplus b_{(i+6)\operatorname {mod} 8}\oplus b_{(i+7)\operatorname {mod} 8}\oplus c_{i}}

where s, b, and c are 8 bit arrays, c is 011000112, and subscripts indicate a reference to the indexed bit.

Another equivalent is:

s

=

(

b

×

31

10

mod

257

10

)

⊕

99

10

{\displaystyle s=\left(b\times 31_{10}\mod {257_{10}}\right)\oplus 99_{10}}

where

×

{\displaystyle \times }

is polynomial multiplication of

b

{\displaystyle b}

and

31

10

{\displaystyle 31_{10}}

taken as bit arrays.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rijndael S-box” as substitution box used in the Rijndael cipher. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 476-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Rijndael, S-box and substitution can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as substitution box used in the Rijndael cipher. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3943308. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

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This entry incorporates text from “Rijndael S-box” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.