Report on the AES Candidates

This document reports the activities of the AES working group organized at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Several candidates are evaluated. In particular we outline some weaknesses in the designs of some candidates. We mainly discuss selection criteria between the candidates, and make case-by-case comments. We finally recommend the selection of Mars, RC6, Serpent, ... and DFC. As the report is being finalized, we also added some new preliminary cryptanalysis on RC6 and Crypton in the Appendix which are not considered in the main body of the report.