In this paper, we present a mini version of Rijndael, the symmetric-key block cipher selected as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) recently. Mini-AES has all the parameters significantly reduced while at the same time preserving its original structure. It is meant to be a purely educational cipher and is not considered secure for actual applications. The purpose is such that once undergraduate students and amateur cryptanalysts have grasped the basic principles behind how Mini-AES works, it will be easy for them to move on to the real AES. At the same time, an illustration of how the Square attack can be applied to Mini-AES is presented in the hope that Mini-AES would also serve as a testbed for students to begin their cryptanalysis efforts.
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