  Boolean functions are mathematical objects used in diverse domains and have
been actively researched for several decades already. One domain where Boolean
functions play an important role is cryptography. There, the plethora of
settings one should consider and cryptographic properties that need to be
fulfilled makes the search for new Boolean functions still a very active
domain. There are several options to construct appropriate Boolean functions:
algebraic constructions, random search, and metaheuristics. In this work, we
concentrate on metaheuristic approaches and examine the related works appearing
in the last 25 years. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey
work on this topic. Additionally, we provide a new taxonomy of related works
and discuss the results obtained. Finally, we finish this survey with potential
future research directions.
