1 research outputs found
A Statistical Explanation of the Timing Attack on QC-MDPC Code Crypto-system
The McEliece cryptosystem based on quasi-cyclic moderate-density parity-check
(QC-MDPC) codes is first purposed in 2013\cite{QCMDPC} and is considered a
promising contender in the post-quantum era. Understanding its security is
hence essential. Till now, the most effective attacks are the reaction
attack\cite{Reaction} and the timing attack\cite{Timing}. Both of these attacks
rely on the decoding performance to recover the private key. The reaction
attack relies on the decoding failure rate and the timing attack relies on the
iterations during decoding. However, the mechanics behind these attacks remain
elusive. In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to explain both
attacks by connecting the spectrum of private key and first-layer performance
of the decoder