Some Notes on Code-Based Cryptography

This thesis presents new cryptanalytic results in several areas of coding-based cryptography. In addition, we also investigate the possibility of using convolutional codes in code-based public-key cryptography. The first algorithm that we present is an information-set decoding algorithm, aiming towards the problem of decoding random linear codes. We apply the generalized birthday technique to information-set decoding, improving the computational complexity over previous approaches. Next, we present a new version of the McEliece public-key cryptosystem based on convolutional codes. The original construction uses Goppa codes, which is an algebraic code family admitting a well-defined code structure. In the two constructions proposed, large parts of randomly generated parity checks are used. By increasing the entropy of the generator matrix, this presumably makes structured attacks more difficult. Following this, we analyze a McEliece variant based on quasi-cylic MDPC codes. We show that when the underlying code construction has an even dimension, the system is susceptible to, what we call, a squaring attack. Our results show that the new squaring attack allows for great complexity improvements over previous attacks on this particular McEliece construction. Then, we introduce two new techniques for finding low-weight polynomial multiples. Firstly, we propose a general technique based on a reduction to the minimum-distance problem in coding, which increases the multiplicity of the low-weight codeword by extending the code. We use this algorithm to break some of the instances used by the TCHo cryptosystem. Secondly, we propose an algorithm for finding weight-4 polynomials. By using the generalized birthday technique in conjunction with increasing the multiplicity of the low-weight polynomial multiple, we obtain a much better complexity than previously known algorithms. Lastly, two new algorithms for the learning parities with noise (LPN) problem are proposed. The first one is a general algorithm, applicable to any instance of LPN. The algorithm performs favorably compared to previously known algorithms, breaking the 80-bit security of the widely used (512,1/8) instance. The second one focuses on LPN instances over a polynomial ring, when the generator polynomial is reducible. Using the algorithm, we break an 80-bit security instance of the Lapin cryptosystem

Code-based cryptography

As the threat of building quantum computers which would break most of the used ciphers increases, so does the interest in an alternative solution. In the first part of this thesis, we consider Goppa codes which are error-correcting codes used in some post-quantum cryptosystems. We show that they have a large minimum distance and describe an efficient decoding algorithm. Furthermore, we consider McEliece public-key cryptosystem based on Goppa codes and we give a short analysis of its security which remains high even after forty years of analysis

Code-based cryptography

As the threat of building quantum computers which would break most of the used ciphers increases, so does the interest in an alternative solution. In the first part of this thesis, we consider Goppa codes which are error-correcting codes used in some post-quantum cryptosystems. We show that they have a large minimum distance and describe an efficient decoding algorithm. Furthermore, we consider McEliece public-key cryptosystem based on Goppa codes and we give a short analysis of its security which remains high even after forty years of analysis

Structural Properties of Twisted Reed-Solomon Codes with Applications to Cryptography

We present a generalisation of Twisted Reed-Solomon codes containing a new large class of MDS codes. We prove that the code class contains a large subfamily that is closed under duality. Furthermore, we study the Schur squares of the new codes and show that their dimension is often large. Using these structural properties, we single out a subfamily of the new codes which could be considered for code-based cryptography: These codes resist some existing structural attacks for Reed-Solomon-like codes, i.e. methods for retrieving the code parameters from an obfuscated generator matrix.Comment: 5 pages, accepted at: IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 201

Error-correcting pairs: a new approach to code-based cryptography

International audienceMcEliece proposed the first public-key cryptosystem based on linear error-correcting codes. A code with an efficient bounded distance decoding algorithm is chosen as secret key. It is assumed that the chosen code looks like a random code. The known efficient bounded distance decoding algorithms of the families of codes proposed for code-based cryptography, like Reed-Solomon codes, Goppa codes, alternant codes or algebraic geometry codes, can be described in terms of error-correcting pairs (ECP). That means that, the McEliece cryptosystem is not only based on the intractability of bounded distance decoding but also on the problem of retrieving an error-correcting pair from the public code. In this article we propose the class of codes with a t-ECP whose error-correcting pair that is not easily reconstructed from of a given generator matrix