This work presents a new code-based key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) called
LEDAkem. It is built on the Niederreiter cryptosystem and relies on
quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check codes as secret codes, providing high
decoding speeds and compact keypairs. LEDAkem uses ephemeral keys to foil known
statistical attacks, and takes advantage of a new decoding algorithm that
provides faster decoding than the classical bit-flipping decoder commonly
adopted in this kind of systems. The main attacks against LEDAkem are
investigated, taking into account quantum speedups. Some instances of LEDAkem
are designed to achieve different security levels against classical and quantum
computers. Some performance figures obtained through an efficient C99
implementation of LEDAkem are provided.Comment: 21 pages, 3 table