Anna-Lena Horlemann-Trautmann

Marco Baldi, Massimo Battaglioni, Franco Chiaraluce et al.

In this paper we introduce a variant of the Syndrome Decoding Problem (SDP), that we call Restricted SDP (R-SDP), in which the entries of the searched vector are defined over a subset of the underlying finite field. We prove the NP-completeness of R-SDP, via a reduction from the classical SDP, and describe algorithms which solve such new problem. We study the properties of random codes under this new decoding perspective, in the fashion of traditional coding theory results, and assess the complexity of solving a random R-SDP instance. As a concrete application, we describe how Zero-Knowledge Identification (ZK-ID) schemes based on SDP can be tweaked to rely on R-SDP, and show that this leads to compact public keys as well as significantly reduced communication costs. Thus, these schemes offer an improved basis for the construction of code-based digital signature schemes derived from identification schemes through the well-know Fiat-Shamir transformation.

Anna-Lena Horlemann-Trautmann, Violetta Weger

We convert Stern's information set decoding (ISD) algorithm to the ring $\mathbb{Z}/4 \mathbb{Z}$ equipped with the Lee metric. Moreover, we set up the general framework for a McEliece and a Niederreiter cryptosystem over this ring. The complexity of the ISD algorithm determines the minimum key size in these cryptosystems for a given security level. We show that using Lee metric codes can drastically decrease the key size, compared to Hamming metric codes. In the end we explain how our results can be generalized to other Galois rings $\mathbb{Z}/p^s\mathbb{Z}$.

Anna-Lena Horlemann-Trautmann, Kyle Marshall, Joachim Rosenthal

We present a new attack against cryptosystems based on the rank metric. Our attack allows us to cryptanalyze two variants of the GPT cryptosystem which were designed to resist the attack of Overbeck.