International Association for Cryptologic Research

International Association
for Cryptologic Research

CryptoDB

How to achieve a McEliece-based Digital Signature Scheme

Authors:
Nicolas Courtois
Matthieu Finiasz
Nicolas Sendrier
Download:
URL: http://eprint.iacr.org/2001/010
Search ePrint
Search Google
Abstract: McEliece is one of the oldest known public key cryptosystems. Though it was less widely studied that RSA, it is remarkable that all known attacks are still exponential. It is widely believed that code-based cryptosystems like McEliece does not allow practical digital signatures. In the present paper we disprove this belief and show a way to build a practical signature scheme based on coding theory. It's security can be reduced in the random oracle model to the well-known {\em syndrome decoding problem} and the distinguishability of permuted binary Goppa codes from a random code. For example we propose a scheme with signatures of $81$-bits and a binary security workfactor of $2^{83}$.
BibTeX
@misc{eprint-2001-11422,
  title={How to achieve a McEliece-based Digital Signature Scheme},
  booktitle={IACR Eprint archive},
  keywords={public-key cryptography / digital signature, McEliece cryptosystem, Niederreiter cryptosystem, Goppa codes, syndrome decoding, short signatures},
  url={http://eprint.iacr.org/2001/010},
  note={ASIACRYPT'2001 Nicolas.Sendrier@inria.fr 11614 received 12 Feb 2001, last revised 19 Oct 2001},
  author={Nicolas Courtois and Matthieu Finiasz and Nicolas Sendrier},
  year=2001
}