## CryptoDB

### Roberto Maria Avanzi

#### Publications

Year
Venue
Title
2017
TOSC
This paper introduces QARMA, a new family of lightweight tweakable block ciphers targeted at applications such as memory encryption, the generation of very short tags for hardware-assisted prevention of software exploitation, and the construction of keyed hash functions. QARMA is inspired by reflection ciphers such as PRINCE, to which it adds a tweaking input, and MANTIS. However, QARMA differs from previous reflector constructions in that it is a three-round Even-Mansour scheme instead of a FX-construction, and its middle permutation is non-involutory and keyed. We introduce and analyse a family of Almost MDS matrices defined over a ring with zero divisors that allows us to encode rotations in its operation while maintaining the minimal latency associated to {0, 1}-matrices. The purpose of all these design choices is to harden the cipher against various classes of attacks. We also describe new S-Box search heuristics aimed at minimising the critical path. QARMA exists in 64- and 128-bit block sizes, where block and tweak size are equal, and keys are twice as long as the blocks. We argue that QARMA provides sufficient security margins within the constraints determined by the mentioned applications, while still achieving best-in-class latency. Implementation results on a state-of-the art manufacturing process are reported. Finally, we propose a technique to extend the length of the tweak by using, for instance, a universal hash function, which can also be used to strengthen the security of QARMA.
2011
PKC
2010
EPRINT
We consider digital expansions of scalars for supersingular Koblitz curves in characteristic three. These are positional representations of integers to the base of $\tau$, where $\tau$ is a zero of the characteristic polynomial $T^2 \pm 3\,T + 3$ of a Frobenius endomorphism. They are then applied to the improvement of scalar multiplication on the Koblitz curves. A simple connection between $\tau$-adic expansions and balanced ternary representations is given. Windowed non-adjacent representations are considered whereby the digits are elements of minimal norm. We give an explicit description of the elements of the digit set, allowing for a very simple and efficient precomputation strategy, whereby the rotational symmetry of the digit set is also used to reduce the memory requirements. With respect to the current state of the art for computing scalar multiplications on supersingular Koblitz curves we achieve the following improvements: \rm{(i)} speed-ups of up to 40\%, \rm{(ii)} a reduction of memory consumption by a factor of three, \rm{(iii)} our methods apply to all window sizes without requiring operation sequences for the precomputation stage to be determined offline first. Additionally, we explicitly describe the action of some endomorphisms on the Koblitz curve as a scalar multiplication by an explicitly given integer.
2008
EPRINT
This paper investigates some properties of $\tau$-adic expansions of scalars. Such expansions are widely used in the design of scalar multiplication algorithms on Koblitz Curves, but at the same time they are much less understood than their binary counterparts. Solinas introduced the width-$w$ $\tau$-adic non-adjacent form for use with Koblitz curves. This is an expansion of integers $z=\sum_{i=0}^\ell z_i\tau^i$, where $\tau$ is a quadratic integer depending on the curve, such that $z_i\ne 0$ implies $z_{w+i-1}=\ldots=z_{i+1}=0$, like the sliding window binary recodings of integers. It uses a redundant digit set, i.e., an expansion of an integer using this digit set need not be uniquely determined if the syntactical constraints are not enforced. We show that the digit sets described by Solinas, formed by elements of minimal norm in their residue classes, are uniquely determined. Apart from this digit set of minimal norm representatives, other digit sets can be chosen such that all integers can be represented by a width-$w$ non-adjacent form using those digits. We describe an algorithm recognizing admissible digit sets. Results by Solinas and by Blake, Murty, and Xu are generalized. In particular, we introduce two new useful families of digit sets. The first set is syntactically defined. As a consequence of its adoption we can also present improved and streamlined algorithms to perform the precomputations in $\tau$-adic scalar multiplication methods. The latter use an improvement of the computation of sums and differences of points on elliptic curves with mixed affine and L\'opez-Dahab coordinates. The second set is suitable for low-memory applications, generalizing an approach started by Avanzi, Ciet, and Sica. It permits to devise a scalar multiplication algorithm that dispenses with the initial precomputation stage and its associated memory space. A suitable choice of the parameters of the method leads to a scalar multiplication algorithm on Koblitz Curves that achieves sublinear complexity in the number of expensive curve operations.
2007
EPRINT
We discuss irreducible polynomials that can be used to speed up square root extraction in fields of characteristic two. We call such polynomials \textit{square root friendly}. The obvious applications are to point halving methods for elliptic curves and divisor halving methods for hyperelliptic curves. We note the existence of square root friendly trinomials of a given degree when we already know that an irreducible trinomial of the same degree exists, and formulate a conjecture on the degrees of the terms of square root friendly polynomials. We also give a partial result that goes in the direction of the conjecture. Irreducible polynomials $p(X)$ such that the square root $\zeta$ of a zero $x$ of $p(X)$ is a sparse polynomial are considered and those for which $\zeta$ has minimal degree are characterized. In doing this we discover a surprising connection these polynomials and those defining polynomial bases with an extremal number of trace one elements. We also show how to improve the speed of solving quadratic equations and that the increase in the time required to perform modular reduction is marginal and does not affect performance adversely. Experimental results confirm that the new polynomials mantain their promises; These results generalize work by Fong et al.\ to polynomials other than trinomials. Point halving gets a speed-up of $20\%$ and the performance of scalar multiplication based on point halving is improved by at least $11\%$.
2006
ASIACRYPT
2006
EPRINT
The paper is an examination of double-base decompositions of integers $n$, namely expansions loosely of the form $n = \sum_{i,j} A^iB^j$ for some base $\{A,B\}$. This was examined in previous works in the case when $A,B$ lie in $\mathbb{N}$. On the positive side, we show how to extend previous results of to Koblitz curves over binary fields. Namely, we obtain a sublinear scalar algorithm to compute, given a generic positive integer $n$ and an elliptic curve point $P$, the point $nP$ in time $O\left(\frac{\log n}{\log\log n}\right)$ elliptic curve operations with essentially no storage, thus making the method asymptotically faster than any know scalar multiplication algorithm on Koblitz curves. On the negative side, we analyze scalar multiplication using double base numbers and show that on a generic elliptic curve over a finite field, we cannot expect a sublinear algorithm with double bases. Finally, we show that all algorithms used hitherto need at least $\frac{\log n}{\log\log n}$ curve operations.
2005
CHES
2005
EPRINT
The present survey deals with the recent research in side channel analysis and related attacks on implementations of cryptographic primitives. The focus is on software contermeasures for primitives built around algebraic groups. Many countermeasures are described, together with their extent of applicability, and their weaknesses. Some suggestions are made, conclusion are drawn, some directions for future research are given. An extensive bibliography on recent developments concludes the survey.
2005
EPRINT
In order to efficiently perform scalar multiplications on elliptic Koblitz curves, expansions of the scalar to a complex base associated with the Frobenius endomorphism are commonly used. One such expansion is the $\tau$-adic NAF, introduced by Solinas. Some properties of this expansion, such as the average weight, are well known, but in the literature there is no proof of its {\em optimality}, i.e.~that it always has minimal weight. In this paper we provide the first proof of this fact. Point halving, being faster than doubling, is also used to perform fast scalar multiplications on generic elliptic curves over binary fields. Since its computation is more expensive than that of the Frobenius, halving was thought to be uninteresting for Koblitz curves. At PKC 2004, Avanzi, Ciet, and Sica combined Frobenius operations with one point halving to compute scalar multiplications on Koblitz curves using on average 14\% less group additions than with the usual $\tau$-and-add method without increasing memory usage. The second result of this paper is an improvement over their expansion, that is simpler to compute, and optimal in a suitable sense, i.e.\ it has minimal Hamming weight among all $\tau$-adic expansions with digits $\{0,\pm1\}$ that allow one halving to be inserted in the corresponding scalar multiplication algorithm. The resulting scalar multiplication requires on average 25\% less group operations than the Frobenius method, and is thus 12.5\% faster than the previous known combination.
2005
JOFC
2004
CHES
2004
PKC
2003
CHES
2003
EPRINT
This paper presents an implementation of genus 2 and 3 hyperelliptic curves over prime fields, with a comparison with elliptic curves. To allow a fair comparison, we developed an ad-hoc arithmetic library, designed to remove most of the overheads that penalise implementations of curve-based cryptography over prime fields. These overheads get worse for smaller fields, and thus for large genera. We also use techniques such as lazy and incomplete modular reduction, originally developed for performing arithmetic in field extensions, to reduce the number of modular reductions occurring in the formulae for the group operations. The result is that the performance of hyperelliptic curves of genus 2 over prime fields is much closer to the performance of elliptic curves than previously thought. For groups of 192 and 256 bits the difference is about 18% and 15% respectively.
2002
EPRINT
We describe and analyze new combinations of multi-exponentiation algorithms with representations of the exponents. We deal mainly but not exclusively with the case where the inversion of group elements is fast: These methods are most attractive with exponents in the range from 80 to 256 bits, and can also be used for computing single exponentiations in groups which admit an automorphism satisfying a monic equation of small degree over the integers. The choice of suitable exponent representations allows us to match or improve the running time of the best multi-exponentiation techniques in the aforementioned range, while keeping the memory requirements as small as possible. Hence some of the methods presented here are particularly attractive for deployment in memory constrained environments such as smart cards. By construction, such methods provide good resistance against side channel attacks. We also describe some applications of these algorithms.

Crypto 2020
CHES 2018
CHES 2004