Title
Evaluating elliptic curve based KEMs in the light of pairings
Abstract
Several eorts have been made recently to put forward a set of cryptographic primitives for public key encryption, suitable to be standardized. In two of them (in the first place the NESSIE european evaluation project, already finished, and in the second place the standardisation bodies ISO/IEC), the methodology by Victor Shoup for hybrid encryption, known as Key Encapsulation Method-Data Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM-DEM), has been accepted. In this work we re-evaluate the elliptic curve based KEMs studied to become standards, which are called ACE-KEM, ECIES-KEM and PSEC-KEM. Their security is based on dierent assumptions related to the elliptic curve discrete logarithm (ECDL) problem on a random elliptic curve. First of all, we fix some inexact results claimed in the previous literature. As a consequence, the performance features of PSEC-KEM are dramatically aected. In second place, we analyse both their security properties and performance when elliptic curves with computable bi- linear maps (pairing curves for short) are used. It turns out that these KEMs present a very tight security reduction to the same problem, namely the ECDH problem on such curves; moreover, one can even relate their security to the ECDL problem in certain curves with a small security loss. It is also argued that ECIES-KEM arises as the best option among these KEMs when pairing curves are used. This is remarkable, since NESSIE did not include ECIES-KEM over a random curve in its portfolio of recommended cryptographic primitives. It is concluded that for medium security level applications, which is likely the case for many embedded systems (e.g. smart cards), implementing these KEMs over pairing curves should be considered a very reasonable option.
Year
Venue
Keywords
2004
IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive
public-key cryptography,smart cards.,stan- dardization,pairings,key encapsulation mechanisms,smart card,public key encryption,standardisation,discrete logarithm,hybrid encryption,public key cryptography,embedded system,elliptic curve
Field
DocType
Volume
Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm,Elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman,Arithmetic,Key encapsulation,NESSIE,Cryptographic primitive,Elliptic curve cryptography,Mathematics,Curve25519,Key size,Distributed computing
Journal
2004
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
17
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
David Galindo139123.03
Sebastia Mart200.68
Jorge L. Villar39711.05