Implementation of Alternative Public-Key Cryptosystems on Embedded Systems

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Cryptographic schemes are the key components of any securityapplication. In medical data processing, satellite communications orindustrial machinery, these cryptographic schemes have often theadditional burden to provide long-term security over a period of 10-50years. However, this is actually hardly compatible with recently usedasymmetric cryptosystems based on the discrete logarithm andfactoring, such as RSA and ECC. In particular, it is known that bothaforementioned problems can be solved on quantum computers inpolynomial time using Shor's algorithm. Hence it seems evident toinvestigate alternative options for asymmetric cryptosystems to findlong-term-secure substitutes for this asymmetric cryptography - evenif it is not clear at all whether sufficiently complex quantum computerscan be built in the near of far future. Highly security-critical systemswith long-term security requirements usually cannot tolerate such athreat. In 2011 the newly established research project"Implementation aspects of alternative asymmetric cryptosystems"has focused on three different branches of alternative asymmetriccryptography, namely the hash-based, the code-based andmultivariate-quadratic cryptography. These branches have beenparticularly investigated for their use in practice and in particular withrespect to implementations on embedded systems and theirresistance to side-channel and fault injection attacks. During thecourse of the project a further branch of cryptography has emerged asa very promising candidate that was previously not considered in theworking program. Cryptography over ideal lattices seems to enableextremely efficient and secure implementations of both encryption anddigital signature systems. Therefore, their investigation and physicallysecure implementation on embedded systems is the primary goal ofthis renewal application.