Efficient algorithms for elliptic curve cryptosystems

Recently the study and implementation of elliptic curve cryptosystems (ECC) have developed rapidly and its achievements have become a center of attraction. ECC has the advantage of high-speed processing in software even on restricted environments such as smart cards. In this paper, we concentrate on implementation of ECC over a field of prime characteristic on a 16-bit microcomputer M16C (10MHz). We report a practical software implementation of a cryptographic library which supports 160-bit elliptic curve DSA (ECDSA) signature generation, verification and SHA-1 on the processor. This library also includes general integer arithmetic routines for applicability to other cryptographic algorithms. We successfully implemented the library in 4Kbyte code/data size including SHA-1, and confirmed a speed of 150msec for generating an ECDSA signature and 630msec for verifying an ECDSA signature on M16C.

The concept of public key cryptography was first introduced by Diffie and Hellman in 1976 using discrete logarithm problem as base of difficulty. In 1985, T. ElGamal proposed public key cryptosystem scheme based on discrete logarithm problem. Elliptic curve cryptosystems were first proposed in 1985 independently by Neil Koblitz and Victor Miller. Elliptic curve cryptosystems are unique in using elliptic curve groups for arithmetic. This cryptosystem is based on discrete logarithm problem in the group of points of an elliptic curve defined over a finite field. The discrete logarithm problem in an elliptic curve group appears to be much harder than the discrete logarithm problem in other groups. Hence elliptic curves cryptosystem can match the security of other cryptosystems while using smaller key. In this paper we will discuss a VLSl implementation of elliptic curves cryptosystem for ElGamal encryption scheme.

In this chapter we explore the feasibility of efficient implementation of an arithmetic processor for performing elliptic curve computations over finite fields. For a secure system, it is evident from the results of Chapter 5 that the curve and underlying field should be judiciously chosen. However we should point out that for a given underlying field there are a large number of suitable elliptic curve to choose from. If the logarithm problem in supersingular curves is indeed as hard as the logarithm problem in finite fields, and/or if the logarithm problem in non-supersingular curves is indeed intractable, then the systems discussed here are both efficient and secure and very attractive for practical usage.

This paper discusses parallelization of elliptic curve cryptography hardware accelerators using elliptic curves over binary fields F <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2m</sub> . Elliptic curve point multiplication, which is the operation used in every elliptic curve cryptosystem, is hierarchical in nature, and parallelism can be utilized in different hierarchy levels as shown in many publications. However, a comprehensive analysis on the effects of parallelization has not been previously presented. This paper provides tools for evaluating the use of parallelism and shows where it should be used in order to maximize efficiency. Special attention is given for a family of curves called Koblitz curves because they offer very efficient point multiplication. A new method where the latency of point multiplication is reduced with parallel field arithmetic processors is introduced. It is shown to outperform the previously presented multiple field multiplier techniques in the cases of Koblitz curves and generic curves with fixed base points. A highly efficient general elliptic curve cryptography processor architecture is presented and analyzed. Based on this architecture and analysis on the effects of parallelization, a few designs are implemented on an Altera Stratix II field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

In this digital world, communication systems have witnessed abundant usage of media over the platforms. Among these, providing security in transmission of images is highly important, and attained a lot of research interest due to its high consideration in both the industry and the academic community. This paper proposes a hybrid asymmetric image encryption algorithm using Elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC), Hadamard transform and Hill cipher algorithms. Based on the Diffie–Hellman public key exchange method a point on the elliptic curve is selected and agreed between both the sender and receiver. The key relies upon the ECC and it is difficult to resolve the ECDLP to get it. The proposed algorithm involves two stages of encryption, primarily, the XOR function is applied on the Elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) shared secret key and the hadamard image. In the subsequent stage, ECC is combined with the hill cipher algorithm. Encryption and decryption uses self-invertible key matrix, hence the process of finding inverse key becomes redundant during decryption which improves the speed of execution. It also enhances the security and efficiency compared to original hill cipher method. The results are compared with other ECC methods proves that the current cryptosystem attains large key space, highly key sensitive, low correlation and can resist against differential and statistical attacks.

Elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) was proposed by Miller [10] and Koblitz [9] which relies on the difficulty of elliptic curve discrete logarithmic problem (ECDLP). It is gaining wide acceptance as an alternative to the conventional public key cryptosystem such as RSA [24], DSA [25], DH [26]. Also it is noted that the wireless sensor networks (WSN) based on the rapid progress of wireless communications and embedded micro electro mechanical systems technologies are becoming important part in our daily life. The security of the WSN becomes one of the major concerns in its applications. Even ECC prominently offers great potential benefits for WSN security there is still a lot of work needs to be done due to WSN has very restraint running conditions such as limited energy source, capability of computing, etc. It is well known that scalar multiplication operation in ECC accounts for about 80% of key calculation time on wireless sensor network motes. In this paper we present an optimized dynamic window based on our previous research works. The whole quality of service (QoS) has been improved under this algorism in particularly the power consuming is more efficiently. The simulation results showed that the average calculation time, due to fuzzy conditions decreased from previous 26 to current 9 as a whole the calculation time, decreased by approximately 18% in comparison to our previous algorithms in an ECC wireless sensor network [23].

The elliptic curve cryptography is almost used in the literature to develop the public key cryptosystems. A new general-purpose symmetric key cryptosystem using elliptic prime curves is proposed in this paper. For a given prime number P, there are many elliptic prime curves on which each point in the quadrant (0,0) to (P-1,P-1) lays. The set of minimum number of eligible elliptic prime curves for a given prime number P constitutes a lookup table that is the secret key of the proposed cryptosystem. The sender can pick up one eligible elliptic curve for each 2n-bit plaintext block. The sender sends two integers cipher for each 2n-bit plaintext block with encryption rate = 0.8. Moreover, a small prime number can be used efficiently with high security and good robustness against brute force attack.

The use of public-key cryptosystems (PKC) received considerable attention. They are beneficial in encryption as well as signing which play an essential role in electronic banking and financial transactions. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is one of best public key techniques because of its small key size and high security. Secure applications in smart cards present implementation challenges particular to the platform's memory, bandwidth, and computation constraints. ECC's unique properties make it especially well suited to smart card applications. ECC systems provide the highest strength per bit of any cryptosystem known today. The paper presents a new method for smart card implementation of elliptic curves, explaining how ECC can not only significantly reduce the cost, but also accelerate the deployment of smart cards in new applications. ECC permits reductions in key and certificate size that translate to smaller memory requirements (especially for EEPROM), which represent significant cost savings. This added functionality can play an effective role in electronic payment and online banking technologies.

The acceleration of cryptographic applications on embedded devices is a topic of increasingly importance, due to their massive use. In this paper, the efficiency of these devices when operating as cryptographic accelerators is assessed, using a two-tiered parallelism model, where not only multi-core, but also Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) parallelism is exploited to increase the throughput of modular multiplications. In addition, the applicability of the developed parallel modular multiplications are tested for the Rivest-Shavir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve (EC) cryptosystems. The relative efficiency of the two-tiered model for implementing cryptosystems on general purpose processors and embedded devices is analysed and experimentally evaluated. It can be concluded that it is possible to achieve the same levels of execution enhancement on both platforms. Moreover, speedups of up to 7.3 and 3.9 are obtained for the RSA and EC cryptosystems on the ARM A15 quad-core processor, respectively.

Since their invention in the mid 1980s, Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC) have become an alternative to common Public-Key (PK) cryptosystems such as, e.g., RSA. The utilization of Elliptic Curves (EC) in cryptography is very promising because of their resistance against powerful index-calculus attacks. Providing a similar level of security as RSA, ECC allows for efficient implementation due to a significantly smaller bit size of the operands. It is widely accepted that the only feasible way to attack actual cryptosystems, if at all, is the application of dedicated hardware. In times of continuous technological improvements and increasing computing power, the question of the security of ECC against attacks based on special-purpose hardware and, in particular based on recently emerged low-cost FPGAs, arises.This work presents the first architecture with a corresponding FPGA implementation of an attack against ECC over prime fields. We describe an FPGA-based multi-processing hardware architecture for the Pollard-Rho method which is, to our knowledge, currently the most efficient attack against ECC. The implementation is running on a contemporary low-cost FPGA which allows for a much better cost-performance ratio than conventional CPUs. With the implementation at hand, a fairly accurate estimate about the cost of an FPGA-based attack can be given. We will extrapolate the results on actual ECC key lengths (128 bits and above) and estimate the expected runtimes for a successful attack. Since FPGA-based attacks are out of reach for key lengths exceeding 128 bits, we provide estimates for an ASIC design.Based on our results, currently used elliptic curve cryptosystems (160 bit and above) are infeasible to break with available computational and financial resources. However, some of the security standards proposed by the SECG in [2, 3] become subject to attacks based on low-cost FPGAs.

The cryptosystem of elliptic curve has gained more and more researchers' attention from home and abroad in recent years as it owns a short key and a fine security. This paper elaborates the definition of elliptic curve which is used to establish cryptosystem and also makes some explanation to the realization of the Add Point Operation on the elliptic curve together with the fast Add Point Operation of its corresponding coordinate system. In addition, the security of the elliptic curve cryptosystem is also analyzed starting from the theory of the elliptic curve in this paper. And the issue of production of the safe elliptic curve is discussed. Finally, the elliptic curve cryptosystem has aroused great attention of the researchers as the public key system of the next generation. The production arithmetic of the safe elliptic curve, the security analysis of the elliptic curve cryptosystem together with the fast arithmetic on the elliptic curve will be the hotspot and the issues that are remained to be solved in its future development.

Elliptic curve cryptosystems, proposed by Koblitz ([12]) and Miller ([16]), can be constructed over a smaller field of definition than the ElGamal cryptosystems ([6]) or the RSA cryptosystems ([20]). This is why elliptic curve cryptosystems have begun to attract notice. In this paper, we investigate efficient elliptic curve exponentiation. We propose a new coordinate system and a new mixed coordinates strategy, which significantly improves on the number of basic operations needed for elliptic curve exponentiation.

Elliptic curve cryptosystem — The answer to strong, fast public-key cryptography for securing constrained environments

An elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) is one of public key cryptosystem, whose security is based on elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP). An elliptic curve is uniquely determined by mathematical parameters such as j-invariant of an elliptic curve. By giving trace of elliptic curve, t, a definition field \(\mathbb F_{p}\), and discriminant D, an elliptic curve with order \(\sharp {E(\mathbb F_{p})} = n\) is determined. Therefore it is an open problem to determine explicit relations between the mathematical parameters and the embedding degrees k. Hirasawa and Miyaji presented concrete relations between the mathematical parameters and the embedding degrees. In this research, a new explicit relation between elliptic-curve parameters and embedding degrees is investigated by generalizing their research.

We show that finding an efficiently computable injective homomorphism from the XTR subgroup into the group of points over GF(p2) of a particular type of supersingular elliptic curve is at least as hard as solving the Diffie–Hellman problem in the XTR subgroup. This provides strong evidence for a negative answer to the question posed by Vanstone and Menezes at the Crypto 2000 Rump Session on the possibility of efficiently inverting the MOV embedding into the XTR subgroup. As a side result we show that the Decision Diffie–Hellman problem in the group of points on this type of supersingular elliptic curves is efficiently computable, which provides an example of a group where the Decision Diffie–Hellman problem is simple, while the Diffie–Hellman and discrete logarithm problems are presumably not. So-called distortion maps on groups of points on elliptic curves that play an important role in our cryptanalysis also lead to cryptographic applications of independent interest. These applications are an improvement of Joux’s one round protocol for tripartite Diffie–Hellman key exchange and a non-refutable digital signature scheme that supports escrowable encryption. We also discuss the applicability of our methods to general elliptic curves defined over finite fields which includes a classification of elliptic curve groups where distortion maps exist.