Chapter 10 – Other Public Key

Cryptosystems
Amongst the tribes of Central Australia every man, woman,
and child has a secret or sacred name which is bestowed
by the older men upon him or her soon after birth, and
which is known to none but the fully initiated members of
the group. This secret name is never mentioned except
upon the most solemn occasions; to utter it in the hearing of
men of another group would be a most serious breach of
tribal custom. When mentioned at all, the name is spoken
only in a whisper, and not until the most elaborate
precautions have been taken that it shall be heard by no
one but members of the group. The native thinks that a
stranger knowing his secret name would have special
power to work him ill by means of magic.
—The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
 first public-key type scheme proposed
 by Diffie & Hellman in 1976 along with the
exposition of public key concepts

note: now know that Williamson (UK CESG)
secretly proposed the concept in 1970
 is a practical method for public exchange
of a secret key
 used in a number of commercial products
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
 a public-key distribution scheme

cannot be used to exchange an arbitrary message

rather it can establish a common key

known only to the two participants
 value of key depends on the participants (and
their private and public key information)
 based on exponentiation in a finite (Galois) field
(modulo a prime or a polynomial) - easy
 security relies on the difficulty of computing
discrete logarithms (similar to factoring) – hard
 Diffie-Hellman Setup
 all users agree on global parameters:

large prime integer or polynomial q

a being a primitive root mod q
 each user (eg. A) generates their key
 chooses a secret key (number): xA < q
xA

compute their public key: yA = a mod q
 each user makes public that key yA
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
 shared session key for users A & B is KAB:
xA.xB
KAB = a mod q
xB
= yA mod q (which B can compute)
xA
= yB mod q (which A can compute)
 KAB is used as session key in private-key
encryption scheme between Alice and Bob
 if Alice and Bob subsequently communicate, they
will have the same key as before, unless they
choose new public-keys
 attacker needs an x, must solve discrete log
 Diffie-Hellman Example
 users Alice & Bob who wish to swap keys:
 agree on prime q=353 and a=3
 select random secret keys:

A chooses xA=97, B chooses xB=233
 compute respective public keys:
97

y A= 3 mod 353 = 40 (Alice)
233

y B= 3 mod 353 = 248 (Bob)
 compute shared session key as:
xA 97

KAB= y B mod 353 = 248 = 160 (Alice)
xB 233

KAB= y A mod 353 = 40 = 160 (Bob)
 Key Exchange Protocols
 users could create random private/public
D-H keys each time they communicate
 users could create a known private/public
D-H key and publish in a directory, then
consulted and used to securely
communicate with them
 both of these are vulnerable to a meet-in-
the-Middle Attack
 authentication of the keys is needed
 Man-in-the-Middle Attack
1. Darth prepares by creating two private / public keys
2. Alice transmits her public key to Bob
3. Darth intercepts this and transmits his first public key to
Bob. Darth also calculates a shared key with Alice
4. Bob receives the public key and calculates the shared key
(with Darth instead of Alice)
5. Bob transmits his public key to Alice
6. Darth intercepts this and transmits his second public key
to Alice. Darth calculates a shared key with Bob
7. Alice receives the key and calculates the shared key (with
Darth instead of Bob)
 Darth can then intercept, decrypt, re-encrypt, forward all
messages between Alice & Bob
 ElGamal Cryptography
 public-key cryptosystem related to D-H
 so uses exponentiation in a finite (Galois)
 with security based difficulty of computing
discrete logarithms, as in D-H
 each user (eg. A) generates their key
 chooses a secret key (number): 1 < xA < q-1
xA

compute their public key: yA = a mod q
 ElGamal Message Exchange
 Bob encrypt a message to send to A computing

represent message M in range 0 <= M <= q-1
• longer messages must be sent as blocks

chose random integer k with 1 <= k <= q-1

compute one-time key K = yAk mod q

encrypt M as a pair of integers (C1,C2) where
• C1 = ak mod q ; C2 = KM mod q
 A then recovers message by

recovering key K as K = C1xA mod q

computing M as M = C2 K-1 mod q
 a unique k must be used each time

otherwise result is insecure
 ElGamal Example
 use field GF(19) q=19 and a=10
 Alice computes her key:
5

A chooses xA=5 & computes yA=10 mod 19 = 3
 Bob send message m=17 as (11,5) by

chosing random k=6

computing K = yAk mod q = 36 mod 19 = 7

computing C1 = ak mod q = 106 mod 19 = 11;
C2 = KM mod q = 7.17 mod 19 = 5
 Alice recovers original message by computing:
5

recover K = C1
xA
mod q = 11 mod 19 = 7

compute inverse K-1 = 7-1 = 11

recover M = C2 K-1 mod q = 5.11 mod 19 = 17
 Elliptic Curve Cryptography
 majority of public-key crypto (RSA, D-H)
use either integer or polynomial arithmetic
with very large numbers/polynomials
 imposes a significant load in storing and
processing keys and messages
 an alternative is to use elliptic curves
 offers same security with smaller bit sizes
 newer, but not as well analysed
 Real Elliptic Curves
 an elliptic curve is defined by an
equation in two variables x & y, with
coefficients
 consider a cubic elliptic curve of form

y2 = x3 + ax + b

where x,y,a,b are all real numbers

also define zero point O
 consider set of points E(a,b) that satisfy
 have addition operation for elliptic curve

geometrically sum of P+Q is reflection of the
intersection R
Real Elliptic Curve Example
 Finite Elliptic Curves
 Elliptic curve cryptography uses curves
whose variables & coefficients are finite
 have two families commonly used:
 prime curves Ep(a,b) defined over Zp
• use integers modulo a prime
• best in software
 binary curves E2m(a,b) defined over GF(2n)
• use polynomials with binary coefficients
• best in hardware
 Elliptic Curve Cryptography
 ECC addition is analog of modulo multiply
 ECC repeated addition is analog of
modulo exponentiation
 need “hard” problem equiv to discrete log

Q=kP, where Q,P belong to a prime curve

is “easy” to compute Q given k,P

but “hard” to find k given Q,P

known as the elliptic curve logarithm problem
 Certicom example: E (9,17)
23
 ECC Diffie-Hellman
 can do key exchange analogous to D-H
 users select a suitable curve Eq(a,b)
 select base point G=(x1,y1)

with large order n s.t. nG=O
 A & B select private keys
nA<n, nB<n
 compute public keys: P =n G, P =n G
A A B B
 compute shared key: K=n P , K=n P
A B B A

same since K=nAnBG
 attacker would need to find k, hard
 ECC Encryption/Decryption
 several alternatives, will consider simplest
 must first encode any message M as a point on
the elliptic curve Pm
 select suitable curve & point G as in D-H
 each user chooses private key nA<n
 and computes public key PA=nAG
 to encrypt Pm : Cm={kG, Pm+kPb}, k random
 decrypt Cm compute:
Pm+kPb–nB(kG) = Pm+k(nBG)–nB(kG) = Pm
 ECC Security
 relies on elliptic curve logarithm problem
 fastest method is “Pollard rho method”
 compared to factoring, can use much
smaller key sizes than with RSA etc
 for equivalent key lengths computations
are roughly equivalent
 hence for similar security ECC offers
significant computational advantages
 Comparable Key Sizes for
Equivalent Security
Symmetric ECC-based RSA/DSA
scheme scheme (modulus size in
(key size in bits) (size of n in bits) bits)
56 112 512
80 160 1024
112 224 2048
128 256 3072
192 384 7680
256 512 15360
 Pseudorandom Number
Generation (PRNG) based on
Asymmetric Ciphers
 asymmetric encryption algorithm produce
apparently random output
 hence can be used to build a
pseudorandom number generator (PRNG)
 much slower than symmetric algorithms
 hence only use to generate a short
pseudorandom bit sequence (eg. key)
 PRNG based on RSA
 have Micali-Schnorr PRNG using RSA

in ANSI X9.82 and ISO 18031
 PRNG based on ECC
 dual elliptic curve PRNG

NIST SP 800-9, ANSI X9.82 and ISO 18031
 some controversy on security /inefficiency
 algorithm
for i = 1 to k do
set si = x(si-1 P )
set ri = lsb240 (x(si Q))
end for
return r1 , . . . , rk

 only use if just have ECC

 Summary
 have considered:

Diffie-Hellman key exchange

ElGamal cryptography

Elliptic Curve cryptography

Pseudorandom Number Generation (PRNG)
based on Asymmetric Ciphers (RSA & ECC)