Generally, lattice-based cryptographic primitives offer good performance and allow for strong security reductions.However, the most efficient current lattice-based signature schemes sacrifice (part of its) security to achieve good performance: first, security is based on ideal lattice problems, that might not be as hard as standard lattice problems.Secondly, the security reductions of the most efficient schemes are non-tight; hence, their choices of parameters offer security merely heuristically.Moreover, lattice-based signatures are instantiated for classical adversaries, although they are based on presumably quantum hard problems.Yet, it is not known how such schemes perform in a post-quantum world.We bridge this gap by proving the lattice-based signature scheme TESLA to be tightly secure based on the learning with errors problem over standard lattices in the random oracle model.As such, we improve the security of the original proposal by Bai and Galbraith (CT-RSA'14) twofold; we tighten the security reduction and we minimize the underlying security assumptions.Remarkably, by enhancing the security we can improve TESLA's performance by a factor of two.Furthermore, we are first to propose parameters providing a security of 128 bits against both classical and quantum adversaries for a lattice-based signature scheme.Our implementation of TESLA competes well with state-of-the-art lattice-based signatures and SPHINCS (EUROCRYPT'15), the only signature scheme instantiated with quantumhard parameters thus far.
Generally, lattice-based cryptographic primitives offer good performance and allow for strong security reductions.However, the most efficient current lattice-based signature schemes sacrifice (part of its) security to achieve good performance: first, security is based on ideal lattice problems, that might not be as hard as standard lattice problems.Secondly, the security reductions of the most efficient schemes are non-tight; hence, their choices of parameters offer security merely heuristically.Moreover, lattice-based signatures are instantiated for classical adversaries, although they are based on presumably quantum hard problems.Yet, it is not known how such schemes perform in a post-quantum world.We bridge this gap by proving the lattice-based signature scheme TESLA to be tightly secure based on the learning with errors problem over standard lattices in the random oracle model.As such, we improve the security of the original proposal by Bai and Galbraith (CT-RSA'14) twofold; we tighten the security reduction and we minimize the underlying security assumptions.Remarkably, by enhancing the security we can improve TESLA's performance by a factor of two.Furthermore, we are first to propose parameters providing a security of 128 bits against both classical and quantum adversaries for a lattice-based signature scheme.Our implementation of TESLA competes well with state-of-the-art lattice-based signatures and SPHINCS (EUROCRYPT'15), the only signature scheme instantiated with quantumhard parameters thus far.
Digital signatures are indispensable for security on the Internet, because they guarantee authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation, of namely e-mails, software updates, and in the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol which is used for secure data transfer, for example. Most signature schemes that are currently in use such as the RSA signature scheme, are considered secure as long as the integer factorization problem or the discrete logarithm (DL) problem are computationally hard. At present, no algorithms have yet been found to solve these problems on conventional computers in polynomial time. However, in 1997, Shor published a polynomial-time algorithm that uses quantum computation to solve the integer factorization and the DL problem. In particular, this means that RSA signatures are considered broken as soon as large-scale quantum computers exist. Due to significant advances in the area of quantum computing, it is reasonable to assume that within 20 years, quantum computers that are able to break the RSA scheme, could exist. In order to maintain authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation of data, cryptographic schemes that cannot be broken by quantum attacks are required. In addition, these so-called post-quantum secure schemes should be sufficiently efficient to be suitable for all established applications. Furthermore, solutions enabling a timely and secure transition from classical to post-quantum schemes are needed. This thesis contributes to the above-mentioned transition. In this thesis, we present the two lattice-based digital signature schemes TESLA and qTESLA, whereby lattice-based cryptography is one of five approaches to construct post-quantum secure schemes. Furthermore, we prove that our signature schemes are secure as long as the so-called Learning With Errors (LWE) problem is computationally hard to solve. It is presumed that even quantum computers cannot solve the LWE problem in polynomial time. The security of our schemes is proven using security reductions. Since our reductions are tight and explicit, efficient instantiations are possible that provably guarantee a selected security level, as long as the corresponding LWE instance provides a certain hardness level. Since both our reductions (as proven in the quantum random oracle model) and instantiations, take into account quantum attackers, TESLA and qTESLA are considered post-quantum secure. Concurrently, the run-times for generating and verifying signatures of qTESLA are similar (or faster) than those of the RSA scheme. However, key and signature sizes of RSA are smaller than those of qTESLA. In order to protect both the theoretical signature schemes and their implementations against attacks, we analyze possible vulnerabilities against implementation attacks. In particular, cache-side-channel attacks resulting from observing the cache behavior and fault attacks, which recover secret information by actively disrupting the execution of an algorithm are focused. We present effective countermeasures for each implementation attack we found. Our analyses and countermeasures also influence the design and implementation of qTESLA. Although our schemes are considered (post-quantum) secure according to state-of-the-art LWE attacks, cryptanalysis of lattice-based schemes is still a relatively new field of research in comparison to RSA schemes. Hence, there is a lack of confidence in the concrete instantiations and their promised security levels. However, due to developments within the field of quantum computers, a transition to post-quantum secure solutions seems to be more urgently required than ever. To solve this dilemma, we present an approach to combine two schemes, e.g., qTESLA and the RSA signature scheme, so that the combination is secure as long as one of the two combined schemes is secure. We present several of such combiners to construct hybrid signature schemes and hybrid key encapsulation mechanisms to ensure both authenticity and confidentiality in our Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI). Lastly, we also demonstrate how to apply the resulting hybrid schemes in standards such as X.509 or TLS. To summarize, this work presents post-quantum secure candidates which can, using our hybrid schemes, add post-quantum security to the current classical security in our PKI.
Encryption and signature schemes based on worst-case lattice problems are promising candidates for the post-quantum era, where classic number-theoretic assumptions are rendered false. Although there have been many important results and breakthroughs in lattice cryptography, the questions of how to systematically evaluate their security in practice and how to choose secure parameters are still open. This is mainly due to the fact that most security proofs are essentially asymptotic statements. In addition, the hardness of the underlying complexity assumption is controlled by several interdependent parameters rather than just a simple bit length as in many classic schemes. With our work, we close this gap by providing a framework that (1) distills a hardness estimate out of a given parameter set and (2) relates the complexity of practical lattice-based attacks to symmetric “bit security” for the first time. Our approach takes various security levels, or attacker types, into account. Moreover, we use it to predict long-term security in a similar fashion as the results that are collected on www.keylength.com. In contrast to the experiments by Gama and Nguyen (Eurocrypt 2008), our estimates are based on precisely the family of lattices that is relevant in modern lattice-based cryptography. Our framework can be applied in two ways: Firstly, to assess the hardness of the (few) proposed parameter sets so far and secondly, to propose secure parameters in the first place. Our methodology is applicable to essentially all lattice-based schemes that are based on the learning with errors problem (LWE) or the small integer solution problem (SIS) and it allows us to compare efficiency and security across different schemes and even across different types of cryptographic primitives.
Multisignatures enable multiple users to sign a message in an interactive manner. Many instantiations are proposed for multisignatures, however, most of them are quantum-insecure, because these are based on the integer factoring assumption or the discrete logarithm assumption. Although there exist some constructions based on the lattice problems, which are believed to be quantum-secure, their security reductions are loose. In this paper, we construct a first lattice-based multisignature which has a tight security reduction. Our basic strategy is combining the multisignature scheme proposed by El Bansarkhani and Sturm with the lattice-based standard signature scheme by Abdalla, Fouque, Lyubashevsky and Tibouchi which has a tight security reduction from the Ring-LWE (Ring Learning with Error) assumption.
Lattice-based cryptography is a branch of cryptography exploiting the presumed hardness of some well-known problems on lattices. Its main advantages are its simplicity, efficiency, and apparent security against quantum computers. The principle of the security proofs in lattice-based cryptography is to show that attacking a given scheme is at least as hard as solving a particular problem, as the Learning with Errors problem (LWE) or the Small Integer Solution problem (SIS). Then, by showing that those two problems are at least as hard to solve than a hard problem on lattices, presumed polynomial time intractable, we conclude that the constructed scheme is secure.In this thesis, we improve the foundation of the security proofs and build new cryptographic schemes. We study the hardness of the SIS and LWE problems, and of some of their variants on integer rings of cyclotomic fields and on modules on those rings. We show that there is a classical hardness proof for the LWE problem (Regev's prior reduction was quantum), and that the module variants of SIS and LWE are also hard to solve. We also give two new lattice-based group signature schemes, with security based on SIS and LWE. One is the first lattice-based group signature with logarithmic signature size in the number of users. And the other construction allows another functionality, verifier-local revocation. Finally, we improve the size of some parameters in the work on cryptographic multilinear maps of Garg, Gentry and Halevi in 2013.
Multisignatures enable multiple users to sign a message interactively. Many instantiations are proposed for multisignatures, however, most of them are quantum-insecure, because these are based on the integer factoring assumption or the discrete logarithm assumption. Although there exist some constructions based on the lattice problems, which are believed to be quantum-secure, their security reductions are loose. In this paper, we aim to improve the security reduction of lattice-based multisignature schemes concerning tightness. Our basic strategy is combining the multisignature scheme proposed by El Bansarkhani and Sturm with the lattice-based signature scheme by Abdalla, Fouque, Lyubashevsky, and Tibouchi which has a tight security reduction from the Ring-LWE (Ring Learning with Errors) assumption. Our result shows that proof techniques for standard signature schemes can be applied to multisignature schemes, then we can improve the polynomial loss factor concerning the Ring-LWE assumption. Our second result is to address the problem of security proofs of existing lattice-based multisignature schemes pointed out by Damgård, Orlandi, Takahashi, and Tibouchi. We employ a new cryptographic assumption called the Rejected-Ring-LWE assumption, to complete the security proof.