Publication Date

Spring 2022

Degree Type

Master's Project

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Chris Pollett

Second Advisor

Robert Chun

Third Advisor

Thomas Austin

Abstract

Cryptography is important for data confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Public key cryptosystems allow for the encryption and decryption of data using two different keys, one that is public and one that is private. This is beneficial because there is no need to securely distribute a secret key. However, the development of quantum computers implies that many public-key cryptosystems for which security depends on the hardness of solving math problems will no longer be secure. It is important to develop systems that have harder math problems which cannot be solved by a quantum computer.

In this project, two public-key cryptosystems which are candidates for quantum-resistance were implemented using Rust. The security of the McEliece system is based on the hardness of decoding a linear code which is an NP-hard problem, and the security of the Regev system is based off of the Learning with Errors problem which is as hard as several worst-case lattice problems [1], [2]. Tests were run to verify the correctness of the implemented systems and experiments were run to analyze the cost of replacing pre-quantum systems with post- quantum systems.

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