Abstract
This paper studies the resistance of the code-based encryption scheme RQC to timing attacks. We describe two chosen ciphertext timing attacks that rely on a correlation between the weight of the error to be decoded and the running time of Gabidulin code’s decoding algorithm. These attacks are of theoretical interest as they outperform the best known algorithm to solve the rank syndrome decoding problem in term of complexity. Nevertheless, they are quite impracticable in real situations as they require a huge number of requests to a timing oracle. We also provide a constant-time algorithm for the decoding of Gabidulin codes that prevent these attacks without any performance cost for honest users.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aguilar-Melchor, C., et al.: Hamming Quasi-Cyclic (HQC) (2017)
Aguilar-Melchor, C., et al.: Rank Quasi-Cyclic (RQC) (2017)
Aguilar-Melchor, C., Blazy, O., Deneuville, J.-C., Gaborit, P., Zémor, G.: Efficient encryption from random quasi-cyclic codes. IEEE Transact. Inf. Theory 64(5), 3927–3943 (2018)
Aragon, N., Gaborit, P., Hauteville, A., Tillich, J.P.: A new algorithm for solving the rank syndrome decoding problem. In: 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), pp. 2421–2425 (2018)
Augot, D., Loidreau, P., Robert, G.: Generalized Gabidulin codes over fields of any characteristic. Des. Codes Crypt. 86(8), 1807–1848 (2018)
Gabidulin, E.M.: Theory of codes with maximum rank distance. Problemy Peredachi Informatsii 21(1), 3–16 (1985)
Gaborit, P., Zémor, G.: On the hardness of the decoding and the minimum distance problems for rank codes. IEEE Transact. Inf. Theory 62(12), 7245–7252 (2016)
Hofheinz, D., Hövelmanns, K., Kiltz, E.: A modular analysis of the Fujisaki-Okamoto transformation. In: Kalai, Y., Reyzin, L. (eds.) TCC 2017. LNCS, vol. 10677, pp. 341–371. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70500-2_12
Loidreau, P.: A Welch–Berlekamp like algorithm for decoding Gabidulin codes. In: Ytrehus, Ø. (ed.) WCC 2005. LNCS, vol. 3969, pp. 36–45. Springer, Heidelberg (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/11779360_4
Ore, O.: On a special class of polynomials. Transact. Am. Math. Soc. 35(3), 559–584 (1933)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendices
A Original Reconstruction Algorithm
B Simpler Reconstruction Algorithm
C Constant-Time Reconstruction Algorithm
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bettaieb, S., Bidoux, L., Gaborit, P., Marcatel, E. (2019). Preventing Timing Attacks Against RQC Using Constant Time Decoding of Gabidulin Codes. In: Ding, J., Steinwandt, R. (eds) Post-Quantum Cryptography. PQCrypto 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11505. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25510-7_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25510-7_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25509-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25510-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)