Paper 2020/074
Rolling up sleeves when subversion's in a field?
Daniel R. L. Brown
Abstract
A nothing-up-my-sleeve number is a cryptographic constant, such as a field size in elliptic curve cryptography, with qualities to assure users against subversion of the number by the system designer. A number with low Kolmogorov descriptional complexity resists being subverted to the extent that the speculated subversion would leave a trace that cannot be hidden within the short description. The roll programming language, a version of Godel's 1930s definition of computability, can somewhat objectively quantify low descriptional complexity, a nothing-up-my-sleeve quality, of a number. For example, curves NIST-P-256, Curve25519, and NIST-P-521 have fields sizes with roll programs of 112, 84, and 63 words (respectively).
Note: Latest versions shortens programs for field sizes of NIST curves P-521 and K-283.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
-
PDF
- Category
- Foundations
- Publication info
- Preprint. MINOR revision.
- Keywords
- Kolmogorov descriptional complexitysubversion
- Contact author(s)
- danibrown @ blackberry com
- History
- 2020-12-15: revised
- 2020-01-26: received
- See all versions
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2020/074
- License
-
CC BY
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2020/074,
author = {Daniel R. L. Brown},
title = {Rolling up sleeves when subversion's in a field?},
howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2020/074},
year = {2020},
note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/074}},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/074}
}
