|
From
•>>July 2004
Antoine Joux answers
a few questions about this month's fast moving front in the
field of Computer Science.
Field: Computer Science
Article: A one round protocol for tripartite Diffie-Hellman
Authors: Joux,
A, LECT NOTE COMPUT SCI, 1838: 385-393, 2000
SCSSI, 18 Rue Dr Zamenhoff, F-92131 Issy Les Moulineaux, France.
SCSSI, F-92131 Issy Les Moulineaux, France.
|
|
 Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
|
“...the paper shows how the additional mathematical structure available on elliptic curves where pairings can be efficiently computed can be transformed into additional properties of cryptosystems”
|
|
Pairing-based cryptography is a very active field of research
in the cryptographic community. The whole story started in 2000,
when it was first discovered that a mathematical tool, pairings
on elliptic curves, could be used in order to build new
cryptographic protocols and systems with very rich properties.
Before that, this mathematical tool was used as a cryptanalytic
tool to demonstrate that some specific elliptic curves offered
less security than expected. In pairing-based cryptography,
these specific elliptic curves are used with an increased key
size and their weakness turns into an asset as the extra
structure offers higher flexibility in the construction of
cryptographic application.
Does
it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to
others?
This paper is among the first to use pairings on elliptic
curves as a building block to construct a cryptographic
protocol. Previously, pairings were only used as cryptanalytic
tools. Since its publication, pairing-based cryptography has
evolved very quickly and many applications are now known.
Among all these applications, the most famous is the
identity-based encryption system of Boneh and Franklin.
Could
you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
Basically, the paper shows how the additional mathematical
structure available on elliptic curves where pairings can be
efficiently computed can be transformed into additional
properties of cryptosystems. The subsequent papers on this
topic make use of these additional properties to solve a large
variety of problems which do not admit solutions using more
classical cryptographic functions. These problems include
identity-based encryption, short signatures, verifiable random
functions, and numerous others.
How did you become involved in this research?
Since the beginning of my Ph.D. studies, I have been
working in cryptography and cryptanalysis. Thus, it was
natural for me to study the cryptanalytic application of
pairing. At this time, two different pairings were available
for this purpose, the Weil pairing and the Tate pairing.
Having programmed them in order to get a fair comparison, I
realized that the computation of pairings was so fast that it
could be useful for constructive purposes. After some time, I
came up with a generalization of the Diffie-Hellman Key
exchange protocol that allowed for three participants instead
of two.
Antoine Joux
DCSSI Crypto Lab
Paris, France
|
Return to Fast Moving Fronts |
Return to Special Topics main menu
|
