CIT 14-Signature

Signature Schemes

CIT - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Institute for Communications Engineering, Professorship for Coding and Cryptography

Coding and Cryptography

Computer EngineeringComputer Science/ InformaticsMathematics

Participation also possible online only:

Planned project location:

Building N4
Technical University of Munich
Theresienstrasse 90
80333 München

Prof. Dr.

Violetta

Weger

violetta.weger@tum.de

+41 79 590 92 70

Hugo

Sauerbier Couvée

hugo.sauerbier-couvee@tum.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Antonia

Wachter-Zeh

antonia.wachter-zeh@tum.de

*NIST Standardization Process*

In a digital world, the steady advances in quantum technology are threatening the security of our daily life as all currently employed asymmetric cryptosystems would be efficiently broken by a capable quantum computer. In answer to this threat, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated in 2017 a standardization process for post-quantum cryptography, i.e., cryptosystems that will withstand quantum attacks. The security is generally based on the hardness of solving certain problems from many branches of mathematics.


*Signature Schemes*

Recently, in June 2023, researchers around the world submitted new proposals to NIST for post-quantum signature schemes which is the focus of this project.

A signature scheme allows one party (the sender Alice) to sign her message by appending a short tag (i.e. signature) to it. This signature can then be verified by anyone proving to them that the message was indeed signed by Alice and not by some malicious third-party. In order to be secure, it should be hard for any third-party (even with access to quantum computers!) to generate a valid message-signature pair that a verifier would accept as being signed by Alice. In order to be useful in practice, the signature scheme should be computationally efficient and use small-sized signatures, among other requirements.


*Post-Quantum Cryptography at TUM*

Post-quantum cryptography is a rather new discipline, which is developing rapidly. At the Institute for Coding and Cryptography headed by Prof. Antonia Wachter-Zeh, researchers have contributed for many years to the NIST standardization process and recently submitted two new proposals for post-quantum signature schemes: CROSS and FuLeeca.

What can you do in this project?
- Analyze the security of the newly submitted signature schemes
- Come up with new attacks for the schemes
- Repair schemes that have already been partially broken
- Possibly design new schemes

The exact tasks can be set depending on your interest and previous knowledge. We look forward to welcoming you in Munich!

30

2 years of bachelor studies completed

linear algebra
basics of channel coding
interest in cryptography