NEW CRYPTOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS USING PAIRING WITH ERRORS
Background
[1] The present disclosure claims priority to the U.S. provisional patent application with Ser. No. 61623272, entitled " New methods for secure communications and secure information systems" , filed April 12, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.
[2] This invention is related to the construction of cryptographic systems, in particular, key exchange (KE) systems, key distribution (KD) systems and identity-based-encryption (IBE) systems, which are based on essentially the same mathematical principle, pairing with errors.
[3] In our modern communication systems like Internet, cell phone, and etc, to protect the secrecy of the information concerned, we need to encrypt the message. There are two different ways to do this. In the first case, we use symmetric cryptosystems to perform this task, where the sender uses the same key to encrypt the message as the key that the receiver uses to decrypt the message. Symmetric systems demand that the sender and the receiver have a way to exchange such a shared key securely. In an open communication channel without any central authority, like wireless communication, this demands a way to perform such a key exchange (KE) in the open between two parties. In a system with a central server, like a cell phone system within one cell company, this demands an efficient and scalable key distribution (KD) system such that any two users can derive a shared key via the key distribution (KD) system established by the central server. Therefore it is important and desirable that we have secure and efficient KE systems and KD systems. The first KE system was proposed by Dime and Hellman [DiHe] , whose security is based on the hardness of discrete logarithm problems. This system can be broken by future quantum computers as showed in the work of Shor [SHO] . There are many key-distribution systems including the system using pairing over quadratic forms [BSHKVY] , and the one based on bilinear paring over elliptic curves by Boneh and Boyen (in USA Patent 7,590,236) . But the existing systems have either the problem of computation efficiency or scalability. For instance, the bilinear paring over elliptic curves is very computationally intensive.
[4] In the second case, we use asymmetric systems, namely public key cryptographic systems, for encryption, where the receiver has a set of a public key and a private key, and the sender has only the public key. The sender uses the public key to encrypt messages, the receiver uses the private key to decrypt the messages and only the entity who has the private key can decrypt the messages. In an usual public key system, we need to make sure the authenticity of the public keys and therefore each public key needs to have a certificate, which is a digital signature provided by a trusted central authority. The certificate is used to verify that the public key belongs to the legitimate user, the receiver of a message. To make public key encryption system fully work, we need to use such a system, which is called a public key infrastructure (PKI) system.
[5] In 1984, Shamir proposed another kind of public key encryption system [SHA] . In this new system, a person or an entity's public key is generated with a public algorithm from
the information that can identify the person or the entity uniquely. For example, in the case of a person, the information may include the person's name, residential address, birthday, finger print information, e-mail address, social security number and etc. Since the public key is determined by the public information that can identify the person, this type of public key cryptosystem is called an identity-based encryption (IBE) system.
[6] There are a few Identity-based-encryption (IBE) public key cryptosystems, and currently, the (best) one being practically used is the IBE system based on bilinear paring over elliptic curves invented by Boneh and Franklin ( in USA Patent: 7,113,594). In IBE systems, a sender encrypts a message for a given receiver using the receiver's public key based on the identity of the receiver. The receiver decrypts the message using the the receiver's private key. The receiver obtains the private key from a central server, which has a system to generate and distribute the IBE private key for the legitimate user securely. An IBE system does not demand the sender to search for the receiver's public key, but rather, a sender in an IBE system derives any receiver's corresponding public key using an algorithm on the information that identifies the receiver, for example, an email address, an ID number or other information. Current IBE systems are very complicated and not efficient in terms of computations, since the bilinear paring over elliptic curves is very computationally intensive. These systems based on pairing over elliptic curves can also be broken efficiently if we have a quantum computer as showed in the work of Shor [SHO] . There are also constructions based on lattices, but those are also rather complicated systems for applications [ABB] [ABVVW] [BKPW] . Therefore it is important and desirable that we have secure and efficient IBE systems.
[7] Clearly, there are still needs for more efficient and secure KE, KD and IBE systems for practical applications.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[8] This invention first contains a novel method for two parties A and B to perform an secure KE over an open communication channel. This method is based on the computation of pairing of the same bilinear form in two different ways but each with different small errors. In the KE process, each users will choose a private matrix SA, SB respectively with small entries following certain error distributions secretly and a public matrix M randomly. Then each user will compute the multiplication of the user's secret matrix with the publicly chosen matrix but with small errors, exchange the new matrices, and then perform the computation of pairing of SA and ¾ over the same bilinear form based on M in two different ways but each with different small errors. This kind of mathematical computation is called pairing with errors. The shared key is derived from the pairings with a rounding technique. This method can be viewed as an extension of the idea of the learning with errors (LWE) problem discovered by Regev in 2005 [Reg]. The security of this system depends the hardness of certain lattice problem, which can be mathematically proven hard [DiLi]. This system involves only matrix multiplication and therefore is very efficient. Such a system can also resist the future quantum computer attacks.
[9] This invention second contains a novel method to build a KD system with a central server or authority. In this system, the central server or authority assigns each user i a public ID as a matrix with small entries or establish the ID of each user as a matrix A^ with small
entries following certain error distributions with the information that can identify the user uniquely, and, in a secure way, gives each user a private key based on certain multiplication of this ID matrix with the central server or authority's secret master key M, another matrix, but with small errors. Then any two users in the system will compute the pairing of the two ID matrices of the users with the same bilinear form based on the master key matrix M in two different ways but each with different small errors to derive a shared key between these two users with certain rounding technique. This method can be viewed as an extension of the idea of the learning with error problem discovered by Regev in 2005 [Reg]. The security of this system depends on the hardness of the problem related to pairing with errors. This system involves only matrix multiplication and therefore is very efficient.
[10] This invention third contains a novel method to build a IBE system with a central server or authority. In this system, the central server or authority assigns each user i a public ID Ai as a matrix with small entries following certain certain error distributions or establish the ID of each user as a matrix with small entries following certain certain error distributions with the information that can identify the user uniquely. Each user is given by the central server or authority a private key ¾ based on certain multiplication of this ID matrix with the central server or authority's master private key S, another matrix, but with errors related to one part of the master public key M, another matrix. The central server or authority will establish another half of the mater key as the multiplication of M and S with small errors, which we call M\. Then any user who wishes to send the user i a message in the system will compute public key of i which consists of M and a paring of M and Ai of the bilinear form based on the master secret key matrix S, then encrypt the message using the encryption system based on the MLWE problem, and the user i will use the secret key ¾ to decrypt the message. This method can be viewed as an extension of the idea of the learning with error problem discovered by REGEV in 2005. The security of this system depends the harness of certain lattice problem, which can be mathematically proven hard. This system involves only matrix multiplication and therefore is very efficient.
[11] In our constructions, we can replace matrices by elements in ideal lattice, and we can also use other type of rounding techniques. We can also build the system in a distributed way where several servers can work together to build KD and IBE systems.
[12] In short, we use the same mathematical principle of paring with errors, which can be viewed as an extension of the idea of the LWE problem, to build secure and more efficient KE, KD and IBE systems.
[13] Though this invention has been described with specific embodiments thereof, it is clear that many variations, alternatives, modifications will become apparent to those who are skilled in the art of cryptography. Therefore, the preferred embodiments of the invention as set forth herein, are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as set forth herein and defined in the claims. The claims in this invention are based on the U.S. provisional patent application with Ser. No. 61623272, entitled "New methods for secure communications and secure information systems" , filed April 12, 2012, only more technical details are added.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 1.1 The basic idea of pairing with errors
[14] The learning with errors (LWE) problem, introduced by Regev in 2005 [Reg] , and its extension, the ring learning with errors (RLWE) problem [LPR] have broad application in cryptographic constructions with some good provable secure properties. The main claim is that they are as hard as certain worst-case lattice problems and hence the related cryptographic constructions.
[15] A LWE problem can be described as follows. First, we have a parameter n, a (prime) modulus q , and an error probability distribution κ on the finite ring (field) Fq with q elements. To simplify the exposition, we will take q to be a odd prime and but we can also work on any whole number except that we may need to make slight modifications.
[16] In Fq, each element is represented by the set {— (q— l)/2, .., 0, (q— l)/2}. In this exposition, by " an error" distribution, we mean a distribution we mean a distribution such that there is a high probability we will select an element, which is small. There are many such selections and the selection directly affect the security of the system. One should select good error distribution to make sure the system works well and securely.
[17] Let ΤΙ on Fq be the probability distribution obtained by selecting an element A in F™ randomly and uniformly, choosing e G Fq according to κ, and outputting (A, < A, S > +e), where + is the addition that is performed in Fq. An algorithm that solves the LWE problem with modulus q and error distribution κ, if, for any S in Fq , with an arbitrary number of independent samples from Tls,K, it outputs S (with high probability).
[18] To achieve the provable security of the related cryptographic constructions based on the LWE problem, one chooses q to be specific polynomial functions of n, that is q is replaced by a polynomial functions of n, which we will denote as q(n), κ to be certain discrete version of normal distribution centered around 0 with the standard deviation σ = aq >
and elements of F
q are represented by integers in the range [—(q— l)/2, (q— l)/2)], which we denote clS
[19] In the original encryption system based on the LWE problem, one can only encrypt one bit a time, therefore the system is rather inefficient and it has a large key size. To further improve the efficiency of the cryptosystems based on the LWE problem, a new problem, which is a LWE problem based on a quotient ring of the polynomial ring Fq[x] [LPR], was proposed. This is called the ring LWE (RLWE) problem. In the cryptosystems based on the RLWE problem, their security is reduced to hard problems on a subclass of lattices, the class of ideal lattices, instead of general lattices.
[20] Later, a new variant of LWE was proposed in [ACPS] . This variant of the LWE problem is based on the LWE problem. We will replace a vector A with a matrix A of size m x n, and S also with a matrix of size n x 1, such that they are compatible to perform matrix multiplication A x S. We also replace e with a compatible matrix of size m x 1. We will work on the same finite field with q elements.
[21] To simplify the exposition, we will only present, in detail, for the case where A is a square matrices of the size n x n and, S and e of the size n x 1.
[22] Let Tls over Fq be the probability distribution obtained by selecting an n x n matrix A, whose each entry are chosen in Fq uniformly and independently, choosing e as a n x l vector over Fq with entries chosen according to certain error distribution κη, for example, each entries follows an error distribution κ independently, and outputting (A, Ax S+e), where + is the addition that is performed in Fq . An algorithm that solves a LWE with modulus q and error distribution κη, if, for any vector S in Fq , with any number of independent sample (s) from ¾)(ίη , it outputs S (with high probability).
[23] For the case that we choose a small S, namely entries of S are chosen independently according to also the error distribution κη, we call this problem a small LWE problem (SLWE) . If we further impose the condition A to be symmetric, we call it a small symmetric LWE problem (SSLWE) . If we choose the secret S randomly and independently from the set —ζ, , . , 0, l.., z with z a fixed small positive integer, we call such a problem uniformly small LWE problem (USLWE) .
[24] For practical applications, we can choose S and e with different kind of error distributions.
[25] Due to the results in [ACPS] , we know If the secret 5"s coordinates and the error e's entries are sampled independently from the LWE error distribution κσ, the corresponding LWE problem is as hard as LWE with a uniformly random secret S. This shows that the SLWE problem is as hard as the corresponding LWE problem. The same is true for the case of the RLWE problem that if one can solve the Ring LWE problem with a small secret namely the element S being small, then one can solve it with an uniform secret.
[26] We further extend the problem to a full matrix form.
[27] Let ΤΙ ,κ 2 over Fq be the probability distribution obtained by selecting an n x n matrix A, whose each entry are chosen in Fq uniformly and independently, choosing e as a n x n matrix over Fq with entries following certain error distribution κη2 , for exmaple, an distribution chosen according to the error distribution κ independently, and outputting (A, A x S + e) , where + is the addition that is performed in F™ . An algorithm that solves a LWE with modulus q and error distribution κη2 , if, for any n x n matrix S in F™, with any number of independent sample(s) from Tls,K 2 > it outputs S (with a high probability) .
[28] We call this problem matrix LWE problem(MLWE) . For the case where we choose a small S, namely entries of S also follows the error distribution κη2 , we call this problem a small MLWE problem (SMLWE) . If we further impose the condition A to be symmetric, we call it a small symmetric MLWE problem (SSMLWE) . If we choose the secret S randomly and independently from the set —z, .., 0, l .. , z with z a fixed small positive integer, we call such a problem uniformly small MLWE problem (USMLWE) . It is clear the MLWE problem is nothing but put n LWE problem together and sharing the same matrices. Therefore it is as hard as the corresponding LWE problem.
[29] We can use different error distributions for S and e.
[30] The mathematical principle behind our construction comes from the fact of associativity of matrices multiplications of three matrices A, B and C:
A x B x C = (A x B) x C = A x (B x C) .
Such a product can be mathematically viewed as computing the bilinear paring of the row vectors of A with column vectors of C.
[31] For two matrices A and B with small entries following certain error distributions, for example, with entries following some error distributions, instead of computing this product directly, we can first compute
AB + Ea,
then compute
(AB + EA)C or (AB + EA)C + EAC,
or we will compute
BC + EC,
then compute
A(BC + EC) or (AB + EA) C + EBC,
where EA , EB , EAC, EBC are matrices with small entries following the same ( or different) error distributions. Then we have two way to compute the product ABC with small errors or differences between these two matrices. We call such a computation pairing with errors. All our constructions depends on such a paring with errors and on the fact that the two different paring are close to each other if A and C are also small.
[32] We can mathematically prove the theorem that an MLWE problem is as hard as the corresponding LWE problem with the same parameters. This provides the foundation of the provable security of our constructions
1.2 The construction of the new KE systems based on paring with errors
[33] Two parties Alice and Bob decide to do a key exchange (KE) over an open channel. This means that the communication of Alice and Bob are open to anyone including malicious attackers. To simplify the exposition, we will assume in this part all matrices involves are n x n matrices. But they do not have to be like this, and they can be matrices of any sizes except that we need to choose the compatible sizes such that the matrix multiplications performed are well defined.
[34] Their key change protocol will go step by step as follows.
(1) Alice and Bob will first publicly select F
q, n and a n x n matrix M over F
q uniformly and randomly, where q is of size of a polynomial of n, for example q i¾ n
3, and an error distribution κ
ηι to be a distribution over n x n matrices over F
q, for example, a distribution that each component are independent and each component follow certain error distribution like the discrete error distribution κ
σ as in the case of LWE, namely a discrete normal distribution over F
q center around 0 with standard deviation approximately
All the information above is public. They jointly and publicly choose a small (prime) integer t (t « n) .
(2) Then each party chooses its own secret Si ( i = A, B) as a n x n matrix chosen according to the error distribution κηι , also as a n x n matrix following the error distribution. For Alice, she computes
MA = MSA + teA,
where t is a small integer (t « n).
For Bob, he computes
MB = *¾ + ieB.
(3) Both parties exchange Mi in the open communication channel. This means both Mi ( i = A, B) are public, but keep Si and ej (i = A, B ), secret.
(4) Alice computes:
KA = SA x MB = S^M'SB + tSAeB.
Bob computes:
K
B =
x S
B = SAM'SB + te
AS
B.
(5) Both of them will perform a rounding technique to derive the shared key as follows:
(a) Bob will make a Ust Ti of all positions of the entries of KB such that these entries are in the range of [— q— l)/4, q— l)/4] and a list T2 of all positions which are not in the range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] . Then Bob will send to Alice the list
Ά.
(b) Then each party will compute the residues of these entries modular t in T\, and for the entries not in T1 ; which is in T2, they will add q— l)/2 to each entry and compute the residue modular q first (into the range of [— q— l)/4, q— 1)/4]^) then the residue modular t. That gives a shared key between these two users.
[35] The reason that Alice and Bob can derive from KA and KB a shared secret to be the exchanged key via certain rounding techniques as in the case above is exactly that and Si are small, therefore KA and KB are close. We call this system a SMLWE key exchange protocol. We can derive the provable security of this more efficient system [Dili] .
[36] In term of both communication and computation efficiency, the new system is very good. The two parties need to exchange n2 entries in Fq, and each perform 2η2·8 computations (with Strassen fast matrix multiplication [STR]) to derive n2 bits if t = 2.
[37] Si and ¾ can follow different kind of error distributions.
[38] We can prove the theorem that if we choose the same system parameters, namely n and q, the matrix SLWE key exchange protocol is provably secure if the error distribution is properly chosen [DiLi] . The proof relies on the the mathematical hardness of the following pairing with error problem.
[39] Assume that we are given
(1) an n x n matrix M, a prime integer q, a small positive integer t, and an error distribution κη and ;
(2)
MA' = MSA' + teA
and
MB' = *¾ + ieB,
where 1 vector follows the error distribution κη and the entries of n x 1 vectors S also follows the same error distribution;
(3) and the fact that
KB L = MA t x SBL = (S^' M'SB' + t eA , SB' >
is in the range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] or not;
the problem is to find an algorithm to derive
KA' = (SA' y x MB = (S' M'SB' + t < SA' , eB >
modular t if KB' is in the range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4], otherwise KA' + q— l)/2 first modular q then modular t, with a high probability. We call such a problem a pairing with error problem (PEP).
[40] The proof follows from the fact that the SMLWE problem is as hard as the SLWE problem, since the matrix version can be viewed as just assembling multiple SLWE samples into one matrix SLWE sample.
[41] We note here that we can choose also rectangular matrix for the construction as long as we make sure the sizes are matching in terms of matrix multiplications, but parameters need to be chosen properly to ensure the security.
[42] Similarly we can build a key exchange system based on the ring learning with errors problem (RLWE) [LPR] , we will a variant of the RLWE problem described in [LNV] .
[43] For the RLWE problem, we consider the rings 1Z = Z[x] / f (x) , and lZq = TZ/qTZ, where f x) is a degree n polynomial in Z[x] , Z is the ring of integers, and q is a prime integer. Here q is an odd (prime) and elements in Zq = Fq = Z/q are represented by elements: — q— l)/2, —1 , 0, 1 , .., (g— l)/2, which can be viewed as elements in Z when we talk about norm of an element. Any element in lZq is represented by a degree n— 1 polynomial, which can also be viewed as a vector with its corresponding coefficients as its entries. For an element
a{x) = io + a\x + ... + αη-\χη~ λ ,
we define
|| || = max|<¾ [ ,
the l∞ norm of the vector (ao, <¾ , an-i) and we treat this vector as an element in Zn and <2j an element in Z. We can also choose q to be even positive number and things need slight modification.
[44] The RLWE/j9jX problem is parameterized by an polynomial f x) of degree n, a prime number q and an error distribution χ over lZq. It is defined as follows.
[45] Let the secret s be an element in TZq, a uniformly chosen random ring element. The problem is to find s, given any polynomial number of samples of the pair
where <¾ is uniformly random in lZq and ¾ is selected following certain error distribution χ.
[46] The hardness of such a problem is based on the fact that the ¾ are computationally indistinguishable from uniform in lZq. One can show [LPR] that solving the RLWE/j9jX problem above is known to give us a quantum algorithm that solves short vector problems on ideal lattices with related parameters. We believe that the latter problem is exponentially hard.
[47] We will here again use the facts in [ACPS] , [LPR] that the RLWE/j9jX problem is equivalent to a variant where the secret s is sampled from the error distribution χ rather than being uniform in lZq and the error element ¾ are multiples of some small integer t.
[48] To derive the provable security, we need consider the RLWE problem with specific choices of the parameters.
• We choose f x) to be the cyclotomic polynomial xn + 1 for n = 2U, a power of two;
• The error distribution χ is the discrete Gaussian distribution Z½™j(T for some n » σ > w( ^og ) > 1 ;
• q = 1 (mod 2n) and q a polynomial of n and q i¾ n3;
• t a small prime and t « n « q.
We can also use other parameters for practical applications.
[49] There are two key facts in the RLWE/j9jX setting defined above, which are needed for our key exchange system.
(1) The length of a vector drawn from a discrete Gaussian of with standard deviation σ is bounded by an, namely,
for X chosen according to χ.
(2) The multiplication in the ring lZq increases from the norms of the constituent elements in a reasonable scale, that is,
l| x y(mod f(x)) \\ < n|| ||||y||,
for 1, 7 G lZq and the norm is the l∞ norm defined above.
[50] With the RLWEJj9jX setting above, we are now ready to have two parties Alice and Bob to do a key exchange over an open channel. It goes step by step as follows.
(1) Alice and Bob will first publicly select all the parameters for the RLWEftqtX including n3 or similar polynomial functions of n), n, f (x) and χ. In addition, they will select a random element M over lZq uniformly. All the information above is public.
(2) Then each party chooses its own secret Sj as an element in lZq according to the error distribution χ , and independently also as an element following the error distribution χ, but jointly choose a small prime integer t (t « n)
For Alice, she computes
MA = MsA + teA,
where t is a small integer (t « n).
For Bob, he computes
MB = MsB + teB.
(3) Both parties exchange Mi. This means both Mi are public, but certainly keep Sj and Ci secret.
(4) Alice computes:
KA = SA X Mb = sAMsB + teBsA.
Bob computes:
KB = MA x sB = sAMsB + teAsB.
(5) Both of them will perform a rounding technique to derive the shared key as follows:
(a) Bob will then make a list of size n, and this list consists of pairs in the form of where i = 0, n— 1, and j = 1 if the x% coefficient of KB is in the range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] otherwise j = 0.
(b) Then Bob will send this list to Alice. Then each will compute the residue of the corresponding entries modular t in the following way:
for an element of the list
1) if j = 1, each will compute the i-th entry of KA and KB modular t respectively;
= 0; each will add q— l)/2 to the i-th entry of KA and KB modular q back to range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] then compute the residues modular t.
[51] We can use different distributions for Sj and
[52] That will give a shared key between these two users. We call this system a RLWE key exchange system. We can deduce that there is a very low probability of failure of this
key exchange system. We note here that the commutativity and the associativity of the ring lZq play a key role in this construction.
[53] In terms of security analysis, we can show the provable security of the system following the hardness of the RLWE/j9jX problem by using a similar PEP over the ring Rq[OiU].
[54] Assume that we are given
• a random element M in Rq, prime integers t, q and the error distribution χ with parameters selected as in the RLWEJj9jX above;
• MA = MSA + t&A and MB = MSB + te e , where follows the error distribution χ and Si also follows the error distribution χ;
• and the fact that the coefficients x% of KB = MA x SB = SAMSB + t&A^B is in the range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] or not;
the problem is to find an algorithm to derive KB (or KA) modular t or KB + (q— l) /2 (or KA + (q— l) /2) modular q (into the range of [-(q-l)/4, (q-l)/4]) and then modular t with a high probability. We call such a problem a pairing with error problem over a ring(RPE).
[55] It is nearly a parallel extension of the proof of the provable security of the case of SLWE key exchange system to the RLWE key exchange system. We conclude that the RLWE key exchange system is provable secure based on the hardness of the RLWE/j9jX problem.
[56] With the same parameters q and n, this system can be very efficient due to the possibility doing fast multiplication over the ring lZq using FFT type of algorithms.
1.3 The construction of the new KD systems based on paring with errors
[57] Over a large network, key distribution among the legitimate users is a critical problem. Often, in the key distribution systems, a difficult problem is how to construct a system, which is truly efficient and scalable. For example, in the case of the constructions of [BSHKVY] , the system can be essentially understood as that the master key of a central server is a symmetric matrix M of size n x n and each user's identity can be seen as a row vector Hi of size n. The central server gives each user the secret Hi x M. Then two users can derive the shared key as Hi x M x H
1-. The symmetric property of M ensures that
However, large number of users can collaborate to derive the master key. If one can collect enough (essentially n) Hi x M, which then can be used to find the master key M and therefore break the system.
[58] We will build a truly scalable key distribution system using the pairing with error with a trusted central server, which can be viwed as a combination of the idea above and the idea of the LWE.
[59] We work again over the finite field F
q, whose elements are represented by— q— l) /2, ..., 0, ..., (g - l) /2. We cho OSe Q ~ n
3 or other similar polynomial function of n, we choose again κ
ηι to be an error distribution over the space of n x n matrices, for example, an distribution each component are independent, and each component follows error distribution κ
σ, the discrete distribution as in the case of LWE, namely a discrete normal distribution over F
q centered around 0 with standard deviation approximately
The choice of these parameters can be modified.
[60] The key distribution system is set up step by step as follows.
(1) We have a central server, which will select a symmetric randomly chosen n x n matrix S, as a master key, whose entries are in Fq:
S = S*.
(2) For each user index as i, the central server gives it a ( in general not symmetric) matrix Ai ( as an ID) with small entries following error distribution κηι . The ID matrix of each user is public and it can also be generated with information that can identify the user like email address, name and etc.
(3) For each user, the central server distribute securely a secret:
where is a matrix (not symmetric) selected following certain error distribution, such as κη2. This is kept private for each user.
[61] To obtain a secret key shared between the user i and the user j , the user i computes
Ki = Ei x Aj t = AiSAj t + teiA);
and the user j computes
K3 = Ai x {EjY = AiS1 A + tAte = AtSA + tAte .
This is possible because the IDs are public. They then can use the following simple rounding method to derive a shared key between the two users.
• When the user j wants to establish a shared key with the user i, the user j will collect all the entries (including their positions in the matrix) in Kj that are in the range of (—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4), namely those entries which are closer to 0 than (q— l)/2. Then user j will send to the user i a list of the positions of the entries in the matrix ( only the position not the values of the entries themselves) that are randomly selected from the collection, which is tagged by 0, and a list of entries not in the list tagged by 0. Then the user i will select the same entries in its own matrix Ei x Aj . Now they have a shared list of common entry positions, therefore the corresponding entries of the matrix. Then each user will compute the residue of these entries modular t tagged by 1 and compute the residue of the sum of each of these entries tagged by 0 with (q— l)/2 to build a new identical ordered list of values, which will be their shared secret key.
[62] Because S symmetric, we have that
Λ . a A t — Λ . t A t therefore the user j derives
AiSA
j -\- tAiC
j.
The difference between the results computed by the two users is:
= SA + tetA) - ( SA + tAte))
This difference is small since t is small and &iA- and ^j are small, which is due to the fact that ej, ej, Ai and Aj are all small. This allows us to get a common key for i and j by certain rounding techniques and therefore build a key distribution system.
[63] Since the error terms for both matrices, are small, the corresponding selected entries with tag 1 in AiSA
j (without
are essentially within the range of [(— (q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] or very close. Therefore the error terms will not push those selected terms in AiSA
j over either (—(q— l)/2 or (q— l)/2), that is when added the error terms, those selected entries will not need any further modular q operation but just add them as integers, since each element is represented as an integer in the range of [(— (q— l)/2(q— l)/2)]. The same argument goes with entries tagged by 0. These ensures that the process give a shared key between these two users.
[64] From the way matrices Ki, Kj are constructed, we know that each entry of Ki and Kj follows uniform distribution. Therefore we expect that each time the size of the first list selected by the user j from the matrix Kj should be around n2. Therefore this system can provide the shared secret with enough bits if we choose proper n.
[65] Also we can build a version of this system with none symmetric matrices, in this case, the central serve needs to compute more matrices like AiS + e and A S + e'. Then it is possible, we can do the same kind of key distribution. This system again is less efficient.
[66] On the other hand, since the RLWE problem can be viewed as a specialized commutative version of matrix-based LWE since an element in the ring can be view as a homomorphism on the ring. We can use the RLWE to build a key distribution in the same way.
[67] Now let us look at why this key distribution is scalable. Clearly each user will have a pair Ai and I¾ = A^S + tei, and many users together can get many pairs, then to find the secret master key S is to solve the corresponding MLWE problem, except that, in this case, we impose the symmetric condition on the secret S. It is not difficult to argue again that this problem is as hard as a LWE problem, since given a LWE problem, we can convert it also into such a MLWE problem with symmetric secret matrix. Therefore, it is easy to see that this system is indeed scalable.
[68] In terms of the provable security of the system, the situation is similar to the work done in the paper [DiLi]. We can give a provable security argument along the same line.
[69] As we said before, since RLWE can be viewed as a special case MLWE, we will use the RLWE to build a very simple key distribution system.
[70] We will choose the ring lZq to be Fq[x]/xn + 1. To ensure the provable security, we need to choose parameter properly n, q, properly, for exmaple n = 2k, q = lmo<i(2n) [LPR]. For provable secure systems, we assume that we will follow the conventional assumptions on these parameters, and the assumption on the error distribution like χ in [LPR].
[71] This construction is essentially based on the systems of above. We assume that we have a ring lZq with a properly defined learning with error problem on the ring lZq with erro distribution χ. The problem is defined as follows:
We are given a pair (A, E), where
E = A x S + te',
A, S where e' are elements in R, t is small integer, e' is an error element following the distribution of χ, S is a fixed element and A is select randomly following uniform distribution, and the problem is to find the secret S.
[72] With a central server, we can build a simple key distribution system as follows.
(1) The central server will also select a random element M in lZq following uniform distribution.
(2) For each user, the central server will assign an public ID as Ai, where Ai should be in the form of a chosen small element in TZq, namely following an error distribution like χ.
(3) Each member is given a secret key by the central server:
where ¾ follows an error distribution χ.
(4) // two user i and j wants to build a shared key, one user, say i can use the ID matrix of j, namely Ai; the its secret key to build a shared key with j by computing
Kt = Aj x Si = AjMAi + tAjei,
and j can use its secret key to build a shared key with i by computing
Kj = Ai x Sj = AjMAi + tAtej,
then derive the shared key with the rounding teachnique as follows:
(a) i will then make a list of size n, and this list consists of pairs in the form of ( , b), where a = 0, n— 1, and b = 1 if the xa coefficient of Ki is in the range °f [- (<? - !)/4, (q - l)/4] otherwise 6 = 0.
(b) i will send this list to j . Then each will compute the residue of the corresponding entries modular t in the following way:
for an element of the list (a, b),
1) if b = 1, each will compute the a-th entry of Ki and Kj modular t respectively;
2) if b = 0, each will add q— l)/2 to the a-th entry of Ki and Kj modular q back to range of [—(q— l)/4, (q— l)/4] then compute the residues modular t.
[73] Since Ai and are small elements in TZq, we have Ai x is also small. This ensures that we indeed have a shared secret key. This, therefore, gives an key-distribution system.
[74] Here we use very much the fact that in a RLWE problem that the multiplication is commutative. The key feature of our construction is that it is simple and straight forward. The provable security of the system is also straightforward.
1.4 The construction of the new IBE systems based on paring with errors
[75] We will first build a new public key encryption based on MLWE. To build an encryption system, we choose similar parameter g ¾ n
3 or n
4 or similar polynomial functions of n, we choose again κ
ηι to be an error distribution, for example the error distribution with each component are independent, and each component follow the same discrete distribution κ
σ as in the case of LWE, namely a discrete normal distribution over F
q center around 0 with standard deviation approximately
Surely we can also select high dimensional Gaussian distribution, which should be very convenient for the purpose to provable security. We select this simple distribution to simplify the argument concerning the validity of the encryption system. We can surelt choose other parameters.
[76] With such a setting, we can build an encryption system as in the case of the MLWE problem as follows:
(1) We select an n x n matrix S, whose entries are small following an error distribution κηι , for example, each entries independently and randomly follows the distribution
(2) In the setting of the MLWE, we will derive one output pair (A, E), where
E = A x S + e,
or
E = A x S + te,
and t is small, t « n, and they form the public key of our encryption system. Here e follow certain error distributions, for example the distribution we use above.
(3) S is the private key of the cryptosystem.
(4) A message m is represented as n x n matrix with binary entries of 0, 1 or n x n matrix with entries in the range modular t, namely 0, l.., t— 1.
(5) A sender chooses a n x n small matrix B similar to S namely following an error distribution κηι , for example, each entries independently and randomly follows the distribution κσ . Then the sender compute the encrypted message as:
(D1, D2) = (B x A + el 7 B x E + e2 + m{q/2)), or
((£>ι, D2) = (B x A + tei, B x E + te2 + m,
where e\ and e2 are error matrices selected independently following some error distribution like e.
(6) To decrypt, the legitimate, in the first case, computes
D2 - D1 x S = (BE + e2 + m(q/2) - (BA + eJS) = eE + e2 - eiS + m{q/2), where everything is done in Fq, and we can check on each entry of the matrix, if it is near 0, we output 0, and if it is near q— l)/2 we output 1, or we divide them by q— l)/2 performed as a real number division and round them to 0 or 1 and the output will be the plaintext m; or in the second case, the legitimate user computes
D2 - D1 x S = (BE + te2 + m - (BA + =, teE + te2 - texS + m, then modular t. This will be the plaintext m.
[77] A, B, ei can follow different error distributions.
[78] With large n, the output can give us the right plaintext with as high probability as demanded. The reason we could decrypt with high probability comes from the following.
D2 - D1 x S
= BE + e2 + m(q/2) - (BA + e)S
= B x (A x S + e) + e2 + m(q/2) - (BA + ¾) x S
B x e + e2— ei x S can be viewed as a error terms, which is determined by the distribution of the following random variable. With proper choice of parameters, like in the case of KE or KD systems, the decryption process will surely return the right answer when n is large enough. The same argument goes with the second case.
[79] One key point of this new method is that on average, we can do the encryption much faster in terms of per bit speed because we can use fast matrix multiplication [CW] to speed up the computation process.
[80] We note here that since matrix multiplication is not commutative, when we multiply two elements, the order is very important, unlike the case of the RLWE related systems.
[81] We can also use the same idea in the ring LWE (RLWE) [LPR] to do encryption, where all the elements are in the ring TZq, and we have
E = A x S + te,
t is small positive integer and the entries of S is also small following error distribution κηι . We encrypt a message as
( , D2) = {BA + te BE + te2 + m).
Then we decrypt by computing
(BE + te2 + m - B(AS + te1)) (mod t).
This works because
D2 - D1 x S
= BE + te2 + m - (BA + e^S
= B x (A x S + te) + te2 + m - (BA + tex) x S
= tB x e + te2 — tei x S + m
Since the error terms are small, by modular t, we certainly should get back the original plaintext.
[82] For the MLWE problem, we surely need to choose the distribution accordingly when we need to obtain the provable security of the system.
[83] There are several versions of identity-based encryption systems based on lattice related problems including the LWE problem [ABB] ,[ABVVW] ,[BKPW] . But they all look rather complicated. We can use the MLWE to build an identity-based encryption system.
[84] With a central server, we can build a simple identity-based encryption system as follows.
(1) The central server will first select a secret n x n matrix S as the secret master key, where S is selected as a small element following certain error distribution κηι like error distributions like in KE and KD sytsems.
(2) The central server will also select a random element M following uniform distribution or similar distribution, but make sure that M has an inverse. If we could not find one first time, we will try again till we find one. We have a high probability of success to find such a M when q is large. Then the central serve will compute
where eis small following certain error distribution κηι .
(3) Then the central server will publicize M and Mi as the master public key.
(4) For each user, the central server will assign an public ID as Ai; where is small following certain error distribution κηι , and it can be generated from information that can identify the user.
(5) Each member is given a secret key:
S, = SA, + tM~xet,
where 's entries are small following the error distribution κ. Surely this is the same as given
MS, = MSA, + te„
since M is public.
(6) Anyone can use the ID, namely Ai, and the master public key to build a new public key for the user with ID Ai; which is given as the pair (Ai, Β , where
A, = M
and
B, = M A, = MSA, + teAi,
and it is used as the public key to encrypt any message use the MLWE encryption system above.
This gives an identity based encryption system.
[85] S, Ai, ej, e can also follow different error distributions.
[86] Since A^ and e are small, we have A^ x e is also small. W also have that
Sinc is also small and tej— is also small. Therefore ¾ is a
h the pair (Ai, Bi) as the problem input. Therefore ¾ is indeed a secret key that could be used for decryption. Therefore the construction works. We need to choose parameters properly to ensure security.
[87] The key feature of our construction is that it is simple and straight forward. The provable security of the system is also straightforward.
[88] we can extend this construction using the RLWE problem. We will choose the ring R to be Fq[x]/xn + 1. To ensure the provable security, we need to choose parameter properly
n, q, properly, namely n = 2k, q = lmo<i(2n) [LPR] . But we can select other parameters for secure applications.
[89] This construction is directly based on the encryption systems of the RLWE[LPR] , namely, we assume that we have a ring R with a properly defined learning with error problem on the ring R. The problem is defined as follows: we are given a pair (A, E), where
E = A x S + te',
A, S where e' are elements in TZq, t is small integer, e' is an error element following an error distribution χ, S is a fixed element and A is select randomly following uniform distribution, and the problem is to find the secret S. We also know that one can build a public key encryption systems using the RLWE problem[LPR] , where A, and E serve as the public key, and the secret S, which needs to be small, serves as the private key. We can use the fact that in a ring-LWE problem that the multiplication is commutative.
[90] With a central server, we can build a simple identity-based encryption system as follows.
(1) The central server will first select a secret S in R as the secret master key, where S is a selected small element follow certain error distributions χ.
(2) The central server will also select a random element M in R following uniform distribution and make sure that M has an inverse. If we could not find one first time, we will try again till we find one. We have a high probability of success to find such a M when q is large. Then the central serve will computer
where e is small and follows error distribution χ.
(3) Then the central server will publicize M and Mi as the master public key.
(4) For each user, the central server will assign an public ID as Ai; where Ai is a small element in TZq, and it follows error distribution χ.
(5) Each member is given a secret key:
S, = SA, + tM~xet,
where ¾ small element in R, and it follow certain error distribution χ. Surely this is the same as given
MS, = MSA, + te,,
since M is public.
(6) Anyone can use the ID, namely Ai, and the master public key to build a new public key for the user with ID Ai, which is given as the pair (Ai, BA, where
A = M
and
Bi = ΑτΜλ = AtMS + tAte = MSA, + tA,e,
and it is used as the public key to encrypt any message.
This gives an identity based encryption system.
[91] The small elements like S, Ai, e, can follow different error distributions.
[92] Since Ai and e are small elements in R, we have Ai x e is also small. We have that
= MSA, + tMM^e,) - MSA, + Att which is due to the fact that this is a commutative ring. Since e, Ai and are small, e— AiCi is also small and te— tAiCi is also small. Therefore ¾ is a solution to a ring LWE problem with the pair (Ai, BA as the problem input. Therefore ¾ is indeed a secret key that could be used for decryption.
[93] We can build easily a hierarchical IBE system using similar procedure, where each user can server as a central server.
[94] The key feature of our construction is that it is simple, straight forward and efficient. The provable security of the system is also straightforward.
[95] In the all the systems above using pairing with errors over the ring, one may use polynomials in the form of
f(x) = Y[ X) + g(x) ,
where each fi, g(x) is a extremely sparse matrix with very few terms, for example, 2 or 3 terms none-zero. Using this kind of polynomial can speed up the encryption and decryption computations.
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