A Complete Cryptanalysis of the Post-Quantum Multivariate Signature Scheme Himq-3

Jintai Ding, Zheng Zhang*, Joshua Deaton, Lih Chung Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceedingConference Proceedingpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In 2017 Kyung-Ah Shim et al. proposed a multivariate signature scheme called Himq-3 which is a submission to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standardization process of post-quantum cryptosystems. The Himq-3 signature scheme can be classified into the oil vinegar signature scheme family. Similar to the rainbow signature scheme, the Himq-3 signature scheme uses a multilayer structure to shorten the signature size. Moreover the signing process is very fast due to a special system called L-inveritble cycle system that is used to invert the central map. In this paper, we provide a complete cryptanalysis to the Himq-3 signature scheme. We describe a new attack method called the singularity attack. This attack is based on the observation that the variables in the L-invertible cycle system are not allowed to be zero in a valid signature. For the completeness, we show step by step how variables and layers can be separated so that signature forgery can be performed. We claim that the complexity of our attack is much lower than the proposed security level.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInformation and Communications Security - 22nd International Conference, ICICS 2020, Proceedings
EditorsWeizhi Meng, Dieter Gollmann, Christian D. Jensen, Jianying Zhou
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages422-440
Number of pages19
ISBN (Print)9783030610777
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes
Event22nd International Conference on Information and Communications Security, ICICS 2020 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 24 Aug 202026 Aug 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12282 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference22nd International Conference on Information and Communications Security, ICICS 2020
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period24/08/2026/08/20

Keywords

  • Cryptanalysis
  • Multivariate public key cryptography
  • Oil vinegar signature scheme
  • Post-quantum cryptography

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