Abstract
This paper examines the cryptographic security of fixed versus random elliptic curves over the field GF(p). Its basic assumption is that a large precomputation to aid in breaking the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) can be made for a fixed curve. We take this into account when examining curve security as well as considering a variation of Pollard’s rho method where computations from solutions of previous ECDLPs can be used to solve subsequent ECDLPs on the same curve. We present a lower bound on the expected time to solve such ECDLPs using this method, as well as an approximation of the expected time remaining to solve an ECDLP when a given size of precomputation is available. We conclude that adding 5 bits to the size of a fixed curve to avoid general software attacks and an extra 6 bits to avoid attacks on special moduli and a parameters provides an equivalent level of security.
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Hitchcock, Y., Montague, P., Carter, G., Dawson, E. (2003). The Security of Fixed versus Random Elliptic Curves in Cryptography. In: Safavi-Naini, R., Seberry, J. (eds) Information Security and Privacy. ACISP 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2727. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45067-X_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45067-X_6
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