Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2002/139

Reaction Attacks on Public Key Cryptosystems Based on the Word Problem

Maria Isabel Gonzalez Vasco and Rainer Steinwandt

Abstract: Wagner and Magyarik outlined a general construction for public key cryptosystems based on the hardness of the word problem for finitely presented groups. At the same time, they gave a specific example of such a system. We prove that their approach is vulnerable to so-called reaction attacks, namely, it is possible to retrieve the private key just by watching the performance of a legitimate recipient.

Category / Keywords: public-key cryptography / word problem, reaction attacks

Date: received 12 Sep 2002

Contact author: mvasco at orion ciencias uniovi es

Available format(s): Postscript (PS) | Compressed Postscript (PS.GZ) | BibTeX Citation

Version: 20020912:213814 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2002/139

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