Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2002/174

A Designer's Guide to KEMs

Alexander W. Dent

Abstract: A generic or KEM-DEM hybrid construction is a formal method of combining a asymmetric and symmetric encryption techniques to give an efficient, provably secure public-key encryption scheme. This method combines an asymmetric KEM with a symmetric DEM, and each of these components must satisfy their own security conditions. In this paper we describe generic constructions for provably secure KEMs based on lower level primitives such as one-way trapdoor functions and weak key-agreement protocols.

Category / Keywords: public-key cryptography / "Key encapsulation mechanisms" KEMs "Hybrid encryption" "Provable security"

Date: received 13 Nov 2002, last revised 31 Oct 2005

Contact author: alex at fermat ma rhul ac uk

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

Note: Mild technical errors have been corrected from the original version.

Version: 20051031:161821 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2002/174