Paper 2020/074

Rolling up sleeves when subversion's in a field?

Daniel R. L. Brown

Abstract

A nothing-up-my-sleeve number is a cryptographic constant, such as a field size in elliptic curve cryptography, with qualities to assure users against subversion of the number by the system designer. A number with low Kolmogorov descriptional complexity resists being subverted to the extent that the speculated subversion would leave a trace that cannot be hidden within the short description. The roll programming language, a version of Godel's 1930s definition of computability, can somewhat objectively quantify low descriptional complexity, a nothing-up-my-sleeve quality, of a number. For example, curves NIST-P-256, Curve25519, and NIST-P-521 have fields sizes with roll programs of 112, 84, and 63 words (respectively).

Note: Latest versions shortens programs for field sizes of NIST curves P-521 and K-283.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Foundations
Publication info
Preprint. MINOR revision.
Keywords
Kolmogorov descriptional complexitysubversion
Contact author(s)
danibrown @ blackberry com
History
2020-12-15: revised
2020-01-26: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2020/074
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2020/074,
      author = {Daniel R.  L.  Brown},
      title = {Rolling up sleeves when subversion's in a field?},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2020/074},
      year = {2020},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/074}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/074}
}
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