Cryptanalysis of Multi-Party Key Exchange Protocols over a Modified Supertropical Semiring

Sulaiman Alhussaini; Sergeı̆ Sergeev

Paper 2025/2062

Cryptanalysis of Multi-Party Key Exchange Protocols over a Modified Supertropical Semiring

Sulaiman Alhussaini, University of Birmingham

Sergeı̆ Sergeev

, University of Birmingham

Abstract

We present a cryptanalysis of a multi-party key exchange protocol over a modified supertropical semiring, as proposed in a recent work of R. Ponmaheshkumar, J. Ramalingam, and R. Perumal. Building on the established methods for solving linear systems $A \otimes x=b$ over the tropical semiring, as well as on our recent work on solving such systems over layered semirings such as the symmetrized and supertropical semirings, we develop a method to compute a solution of $A \otimes x=b$ over the above mentioned modified supertropical semiring. This method enables the attacker to recover the shared secret key by solving the one-sided linear system derived from the public messages of the protocol. Our findings show that this modified supertropical platform does not provide the intended security and motivate further exploration of secure semiring-based constructions.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Attacks and cryptanalysis
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: public key cryptography key exchange protocol cryptographic attack supertropical semiring
Contact author(s): saa399 @ student bham ac uk
s sergeev @ bham ac uk
History: 2025-11-09: approved; 2025-11-07: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2025/2062
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/2062,
      author = {Sulaiman Alhussaini and Sergeı̆ Sergeev},
      title = {Cryptanalysis of Multi-Party Key Exchange Protocols over a Modified Supertropical Semiring},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/2062},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/2062}
}