Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

National Initiatives

ANR

• CATREL (accepted June 2012, ending December 2015): “Cribles: Améliorations Théoriques et Résolution Effective du Logarithme” (Sieve Algorithms: Theoretical Advances and Effective Resolution of the Discrete Logarithm Problem). This project aims to make effective “attacks” on reduced-size instances of the discrete logarithm problem (DLP). This is a key ingredient for the assessment of the security of cryptosystems relying on the hardness of the DLP in finite fields, and for deciding on relevant key sizes.

• MANTA (accepted July 2015, starting January 2016): “Curves, surfaces, codes and cryptography”. This project deals with applications of coding theory error correcting codes to in cryptography, multi-party computation, and complexity theory, using advanced topics in algebraic geometry and number theory. See http://anr-manta.inria.fr/

DGA

• DIFMAT-3: this one-year project aims to find matrices with good diffusion properties over small finite fields. The principle is to find non-maximal matrices, but with better coefficients and implementation properties. The relevant cryptographic properties to be studied correspond to the weight distribution of the associated code. Since we use Algebraic-Geometry codes, much more powerful techniques can be used for computing these weight distribution, using and improving Duursma's ideas  [34] .

• Cybersecurity. Inria and DGA contracted for three PhD topics at the national level, one of them involving Grace. Grace started a new PhD, and hired P. Karpman. The topic of this PhD is complementary to the above DIFMAT-3: while DIFMAT-3 provides fundamental methods for dealing with AG codes, in application for diffusion layers in block ciphers, the topic here is to make concrete propositions of block ciphers using these matrices. P. Karpman is coadvised by T. Peyrin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), by P.-A. Fouque (Université de Rennes), and D. Augot.