Papers for

software developers working on post-quantum cryptography

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Supersingular isogeny problem solved in less time and memory

The Supersingular Isogeny Problem in Time and Memory $p^{1/3+o(1)}$, Unconditionally

Abstract: Given a supersingular elliptic curve $E/\mathbb{F}_{p^2}$, the $\mathsf{OneEnd}$ problem asks for a non-scalar endomorphism of $E$. By known reductions, solving this problem also solves the supersingular endomorphism ring and isogeny problems. Wesolowski obtained exponent $1/3$ under an assumption on the factorization of a small degree, whereas the previous unconditional exponent was $2/5$. We give a Las Vegas algorithm, analyzed without a smoothness heuristic, with expected time and memory \[ p^{1/3}\exp\bigl(O(\sqrt{\log p\,\log\log p})\bigr) = p^{1/3+o(1)}. \] The algorithm fixes in advance a family of degrees that are products of small primes. Known counting results provide many isogenies of these degrees from curves to their Frobenius conjugates, and a collision estimate shows that the isogenies occur on sufficiently many distinct curves for a random walk to reach one of them. From such a curve, the algorithm splits a degree into two parts, enumerates two lists of shorter isogenies, and matches their targets to obtain an isogeny to the conjugate, whose composition with Frobenius gives the required endomorphism.

Fri 18 SeptCryptography and Security
The gist
The paper tackles a math problem involving special mathematical objects called supersingular elliptic curves. The authors provide an algorithm that finds certain transformations on these curves more efficiently—in less time and using less memory—without relying on strong assumptions. This problem is important because solving it also helps with related problems that are key to some areas of cryptography. Their method cleverly uses known patterns of connections between curves and a matching strategy to find the solution.
Open 2609.22018v1