A primer on elliptic curve cryptography

Re:A primer on elliptic curve cryptography by andrewcooke on Saturday November 09, 2013 @07:24PM (#6704326)

If you understand DH key exchange (the one where you multiply numbers modulo something) then you know what the discrete logarithm problem (DLP) is. All that EC crypto is, is a way of doing the same maths, but replacing integers with points on a curve.

If you remember a bit of maths theory you know that you can define groups and things with multiplication and the like. It's that kind of idea.

The advantage is that the known best approaches to solving the DLP for integers don't carry across to the points on a curve (because the points don't work like integers for all of maths - they support enough to the crypto, but not enough for the attack). So you can use smaller keys.

AFAICT. IMHO. IANAM/C.

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Re:A primer on elliptic curve cryptography by theboss on Saturday November 09, 2013 @09:28PM (#6704838)

Except there are a few added difficulties of EC that don't exist in DH due to the maths.

There is also the matter of mapping your numbers to points on the curve. Lot's of extra maths for saving time and space.

The important take-away from the extra math is that, unless you are a cryptographer then you should leave the implementation up to someone else.

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Re:A primer on elliptic curve cryptography by pbsd on Saturday November 09, 2013 @09:47PM (#6704906)

That's a pretty good summary.

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