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Predicting the elliptic curve congruential generator

Abstract

Let pp be a prime and let E\mathbf{E} be an elliptic curve defined over the finite field Fp\mathbb{F}_p of pp elements. For a point GE(Fp)G\in\mathbf{E}(\mathbb{F}_p) the elliptic curve congruential generator (with respect to the first coordinate) is a sequence (xn)(x_n) defined by the relation xn=x(Wn)=x(Wn1G)=x(nGW0)x_n=x(W_n)=x(W_{n-1}\oplus G)=x(nG\oplus W_0), n=1,2,n=1,2,\dots, where \oplus denotes the group operation in E\mathbf{E} and W0W_0 is an initial point. In this paper, we show that if some consecutive elements of the sequence (xn)(x_n) are given as integers, then one can compute in polynomial time an elliptic curve congruential generator (where the curve possibly defined over the rationals or over a residue ring) such that the generated sequence is identical to (xn)(x_n) in the revealed segment. It turns out that in practice, all the secret parameters, and thus the whole sequence (xn)(x_n), can be computed from eight consecutive elements, even if the prime and the elliptic curve are private.

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