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Jintai Ding, Ray Perlner, Albrecht R. Petzoldt, Daniel Smith-Tone
Abstract
The HFEv- signature scheme is one of the most studied multivariate schemes and one of the major candidates for the upcoming standardization of post-quantum digital signature schemes. In this paper, we propose three new attack strategies against HFEv-, each of them using the idea of projection. Especially our third attack is very effective and is, for some parameter sets, the most efficient known attack against HFEv-. Furthermore, our attack requires much less memory than direct and rank attacks. By our work, we therefore give new insights in the security of the HFEv- signature scheme and restrictions for the parameter choice of a possible future standardized HFEv- instance.
Proceedings Title
PQCrypto 2018: The Ninth International Conference on Post-Quantum Cryptography
Ding, J.
, Perlner, R.
, Petzoldt, A.
and Smith-Tone, D.
(2018),
Improved Cryptanalysis of HFEv- via Projection, PQCrypto 2018: The Ninth International Conference on Post-Quantum Cryptography, Fort Lauderdale, FL, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79063-3_18, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=925177
(Accessed October 19, 2025)