This paper introduces a new central trapdoor for multivariate quadratic (MQ) public-key cryptosystems that allows for encryption, in contrast to time-tested MQ primitives such as Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar or Hidden Field Equations which only allow for signatures. Our construction is a mixed-field scheme that exploits the commutativity of the extension field to dramatically reduce the complexity of the extension field polynomial implicitly present in the public key. However, this reduction can only be performed by the user who knows concise descriptions of two simple polynomials, which constitute the private key. After applying this transformation, the plaintext can be recovered by solving a linear system. We use the minus and projection modifiers to inoculate our scheme against known attacks. A straightforward C++ implementation confirms the efficient operation of the public key algorithms.

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.

Sflash had recently been broken by Dubois, Stern, Shamir, etc., using a differential attack on the public key. The C^{*-} signature schemes are hence no longer practical. In this paper, we will study the new attack from the point view of symmetry, then (1) present a simple concept (projection) to modify several multivariate schemes to resist the new attacks; (2) demonstrate with practical examples that this simple method could work well; and (3) show that the same discussion of attack-and-defence applies to other big-field multivariates. The speed of encryption schemes is not affected, and we can still have a big-field multivariate signatures resisting the new differential attacks with speeds comparable to Sflash.

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We consider Schrdinger operators in L2(R3) with a singular interaction supported by a finite curve . We present a proper definition of the operators and study their properties, in particular, we show that the discrete spectrum can be empty if is short enough. If it is not the case, we investigate properties of the eigenvalues in the situation when the curve has a hiatus of length 2. We derive an asymptotic expansion with the leading term which a multiple of ln.