cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adve ...

, CECPQ1 (combined elliptic-curve and post-quantum 1) is a

post-quantum In cryptography, post-quantum cryptography (sometimes referred to as quantum-proof, quantum-safe or quantum-resistant) refers to cryptographic algorithms (usually public-key algorithms) that are thought to be secure against a cryptanalytic attack ...

key-agreement protocol In cryptography, a key-agreement protocol is a protocol whereby two or more parties can agree on a key in such a way that both influence the outcome. If properly done, this precludes undesired third parties from forcing a key choice on the agreeing ...

developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

as a limited experiment for use in

Transport Layer Security Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in secu ...

(TLS) by

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

s. It was succeeded by

CECPQ2 In cryptography, Combined Elliptic-Curve and Post-Quantum 2 (CECPQ2) is a quantum secure modification to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 developed by Google. It is intended to be used experimentally, to help evaluate the performance of post ...

Details

CECPQ1 was designed to test algorithms that can provide confidentiality even against an attacker who possesses a large

quantum computer Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Thoug ...

. It is a key-agreement algorithm for TLS that combines

X25519 X, or x, is the twenty-fourth and third-to-last letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''"ex"'' (pronounced ), ...

and

NewHope In post-quantum cryptography, NewHope is a key-agreement protocol by Erdem Alkim, Léo Ducas, Thomas Pöppelmann, and Peter Schwabe that is designed to resist quantum computer attacks. NewHope is based on a mathematical problem ring learning with ...

, a

ring learning with errors In post-quantum cryptography, ring learning with errors (RLWE) is a computational problem which serves as the foundation of new cryptographic algorithms, such as NewHope, designed to protect against cryptanalysis by quantum computers and also t ...

primitive. Even if NewHope were to turn out to be compromised, the parallel X25519 key-agreement ensures that CECPQ1 provides at least the security of existing connections. It was available in

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macO ...

54 beta. In 2016, its experimental use in Chrome ended and it was planned to be disabled in a later Chrome update. It was succeeded by CECPQ2.

References

{{Reflist Cryptographic protocols Application layer protocols Transport Layer Security

Details

See also

References