On Provably Secure Code-based Signature and Signcryption Scheme

Signcryption is a cryptographic protocol that provides uthentication and confidentiality as a single primitive at a cost lower than the combined cost of sign and encryption. Code-based cryptography, a likely candidate for post-quantum cryptography, provides an exciting alternative to number-theoretic cryptography. Courtois, Finiasz and Sendrier proposed the only practical code-based signature(CFS signature) at Asiacrypt 2001. But that signature scheme currently lacks a formal proof of security due to the existence of the high rate distinguisher proposed by Fauge`re et al. In this paper, we make use of an alternate key-construct for the CFS signature, and thus prove its existential unforgeability under chosen message attacks (EUF-CMA). Also, we propose a code-based signcryption scheme and prove its security. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first code-based, provably secure signature and signcryption scheme in literature