[tor-dev] Proposing "Post-Quantum safe handshake implementation" as GSoc Project

[Yawning Angel]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2017 14:07:40 +0530
Jaskaran Singh <jvsg1303 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm particularly interested to work on making TOR Handshakes
> Post-Quantum Safe. I feel that this should be implemented at the
> earliest because adversaries could store the network traffic and
> decrypt it later on using Quantum Computers when they're invented.

So there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that PQ handshake stuff will happen, sooner rather
than later.

The bad news is that, work on it is on going, and it does not make a
good GSOC project because, the bulk of the implementation work will
likely happen before the summer.

[snip]
> 2. Implement the NewHope-Simple algorithm[1] because we'll not be able
> to use the Vanilla NewHope as it is protected by some patents. I
> wasn't able to find any implementation of NewHope Simple. So can the
> Vanilla NewHope Implementation be tweaked to convert it into NewHope
> Simple? Or would we have to write it from ground up? I don't know
> about the patent laws regarding it.

I haven't talked to Peter in a while (and will ask him after I send
this), but I am not aware of any patent claims against the vanilla
NewHope algorithm (and the NewHope-Simple paper does not mention this
at all either).

That said, implementing NewHope-Simple is trivial given NewHope (an
afternoon if that), so it's not something that worries me much.

Regards,

-- 
Yawning Angel
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