(In)Security of Ring-LWE Under Partial Key Exposure

Abstract We initiate the study of partial key exposure in Ring-LWE (RLWE)-based cryptosystems. Specifically, we (1) Introduce the search and decision Leaky R-LWE assumptions (Leaky R-SLWE, Leaky R-DLWE), to formalize the hardness of search/decision RLWE under leakage of some fraction of coordinates of the NTT transform of the RLWE secret. (2) Present and implement an efficient key exposure attack that, given certain 1/4-fraction of the coordinates of the NTT transform of the RLWE secret, along with samples from the RLWE distribution, recovers the full RLWE secret for standard parameter settings. (3) Present a search-to-decision reduction for Leaky R-LWE for certain types of key exposure. (4) Propose applications to the security analysis of RLWE-based cryptosystems under partial key exposure.