Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)

ECC is based around the arithmetic

geometry of lines intersecting an elliptic
curve modulus some prime number - it
forms a cyclic group

The elliptic curve used here is:

y2 = x3 + 2x + 1

Generator Point P(x, y) is chosen

For the code I used a prime modulus

of 17.

2P = P + P

Point doubling: the resultant point

when the tangent at the point
intersects with the elliptic curve
the equations for tangents can be
found using basic implicit
differentiation and substitution.

P
3P
Generator Point

Point addition: the (third) intersection between the line

connecting two non identical points and the elliptic curve.

2
4

2P + P + P = kP
Division mod p can be replaced
with multiplication of a mod.
inverse

3
2P

The difficulty of cracking ECC is due to discrete logarithm problem:

if kP = Q,

(where k is the scalar multiplier)

then finding large k is computationally inefficient (P and Q are

points on the elliptic curve mod n). Hence large values of k
are ideal for cryptographic purposes.

Given pairs of key-points , a cryptosystem can be devised using public

and private keys (see algorithm)
The algorithm is helpful because
scalar multipliers and their
resultant points can contain
significantly less bits than RSA
keys for the equivalent security.

note: the set of points on

an elliptic curve mod
(prime) cyclic groups