McEliece Cryptosystem Project

Welcome to the McEliece Cryptosystem project, an exploration of a post-quantum public-key cryptosystem based on error-correcting codes. This project demonstrates the McEliece scheme through small, concrete examples and is designed to provide both theoretical background and practical hands-on experience.

Project Objectives

• Understand the McEliece scheme: Learn how the public-key cryptosystem works and why it remains secure even against quantum attacks.
• Explore Error-Correcting Codes: Study the principles behind Goppa codes and their use in secure encryption.
• Contrast with Classical Cryptosystems: Compare McEliece with RSA, ElGamal, and ECC.
• Hands-on Examples: Follow through two complete examples that cover key generation, encryption, and decryption.

Directory Structure

McEliece_Project/
├── README.md                 
├── LICENSE                   
├── requirements.txt          
├── Makefile                  
├── docs/
│   ├── project_overview.md   
│   └── examples_explanation.md   
├── src/
│   ├── __init__.py           
│   ├── mceliece.py           
│   ├── task1_example.py      
│   └── task2_example.py      
├── notebooks/
│   └── McEliece_Tutorial.ipynb   
├── tests/
│   └── test_mceliece.py      
└── data/
    └── sample_messages.txt   

Getting Started

1. Installation:
   Install the necessary dependencies listed in requirements.txt. If you're using SageMath, ensure it's properly configured.

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Running Examples:

   • Task 1 Example:
     Run the first example:

     python src/task1_example.py

   • Task 2 Example:
     Run the second example:

     python src/task2_example.py

3. Interactive Exploration:
   Open the notebooks/McEliece_Tutorial.ipynb in your Jupyter/SageMath environment to interactively explore the McEliece cryptosystem.

4. Testing:
   Execute the unit tests with:

   python -m unittest discover tests

Additional Resources

• Documentation:
  Detailed theory and step-by-step explanations are available in the docs folder.
• License:
  Review the LICENSE file for information about the project’s terms.