Blum–Micali algorithm

The Blum–Micali algorithm is a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator. The algorithm gets its security from the difficulty of computing discrete logarithms.^[1]

Let ${\displaystyle p}$ be an odd prime, and let ${\displaystyle g}$ be a primitive root modulo ${\displaystyle p}$. Let ${\displaystyle x_{0}}$ be a seed, and let

${\displaystyle x_{i+1}=g^{x_{i}}\ {\bmod {\ p}}}$.

The ${\displaystyle i}$th output of the algorithm is 1 if ${\displaystyle x_{i}\leq {\frac {p-1}{2}}}$. Otherwise the output is 0. This is equivalent to using one bit of ${\displaystyle x_{i}}$ as your random number. It has been shown that ${\displaystyle n-c-1}$ bits of ${\displaystyle x_{i}}$ can be used if solving the discrete log problem is infeasible even for exponents with as few as ${\displaystyle c}$ bits.^[2]

In order for this generator to be secure, the prime number ${\displaystyle p}$ needs to be large enough so that computing discrete logarithms modulo ${\displaystyle p}$ is infeasible.^[1] To be more precise, any method that predicts the numbers generated will lead to an algorithm that solves the discrete logarithm problem for that prime.^[3]

There is a paper discussing possible examples of the quantum permanent compromise attack to the Blum–Micali construction. This attacks illustrate how a previous attack to the Blum–Micali generator can be extended to the whole Blum–Micali construction, including the Blum Blum Shub and Kaliski generators.^[4]

References

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20080216164459/http://crypto.stanford.edu/pbc/notes/crypto/blummicali.xhtml