What is "ntrusign"

NTRUSign, also known as the NTRU Signature Algorithm, is a public key cryptography digital signature algorithm based on the GGH signature scheme. It was first presented at the rump session of Asiacrypt 2001 and published in peer-reviewed form at the RSA Conference 2003. The 2003 publication included parameter recommendations for 80-bit security. A subsequent 2005 publication revised the parameter recommendations for 80-bit security, presented parameters that gave claimed security levels of 112, 128, 160, 192 and 256 bits, and described an algorithm to derive parameter sets at any desired security level. NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. have applied for a patent on the algorithm.

NTRUSign involves mapping a message to a random point in 2N-dimensional space, where N is one of the NTRUSign parameters, and solving the closest vector problem in a lattice closely related to the NTRUEncrypt lattice. This lattice has the property that a private 2N-dimensional basis for the lattice can be described with 2 vectors, each with N coefficients, and a public basis can be described with a single N-dimensional vector. This enables public keys to be represented in O(N) space, rather than O(N) as is the case with other lattice-based signature schemes. Operations take O(N) time, as opposed to O(N) for elliptic curve cryptography and RSA private key operations. NTRUSign is therefore claimed to be faster than those algorithms at low security levels, and considerably faster at high security levels.

NTRUSign is under consideration for standardization by the IEEE P1363 working group.