Paper 2025/1661 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2025/1661 ↗

Distinguishing Goppa codes using higher-order vanishing

Tobias Hemmert
Andreas Wiemers
Abstract

We present a new algorithm to distinguish alternant and Goppa codes from general linear codes. Our approach is based on higher-order vanishing of polynomials and can be applied to a wide set of code parameters. It also applies to Goppa code parameters used in the Classic McEliece key encapsulation mechanism. While these parameters are out of reach in practice, we analyse the behaviour of our distinguisher and estimate its complexity for them, indicating that it is more efficient than previous distinguishing approaches. This is supported by concrete experiments that distinguish codes with larger parameters in practice.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Public-key cryptography
Publication info
Preprint.
History
2026-06-29: last updated
2025-09-13: published
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2025/1661
License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/1661,
      author = {Tobias Hemmert and Andreas Wiemers},
      title = {Distinguishing Goppa codes using higher-order vanishing},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/1661},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1661}
}
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