Cryptanalysis of the Ivanov-Kabatiansky-Krouk-Rumenko Cryptosystems

Recently, Ivanov, Kabatiansky, Krouk, and Rumenko (IKKR) proposed three new variants of the McEliece cryptosystem (CBCrypto 2020, affiliated with Eurocrypt 2020). In this letter, it is shown that one of the IKKR cryptosystems is equal to the McEliece cryptosystem. Furthermore, a polynomial-time attack algorithm for the other two IKKR cryptosystems is proposed. The proposed attack algorithm utilizes the linearity of IKKR cryptosystems. Also, an implementation of the IKKR cryptosystems and the proposed attack is given. The proposed attack algorithm finds the plaintext within 0.2 sec that is faster than the elapsed time for legitimate decryption.