We are hiring !
Our project: The famous « padlock » appearing in browsers when one visits websites whose address is preceded by « https » relies on cryptographic primitives that would not withstand a quantum computer. This integrated project aims to develop in 5 years post-quantum primitives in a prototype of « post-quantum lock » that will be implemented in an open source browser.
Who we are & Where are we located: Check out our consortium
Chair Offer
We are searching for 3 young researcher, interested in the project. They must already be employed by one of our partnered institution as it is a chair offer, and not an employment offer. The aim is to support young researcher in their career by giving them the environment for hiring a PhD student, mission expenses, hardware expenses, etc.
Context : Cryptography is at the heart of many secure devices for ensuring confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of communications, programs and data. The security of the current asymmetric cryptography relies on problems that are easy to break with a quantum computer. In practice, the real threat of quantum computing is predicted to be operational in decades. However, through the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) impulsion, the community decided to move on a stronger cryptography, resilient to attacks from classical and quantum computers. This cryptography is called post-quantum cryptography (also called quantum-safe cryptography or quantum-resistant cryptography).
PQ-TLS is a 5-year research project driven by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the France 2030 strategy under the frameworks of the Priority Research Programs and Equipment (PEPR). PQ-TLS aims at studying the security of post-quantum cryptosystems.
Localisation : The offer localisation will be determined by the candidate’s employer, and the best team fitted to the subject.
Offer Requirements : The candidate must have at least 2 years of experience after their PhD. They must already be employed by one of the following institutions: Rennes University, CNRS, Inria, CEA, Limoges Université, Rouen Normandie University, Bordeaux University, Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne University, Versailles Saint-Quentin University, ENS Lyon, Bretagne Occidentale University.
Application Process:
- Your application is reviewed by our committee
- Your application is accepted: it will be reviewed by the pilots and the ANR
- They accept you application: Oral presentation in front of the committee, and recruitment if approved.
How to apply : Should you be interested, please send your application to pierre-alain.fouque@univ-rennes1.fr & marilou.gaborel@irisa.fr : Chair Name_CV/Recommendation letter/Research statement_NAME SURNAME
Application deadline: 22 February 2024
Chair PQ Protocol: Formal Analysis for Post-Quantum Cryptography Protocols
Mission: Nearly all security protocols rely on public-key cryptography using RSA or Elliptic Curve. With the threat of quantum attackers, the transition of all currently deployed cryptographic protocols must be studied. Typically, we would like to study new designs for TLS, IPSec, Signal, SSH or Wireguard protocols in the context of Post-Quantum cryptography using formal methods. Among those, TLS would be a target of particular interest: there are many proposals for TLS, but there are still many issues with these proposals.
Specific requirement: The candidate should have research experience in the formal analysis of security protocol.
PDF offer file : PQProtocol – Chaire PQ-TLS Description 2024
Chair Quantum: Quantum Security for Post-Quantum Cryptography
Mission: The candidate will study the security of hard problems on which many post-quantum cryptosystems are built against quantum adversaries either lattice-based, code-based, isogeny-based or multivariate cryptography. For instance, the security of hard problems has been studied, but it is frequent that specialized instances of the hard problems are used. Moreover, it is only conjectured that there are no quantum adversaries against these hard problems, but there is no proof. It could also be interested to study the security proofs of these cryptosystems in the QROM model.
Specific requirement: The candidate should have research experience in quantum cryptanalysis, and in the development of quantum algorithms.
PDF Offer File: Quantum – Chaire PQ-TLS Description 2024
Chair SCA: Side-Channel Attacks for Post-Quantum Cryptography Applications
Mission: Side-Channel Attacks are important research topic nowadays and the security of post-quantum embedded implementations is a competitive research area. More and more papers have been published since 2015 and now that Kyber, Dilithium, Falcon and other schemes are standardized, it is highly important to know how to implement them securely. Usually masking is a well-known technique, but it is often costly to use this technique, which incurs a O(d3) multiplicative factor, where d is the masking order. There are a lot of research issues to tackle in this new research field. We are looking for young researcher interested in doing research in the security of post-quantum implementations
Specific requirement: The candidate should have research experience in hardware security and post-quantum cryptography. In particular, it will be important to have strong knowledge in masking scheme and security proof of masking.
PDF Offer File : SCA – Chaire PQ-TLS Description 2024