A Public-Key Cryptosystem Based on the Matrix Cover NP-Complete Problem

The design and implementation of a public-key cryptosystem based on the matrix cover NP-complete problem is described. Section 1 explains the problem, provides the necessary background to understand the implementation and serves to establish the terminology used. The implementation is described in detail in section 2. Section 3 contains further comments on the system and also examines its signature capability. The system borrows quite a few ideas from the Merkle-Hellman scheme [ 3 ] and a very brief comparison between the two systems appears in section 4.