Performance Evaluation of the Classic McEliece Key Encapsulation Algorithm

In late 2016, the US NIST announced a post-quantum cryptography open competition to select public-key cryptoalgorithms (digital signature, asymmetric encryption, and key encapsulation) suitable for use when quantum computing is widely available. Based on the results of the 2nd round of the competition, several solutions were selected that could potentially be standardized as post-quantum cryptographic algorithms. In this article, we are looking at one of the bids based on codes. The Classic McEliece key encapsulation algorithm is a variant of the well-known (over 40 years) public key cryptosystem in codes. We investigate the various characteristics of the Classic McEliece, in particular, we provide estimates of its performance using various computing platforms and testing technologies.