HIGH-MEMORY MASKED CONVOLUTIONAL CODES FOR POST-QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY

This paper presents a novel post-quantum cryptosystem based on high-memory masked convolutional codes. Unlike conventional code-based schemes that rely on block codes with fixed dimensions and limited error-correction capability, our construction offers both stronger cryptographic security and greater flexibility. It supports arbitrary plaintext lengths with linear-time decryption and uniform per-bit computational cost, enabling seamless scalability to long messages. Security is reinforced through a higher-rate injection of random errors than in block-code approaches, along with additional noise introduced via polynomial division, which substantially obfuscates the underlying code structure. Semi-invertible transformations generate dense, random-like generator matrices that conceal algebraic properties and resist known structural attacks. Consequently, the scheme achieves cryptanalytic security margins exceeding those of the classic McEliece system by factors greater than 2 100. Finally, decryption at the recipient employs an array of parallel Viterbi decoders, enabling efficient hardware and software implementation and positioning the scheme as a strong candidate for deployment in practical quantum-resistant public-key cryptosystems.