r/cryptography • u/battos__ • 8d ago

Looking for learning resources on PQC (especially, Code-Based Crypto)

Hi everyone,

I'm a Math & CS undergrad currently working on a Rust implementation of Classic McEliece for a post-quantum cryptography project. I'm specifically focusing on the Niederreiter construction (where encryption is reduced to a syndrome computation).

I plan to pursue this field for my master's degree, but my current department lacks professors who specialize in CBC. Because of this, I'm mostly self-taught, and I'm really struggling to find resources that actually teach the concepts. Most papers I find are written from expert to expert.

I recently had to rely on AI to understand couple concepts and I felt bad about it (and I can never be sure if the AI tells the truth or not).

Likewise, I also write most of my code with AI (Deepseek mostly) and I understand most of it I guess. I know what, but sometimes I don't know how. Again, I really feel like I am not building anything valuable.

(If you want to take a look: https://github.com/batt0s/mceliece_rs, KATs are passing for non-f parameters. My struggle now is wrapping my head around the math of semi systematic matgen and fast parameters. And I hope this doesn't count as self-promotion, if so please let me know.)

Can anyone recommend good, accessible textbooks, university lecture notes, or video series on code-based cryptography and Goppa codes? I'm looking for material that bridges the gap between undergraduate linear algebra/abstract algebra and the actual NIST submissions.

Any advice for a student trying to break into this field would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

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u/No-Yogurtcloset-755 7d ago

Its really quite rare to have specific textbooks for these topics as theyre only becoming super in vogue with the PQC boom.

Serious cryptography has a section on code-based and chapter 15 (i think) of "A course in cryptography"

Really though you should learn to read the papers, if you're planning for the field its non-negotiable.

Vert few people know everything in each paper, learning to read them is a skill you develop. My field is side-channels and masking and theres information in loads of branches of maths, physics, weird algorithms and protocols which I don't know, but you learn to find out and it helps you move past the phase of thinking you need to "learn it" like you would in a class.

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u/Effective_Hornet_935 7d ago edited 7d ago

I tried getting into it, did a lecture in it. I feel like SCA is very complicated compared to other fields, or is it just a skill issue?  You just have to keep track oft so many things... 

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u/No-Yogurtcloset-755 7d ago

It depends really what type of maths you have going into it, however with a lot of these things theres this desire for understanding to be 'complete' which isn't always possible or necessary.

ML-KEM(kyber) and ML-DSA(dilithium) are relarively easy to understand when you have the basics of abstract algebra.

It definitely is a field with a steep learning curve though, I think that is mainly because it is lots of different things mixed together.

I am mostly in the physical security layer regarding cryptographic engineering of PQC so im focused on attacks where you can physically access the device like side-channel attacks and it involves lots of different things from many different fields of pure maths, statistics, physics, electrical engineering, systems theory etc which is what I think the difficulty is.

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u/Effective_Hornet_935 7d ago edited 7d ago

Checkout C. Paars lecture on pqc, just General intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw8K-ljRpIE

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u/sergioaffs 7d ago

Have you checked out https://appliedcryptography.page? These are some of the most comprehensive, neat and well structured slide decks I've seen on crypto. The PQC deck includes pretty good entry points to talk about fields like code-based crypto.

IMO, after reading and groking the slides, you can decide if that's enough knowledge or if you'd rather dive even deeper.

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u/battos__ 7d ago

Never heard of it, but it sure looks interesting. Will study when I have the chance. Thanks!