A New Signcryption Scheme Using Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem

Abstract

Signcryption is a modern cryptographic technique that merges the functionalities of digital signature and encryption into a single logical step, providing both confidentiality and authentication more efficiently than traditional methods. With the increasing demand for secure and lightweight communication in mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) environments, the development of efficient signcryption protocols has become critical. This paper proposes a novel elliptic curve-based signcryption scheme that is exclusively founded on the hardness of the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP), eliminating the use of modular exponentiation
and pairing operations, which are computationally expensive in resource-constrained platforms. The proposed scheme is composed of five main phases: initialization, partial private key extraction, user key generation, signcryption, and unsigncryption. Formal analysis confirms that it satisfies essential security properties, including confidentiality, integrity, unforgeability, non-repudiation, forward secrecy, and public verifiability. These properties are achieved under standard cryptographic assumptions without compromising efficiency. Performance evaluation was conducted through comparative analysis and runtime testing. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves comparable or improved computational efficiency relative to several recent elliptic curve-based schemes, particularly the lightweight signcryption protocol. In conclusion, this study presents a secure, scalable, and implementation-friendly signcryption solution that aligns with the cryptographic requirements of modern digital communication, offering a promising direction for secure transactions in IoT ecosystems, mobile applications, and embedded systems.