We propose and analyze an interleaved variant of Loidreau's rank-metric cryptosystem based on rank multipliers. We analyze and adapt several attacks on the system, propose design rules, and study weak keys. Finding secure instances requires near-MRD rank-metric codes which are not investigated in the literature. Thus, we propose a random code construction that makes use of the fact that short random codes over large fields are MRD with high probability. We derive an upper bound on the decryption failure rate and give example parameters for potential key size reduction.
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