An Efficient Hybrid Key Exchange Mechanism

We present \textsc{CHOKE}, a novel code-based hybrid key-encapsulation mechanism (KEM) designed to securely and efficiently transmit multiple session keys simultaneously. By encoding $n$ independent session keys with an individually secure linear code and encapsulating each resulting coded symbol using a separate KEM, \textsc{CHOKE} achieves computational individual security -- each key remains secure as long as at least one underlying KEM remains unbroken. Compared to traditional serial or combiner-based hybrid schemes, \textsc{CHOKE} reduces computational and communication costs by an $n$-fold factor. Furthermore, we show that the communication cost of our construction is optimal under the requirement that each KEM must be used at least once.

@article{kim2025_2505.02499,
  title={ An Efficient Hybrid Key Exchange Mechanism },
  author={ Benjamin D. Kim and Vipindev Adat Vasudevan and Alejandro Cohen and Rafael G. L. DÓliveira and Thomas Stahlbuhk and Muriel Médard },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.02499},
  year={ 2025 }
}