| A large section of public-key cryptography relies on cryptosystems that are based on the discrete logarithm problem. In 1989 Koblitz showed that hyperelliptic curves could be used to create a system analogous to that of discrete logarithms in which to perform cryptographic operations. This thesis provides a brief overview of the usefulness and mathematics behind elliptic and hyperelliptic curve cryptography, and provides an open source C implementation of hyperelliptic curve utilities that, amongst others, can be used for cryptographic purposes.; The software developed in this thesis is written in C and can be used for multiple purposes including furthering research in this area as well as implementing cryptosystems based on hyperelliptic curves. |
