Elliptic curve cryptosystems([
19],[
25]) are based on the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem(ECDLP). If elliptic curve cryptosystems avoid FR-reduction([
11],[
17]) and anomalous elliptic curve over Fq ([
34],[
3],[
36]), then with current knowledge we can construct elliptic curve cryptosystems over a smaller definition field. ECDLP has an
interesting property that the security deeply depends on elliptic curve traces rather than definition fields, which does not
occur in the case of the discrete logarithm problem(DLP). Therefore it is important to characterize elliptic curve traces
explicitly from the security point of view. As for FR-reduction, supersingular elliptic curves or elliptic curve
E=F
q with trace 2 have been reported to be vulnerable. However unfortunately these have been only results that characterize elliptic
curve traces explicitly for FR- or MOV-reductions. More importantly, the secure trace against FR- reduction has not been reported
at all. Elliptic curves with the secure trace means that the reduced extension degree is always higher than a certain level.
In this paper, we aim at characterizing elliptic curve traces by FR- reduction and investigate explicit conditions of traces
vulnerable or secure against FR-reduction. We show new explicit conditions of elliptic curve traces for FR-reduction. We also
present algorithms to construct such elliptic curves, which have relation to famous number theory problems.
Keywords elliptic curve cryptosystems - trace - FR-reduction - number theory
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to anonymous referees for invaluable comments.