It was recently discovered by Joux [30] and Sakai, Ohgishi and Kasahara [47] that bilinear maps could be used to construct cryptographic schemes. Since then, bilinear maps have been used in applications as varied as identity-based encryption, short signatures and one-round tripartite key agreement. This thesis explains the notion of bilinear maps and surveys the applications of bilinear maps in the three main fields of cryptography: encryption, signature and key agreement. We also show how these maps can be constructed using the Weil and Tate pairings in elliptic curves.

It was recently discovered by Joux [30] and Sakai, Ohgishi and Kasahara [47] that bilinear maps could be used to construct cryptographic schemes. Since then, bilinear maps have been used in applications as varied as identity-based encryption, short signatures and one-round tripartite key agreement. This thesis explains the notion of bilinear maps and surveys the applications of bilinear maps in the three main fields of cryptography: encryption, signature and key agreement. We also show how these maps can be constructed using the Weil and Tate pairings in elliptic curves.