IACR News
Here you can see all recent updates to the IACR webpage. These updates are also available:
09 July 2021
Kunal Dey, Sumit Kumar Debnath
ePrint ReportWenshuo Guo, Fang-Wei Fu
ePrint ReportNir Bitansky, Huijia Lin, Omri Shmueli
ePrint Report\begin{itemize} \item A $\log^\star(\lambda)$-round classical protocol based on quantum fully-homomorphic encryption and the quantum hardness of Learning with Errors. \item A polynomial-round classical protocol based on post-quantum oblivious transfer.
\item A polynomial-round quantum protocol based on post-quantum one-way functions. \end{itemize}
Previously, non-malleable commitments with quantum security were only known against a restricted class of adversaries known as synchronizing adversaries. At the heart of our results is a general technique that allows to modularly obtain non-malleable commitments from any extractable commitment protocol, obliviously of the underlying extraction strategy (black-box or non-black-box), round complexity, and whether communication is quantum or classical. The transformation preserves the quantum security of the underlying extractable commitments, and is new even in the classical setting.
Benjamin Wesolowski
ePrint ReportGuangzhou, China, 5 November - 8 November 2021
Event CalendarSubmission deadline: 20 July 2021
Notification: 25 August 2021
Hasso-Plattner-Institute (Potsdam/Berlin, Germany)
Job PostingThe Cybersecurity - Identity Management group at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI), University of Potsdam is looking for motivated PhD students in the area of cryptography and privacy.
Your future tasks- Development and analysis of provably secure cryptographic protocols for real-world problems. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Privacy-enhancing technologies
- Password-based cryptography
- Foundations and solutions for real-world cryptography
- Publish and present results at top-tier international conferences
- Participate in teaching activities (depends on position)
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related area by the time of appointment
- Profound knowledge and interest in the areas of cryptography and IT security
- Fluency in English (written and spoken)
There are two types for the PhD positions: One position comes with a teaching obligation for which also sufficient German language skills are required. Review of applicants will start immediately until the position is filled. The starting date is flexible. The other is through the scholarship program of the HPI. Deadline for scholarship applications is August 15, and the positions usually start around October.
We look forward to your application including a CV, motivation letter and a list of attended Master courses and grades. Please submit your application documents (only as PDF) via email, and indicate the position you are interested in (teaching/scholarship).
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Anja Lehmann (anja . lehmann - at - hpi . de)
More information: https://hpi.de/lehmann/home.html
KU Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven)
Job PostingClosing date for applications:
Contact: For inquiries send an email to jobs-cosic@esat.kuleuven.be
More information: https://www.esat.kuleuven.be/cosic/vacancies/
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Job Posting- Zero-knowledge proofs
- Polynomial/vector commitments
- Searchable/structured encryption
- Oblivious algorithms
- TEE-assisted cryptography
Interested applicants should submit their CV and a single-page research statement. The position is available immediately and on a rolling basis until filled. It will initially be for one year and can be extended given satisfactory performance.
Work environment: The HKUST CSE department was ranked 17th in the world in 2020 by THE World University Rankings. Our graduates typically produce research output of the highest quality and consistently staff world-class institutions. The lab offers a creative work environment that is ideal for excellent research.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Prof. Papadopoulos Dimitrios, dipapado at cse dot ust dot hk
08 July 2021
Orestis Chardouvelis, Giulio Malavolta
ePrint ReportAll of these protocols match the best round complexity known for the corresponding protocols for NP with security against classical adversaries. Along the way, we introduce and construct the notions of sometimes-extractable oblivious transfer and sometimes-simulatable zero-knowledge, which might be of independent interest.
Rogério Pontes, Bernardo Portela, Manuel Barbosa, Ricardo Vilaça
ePrint ReportPyrros Chaidos, Aggelos Kiayias
ePrint ReportIn this work we put forth a new stake-based primitive, stake-based threshold multisignatures (STM, or Mithril signatures), which allows the aggregation of individual signatures into a compact multisignature pro- vided the stake that supports a given message exceeds a stake threshold. This is achieved by having for each message a pseudorandomly sampled subset of participants eligible to issue an individual signature; this ensures the scalability of signing, aggregation and verification.
We formalize the primitive in the universal composition setting and propose efficient constructions for STMs. We also showcase that STMs are eminently useful in the cryptocurrency setting by providing two applications: (i) stakeholder decision-making for Proof of Work (PoW) blockchains, specifically, Bitcoin, and (ii) fast bootstrapping for Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains.
Gal Arnon, Alessandro Chiesa, Eylon Yogev
ePrint ReportWe present a generalization of the PCP theorem for interactive languages. We show that any language decidable by a $k(n)$-round IP has a $k(n)$-round public-coin IOP, where the verifier makes its decision by reading only $O(1)$ bits from each (polynomially long) prover message and $O(1)$ bits from each of its own (random) messages to the prover. Our proof relies on a new notion of PCPs that we construct called index-decodable PCPs, which may be of independent interest.
We are then able to bring transformations that previously applied only for IPs into the realm of IOPs. We show IOP-to-IOP transformations that preserve query complexity and achieve: (i) private-coins to public-coins; (ii) round reduction; and (iii) imperfect to perfect completeness.
Samanvaya Panda
ePrint ReportStefano Barbero, Emanuele Bellini, Carlo Sanna, Javier Verbel
ePrint ReportWe survey the theory behind these probabilistic algorithms, and we illustrate the results that we obtained by implementing them in C. In~particular, for random quadratic Boolean systems, we estimate the practical complexities of the algorithms and their probabilities of success as their parameters change.
06 July 2021
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Event CalendarSubmission deadline: 29 October 2021
Notification: 20 May 2022
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
Job PostingClosing date for applications:
Contact: Mridul Nandi (pnc.asd.isi@gmail.com)
More information: https://www.isical.ac.in/sites/default/files/jobs/Advertisement%20-%20ASD.pdf
University of Klagenfurt, Cybersecurity Research Group
Job PostingWe offer a post-doctoral position until end of August 2023 in the area of side channels as part of the ERC funded project SEAL (Sound and Early Assessment of Leakage for Embedded Software) .
Under the supervision of Prof. Elisabeth Oswald, you will strengthen the existing team of three post-docs and one PhD student working on the SEAL project.
We are looking, in particular, for post docs with an interest in provable leakage resilience, or language/compiler based security (in an embedded software context), but we will consider researchers with a different interest within the side channel area too. You must have prior expertise in side channel related research (or compiler/language based security) (evidenced via papers).
The post will be filled as soon as a viable candidate has been identified.
The Cybersecurity Research group is part of a newly established, vibrant research environment in the sunny south of Austria. We are a team of 10 researchers working across a range of topics in the area of applied cryptography/cybersecurity. You can find an overview of team members, and activities under www.cybersecurityresearch.at.
To apply, please email your CV, and a brief statement why you think you fit the description to the contact below.
For questions, please use the same contact, supplied below.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Elisabeth Oswald, elisabeth . oswald @ aau . at
Seoul, South Korea, 1 December - 3 December 2021
Event CalendarSubmission deadline: 27 August 2021
Notification: 5 November 2021