IACR News
Here you can see all recent updates to the IACR webpage. These updates are also available:
31 March 2023
Sebastian Hasler, Toomas Krips, Ralf Küsters, Pascal Reisert, Marc Rivinius
Debranjan Pal, Upasana Mandal, Abhijit Das, Dipanwita Roy Chowdhury
Qinglan Zhao, Mengran Li, Zhixiong Chen, Baodong Qin, Dong Zheng
Moshe Avital, Itamar Levi
Nir Bitansky, Omer Paneth, Dana Shamir, Tomer Solomon
Pratish Datta, Tapas Pal
Nick Frymann, Daniel Gardham, Mark Manulis, Hugo Nartz
In this paper we define a generic approach for building ARKG schemes which can be applied to a wide range of pairing-based cryptosystems. This construction is based on a new building block which we introduce and call Asymmetric Key Generation (AKG) along with its extension $\phi$-AKG where $\phi$ is a suitable mapping for capturing different key structures and types of pairings. We show that appropriate choice of $\phi$ allows us to create a secure ARKG scheme compatible with any key pair that is secure under the Uber assumption (EUROCRYPT 2004).
To demonstrate the extensive range of our general approach, we construct ARKG schemes for a number of popular pairing-based primitives: Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (JoC 2004), Camenisch-Lysyanskaya (CRYPTO 2004), Pointcheval-Sanders (CT-RSA 2016), Waters (EUROCRYPT 2005) signatures and structure-preserving signatures on equivalence classes (ASIACRYPT 2014). For each scheme we give an implementation and provide benchmarks that show the feasibility of our techniques.
David Heath, Vladimir Kolesnikov, Rafail Ostrovsky
We construct a TSC that emulates $T$ steps of any RAM program and that has only $O(T \cdot \log^3 T \cdot \log \log T )$ gates. Contrast this with the reduction to Boolean circuits, where the best known approach scans all of memory on each access, incurring quadratic cost. Thus, while simple, TSCs have expressive power that closely approximates the RAM model.
We connect TSCs with Garbled Computation (GC). TSCs capture the power of garbling far better than Boolean Circuits, offering a significantly more expressive model of computation while leaving the per-gate cost of evaluation essentially unchanged.
Our most exciting explicit result is authenticated Garbled RAM (GRAM), an approach to constant-round maliciously-secure 2PC of RAM programs. Let $\lambda$ denote the computational security parameter. We first extend authenticated garbling to TSCs; then, by simply plugging in our TSC-based RAM, we immediately obtain authenticated GRAM running at cost $O(T \cdot \log^3 T \cdot \log \log T \cdot \lambda)$, outperforming all prior work, including even GRAMs in the semi-honest setting. (Prior GRAMs measure per-access cost for a memory storing large $w = \Omega(\log^2 T)$-bit words; by this metric, our cost is $O(w\cdot \log T \cdot \log\log T \cdot \lambda)$.)
As another highlight of the power of TSCs, we give a simple semi-honest garbling of TSCs based only on one-way functions. This yields standard- assumption-based GRAM at cost $O(T \cdot \log^3 T \cdot \log \log T \cdot \lambda)$, outperforming the best prior GRAM in this setting by more than factor $\lambda$.
Afonso Arriaga, Petra Sala, Marjan Škrobot
In this paper, we provide a novel abstraction of WiKE protocols and present the first game-based security model for WiKE. Our result enables the analysis of security guarantees offered by these cross-layer protocols and allows the study of WiKE's compositional aspects. Further, we address the potential problem of the slow-rate secret-key generation in WiKE due to inadequate environmental conditions that might render WiKE protocols impractical or undesirably slow. We explore a solution to such a problem by bootstrapping a low-entropy key coming as the output of WiKE using a Password Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE). On top of the new security definition for WiKE and those which are well-established for PAKE, we build a compositional WiKE-then-PAKE model and define the minimum security requirements for the safe sequential composition of the two primitives in a black-box manner. Finally, we show the pitfalls of previous ad-hoc attempts to combine WiKE and PAKE.
Hao Guo
29 March 2023
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Applicants should have (a) a doctoral degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Communication, Mathematics or Statistics; (b) an established track record in research and scholarship; (c) expertise in the cryptographic and security research areas; and (d) a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching.
The school will provide highly competitive remuneration packages and assist applicants to apply for various national, provincial and ministerial level talent programs such as “Outstanding Youth Talents Program”, Shanghai “Talents Program”,etc. We will also assist on employment of spouses, schooling for children and medical care.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Chaoping Xing, emial: xingcp@sjtu.edu.cn;
Ni Liang, email: liangni@sjtu.edu
Multiple academic teaching positions (Lecturer/ Assistant Professor/ Associate Professor/ Professor)
Xiamen University Malaysia, Sepang, Malaysia
Xiamen University Malaysia is now seeking highly motivated, committed and qualified individuals for academic teaching positions in computer science and cyber security. Applicants must possess a PhD degree in a related discipline. The ideal candidate is expected to be able to support general computing subjects, as well as cyber security specialization subjects.
Applicants with specific teaching and/or research interests in FOUR OR MORE of the following areas are encouraged to apply:
- Calculus
- Linear Algebra
- Discrete Mathematics
- Probability and Statistics
- Design & Analysis of Algorithms
- Computer Composition
- Operating Systems
- Object-Oriented Programming-C++
- Object-Oriented Programming-Java
- ARM Assembly Language
- Computer Networks and Communication
- Compiler Principles
- Cyber Security
- Modern Cryptography
- Digital Forensics and Investigation
- Network Traffic Monitoring and Analysis
- Advanced Network Attack and Defence Technology
- Malware Analysis
- Cryptanalysis
- Big Data Analytics
- Biometrics
- Blockchain Technology
HOW TO APPLY
Applicants are invited to submit a digital application packet to: iftekhar.salam@xmu.edu.my
The subject line of your email must include: your name, relevant academic discipline, and the specific position for which you are applying for. All application packets must include the following attachments:
- Your current CV with publication (*Asterisk to indicate corresponding author, include Indexing & Quartile);
- Cover letter;
- List of courses from the above that you are able to support;
- Evidence of academic qualifications;
- 3-5 Full-Text publications (if applicable);
- Teaching evaluation (if applicable);
Closing date for applications:
Contact: iftekhar.salam@xmu.edu.my
University of Surrey
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Steve Schneider: s.schneider@surrey.ac.uk
More information: https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?id=13080&forced=2
University of Surrey
The aim of the project is to research and develop algorithms for solving computational problems that are foundational to the security of public key cryptography, both now and in the future. In particular, it will study: the discrete logarithm problem in finite fields of fixed characteristic, for which an efficient classical algorithm is potentially on the horizon; the security of the Legendre pseudo-random function, which is extremely well suited for multi-party computation and is used in the proof of custody construction within Ethereum, but is not so well-studied; and finally the security of supersingular isogeny-based post-quantum cryptography, which although a relatively young field offers many very promising applications. Due to their nature, any cryptographic assumptions based on mathematical constructions are potentially weaker than currently believed, and the project will deepen our understanding and assess the hardness of these natural and fundamental problems.
The postholder will be responsible for conducting research into the three aforementioned areas, working alongside Dr. Granger and in collaboration with the official project partners: the Ethereum Foundation; PQShield; and K.U. Leuven, namely, Prof. Frederik Vercauteren and members of this group within COSIC. The successful applicant is expected to have a PhD (gained or near completion), or equivalent professional experience in computer science or a related subject, in technical areas relevant to the envisioned research.
For informal inquiries about the position, please contact Dr. Robert Granger (r.granger@surrey.ac.uk). This is a fixed term contract for up to 2 years. The application deadline is 16th April 2023.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Dr. Robert Granger
More information: https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?id=13154&forced=2
Mingxun Zhou, Andrew Park, Elaine Shi, Wenting Zheng
Aniket Kate, Easwar Vivek Mangipudi, Pratyay Mukherjee, Hamza Saleem, Sri Aravinda Krishnan Thyagarajan
This preliminary report presents cgVSS, a NI-VSS protocol that uses class groups for encryption. In cgVSS, the dealer encrypts the secret shares in the exponent through a class group encryption such that the parties can directly decrypt their shares. The existence of a subgroup where a discrete logarithm is tractable in a class group allows the receiver to efficiently decrypt the share though it is available in the exponent. This yields a novel-yet-simple VSS protocol where the dealer publishes the encryptions of the shares and the zero-knowledge proof of the correctness of the dealing. The linear homomorphic nature of the employed encryption scheme allows for an efficient zero-knowledge proof of correct sharing. Given the rise in demand for VSS protocols in the blockchain space, especially for publicly verifiable distributed key generation (DKG), our NI-VSS construction can be particularly interesting. We implement our cgVSS protocol using the BICYCL library and compare its performance with the state-of-the-art NI-VSS by Groth. Our protocol reduces the message complexity and the bit length of the broadcast message by at least 5.6x for a 150 party system, with a 1.8x speed-up in the dealer’s computation time and with similar receiver computation times.
Sam Haskins, Trevor Stevado
Diana Ghinea, Chen-Da Liu-Zhang, Roger Wattenhofer
Existing Multidimensional Approximate Agreement protocols achieve resilience against $t_s < n / (D + 1)$ corruptions under a synchronous network where messages are delivered within some time $\Delta$, but become completely insecure as soon as a single message is further delayed. On the other hand, asynchronous solutions do not rely on any delay upper bound, but only achieve resilience up to $t_a < n / (D + 2)$ corruptions.
We investigate the feasibility of achieving Multidimensional Approximate Agreement protocols that achieve simultaneously guarantees in both network settings: We want to tolerate $t_s$ corruptions when the network is synchronous, and also tolerate $t_a \leq t_s$ corruptions when the network is asynchronous. We provide a protocol that works as long as $(D + 1) \cdot t_s + t_a < n$, and matches several existing lower bounds.
28 March 2023
https://pkc.iacr.org/2023/registration.php
Register by April 7th to avoid late fees.
Tokyo, Japan, 15 August - 16 August 2023
Submission deadline: 24 April 2023
Notification: 1 June 2023