How To Simulate It - A Tutorial on the Simulation Proof Technique

One of the most fundamental notions of cryptography is that of \emph{simulation}. It stands behind the concepts of semantic security, zero knowledge, and security for multiparty computation. However, writing a simulator and proving security via the use of simulation is a non-trivial task, and one that many newcomers to the field often find difficult. In this tutorial, we provide a guide to how to write simulators and prove security via the simulation paradigm. Although we have tried to make this tutorial as stand-alone as possible, we assume some familiarity with the notions of secure encryption, zero-knowledge, and secure computation

Oblivious Sensor Fusion via Secure Multi-Party Combinatorial Filter Evaluation

This thesis examines the problem of fusing data from several sensors, potentially distributed throughout an environment, in order to consolidate readings into a single coherent view. We consider the setting when sensor units do not wish others to know their specific sensor streams. Standard methods for handling this fusion make no guarantees about what a curious observer may learn. Motivated by applications where data sources may only choose to participate if given privacy guarantees, we introduce a fusion approach that limits what can be inferred. Our approach is to form an aggregate stream, oblivious to the underlying sensor data, and to evaluate a combinatorial filter on that stream. This is achieved via secure multi-party computational techniques built on cryptographic primitives, which we extend and apply to the problem of fusing discrete sensor signals. We prove that the extensions preserve security under the semi- honest adversary model. Though the approach enables several applications of potential interest, we specifically consider a target tracking case study as a running example. Finally, we also report on a basic, proof-of-concept implementation, demonstrating that it can operate in practice; which we report and analyze the (empirical) running times for components in the architecture, suggesting directions for future improvement

Skipping Scheme for Gate-hiding Garbled Circuits

In classic settings of garbled circuits, each gate type is leaked to improve both space and speed optimization. Zahur et al. have shown in EUROCRYPT 2015 that a typical linear garbling scheme requires at least two $\lambda$-bit elements per gate with a security parameter of $\lambda$, which limits their efficiency. In contrast to typical garbled circuits, gate-hiding garbled circuits have the potential to drastically reduce time costs, although they have been underappreciated. We propose the first skipping scheme for gate-hiding garbled circuits to enhance the efficiency of evaluation by observing prime implicants. Our scheme introduces skip gates to eliminate the need to calculate the entire circuit, enabling unnecessary execution paths to be avoided. We also introduce two variants of our scheme that balance security with parallelism. A proof of hybrid security that combines simulation-based and symmetry-based security in semi-honest scenarios is presented to demonstrate its security under gate-hiding conditions. Our scheme will inspire new directions to improve the general garbling scheme and lead to more practical ones.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

Depth-Bounded Quantum Cryptography with Applications to One-Time Memory and More

With the power of quantum information, we can achieve exciting and classically impossible cryptographic primitives. However, almost all quantum cryptography faces extreme difficulties with the near-term intermediate-scale quantum technology (NISQ technology); namely, the short lifespan of quantum states and limited sequential computation. At the same time, considering only limited quantum adversaries may still enable us to achieve never-before-possible tasks. In this work, we consider quantum cryptographic primitives against limited quantum adversaries - depth-bounded adversaries. We introduce a model for (depth-bounded) NISQ computers, which are classical circuits interleaved with shallow quantum circuits. Then, we show one-time memory can be achieved against any depth-bounded quantum adversaries introduced in the work, with their depth being any pre-fixed polynomial. Therefore we obtain applications like one-time programs and one-time proofs. Finally, we show our one-time memory has correctness even against constant-rate errors

Secure equality testing protocols in the two-party setting

Protocols for securely testing the equality of two encrypted integers are common building blocks for a number of proposals in the literature that aim for privacy preservation. Being used repeatedly in many cryptographic protocols, designing efficient equality testing protocols is important in terms of computation and communication overhead. In this work, we consider a scenario with two parties where party A has two integers encrypted using an additively homomorphic scheme and party B has the decryption key. Party A would like to obtain an encrypted bit that shows whether the integers are equal or not but nothing more. We propose three secure equality testing protocols, which are more efficient in terms of communication, computation or both compared to the existing work. To support our claims, we present experimental results, which show that our protocols achieve up to 99% computation-wise improvement compared to the state-of-the-art protocols in a fair experimental set-up