Limits to Non-Malleability

There have been many successes in constructing explicit non-malleable codes for various classes of tampering functions in recent years, and strong existential results are also known. In this work we ask the following question: When can we rule out the existence of a non-malleable code for a tampering class ?? First, we start with some classes where positive results are well-known, and show that when these classes are extended in a natural way, non-malleable codes are no longer possible. Specifically, we show that no non-malleable codes exist for any of the following tampering classes: - Functions that change d/2 symbols, where d is the distance of the code; - Functions where each input symbol affects only a single output symbol; - Functions where each of the n output bits is a function of n-log n input bits. Furthermore, we rule out constructions of non-malleable codes for certain classes ? via reductions to the assumption that a distributional problem is hard for ?, that make black-box use of the tampering functions in the proof. In particular, this yields concrete obstacles for the construction of efficient codes for NC, even assuming average-case variants of P ? NC

Extending The Applicability of Non-Malleable Codes

Modern cryptographic systems provide provable security guarantees as long as secret keys of the system remain confidential. However, if adversary learns some bits of information about the secret keys the security of the system can be breached. Side-channel attacks (like power analysis, timing analysis etc.) are one of the most effective tools employed by the adversaries to learn information pertaining to cryptographic secret keys. An adversary can also tamper with secret keys (say flip some bits) and observe the modified behavior of the cryptosystem, thereby leaking information about the secret keys. Dziembowski et al. (JACM 2018) defined the notion of non-malleable codes, a tool to protect memory against tampering. Non-malleable codes ensure that, when a codeword (generated by encoding an underlying message) is modified by some tampering function in a given tampering class, if the decoding of tampered codeword is incorrect then the decoded message is independent of the original message. In this dissertation, we focus on improving different aspects of non-malleable codes. Specifically, (1) we extend the class of tampering functions and present explicit constructions as well as general frameworks for constructing non-malleable codes. While most prior work considered ``compartmentalized" tampering functions, which modify parts of the codeword independently, we consider classes of tampering functions which can tamper with the entire codeword but are restricted in computational complexity. The tampering classes studied in this work include complexity classes $\mathsf{NC}^0$, and $\mathsf{AC}^0$. Also, earlier works focused on constructing non-malleable codes from scratch for different tampering classes, in this work we present a general framework for constructing non-malleable codes based on average-case hard problems for specific tampering families, and we instantiate our framework for various tampering classes including $\mathsf{AC}^0$. (2) The locality of code is the number of codeword blocks required to be accessed in order to decode/update a single block in the underlying message. We improve efficiency and usability by studying the optimal locality of non-malleable codes. We show that locally decodable and updatable non-malleable codes cannot have constant locality. We also give a matching upper bound that improves the locality of previous constructions. (3) We investigate a stronger variant of non-malleable codes called continuous non-malleable codes, which are known to be impossible to construct without computational assumptions. We show that setup assumptions such as common reference string (CRS) are also necessary to construct this stronger primitive. We present construction of continuous non-malleable codes in CRS model from weaker computational assumptions than assumptions used in prior work

Locally Decodable and Updatable Non-Malleable Codes in the Bounded Retrieval Model

In a recent result, Dachman-Soled et al.(TCC \u2715) proposed a new notion called locally decodable and updatable non-malleable codes, which informally, provides the security guarantees of a non-malleable code while also allowing for efficient random access. They also considered locally decodable and updatable non-malleable codes that are leakage-resilient, allowing for adversaries who continually leak information in addition to tampering. The bounded retrieval model (BRM) (cf. [Alwen et al., CRYPTO \u2709] and [Alwen et al., EUROCRYPT \u2710]) has been studied extensively in the setting of leakage resilience for cryptographic primitives. This threat model assumes that an attacker can learn information about the secret key, subject only to the constraint that the overall amount of leaked information is upper bounded by some value. The goal is then to construct cryptosystems whose secret key length grows with the amount of leakage, but whose runtime (assuming random access to the secret key) is independent of the leakage amount. In this work, we combine the above two notions and construct locally decodable and updatable non-malleable codes in the split-state model, that are secure against bounded retrieval adversaries. Specifically, given leakage parameter l, we show how to construct an efficient, 3-split-state, locally decodable and updatable code (with CRS) that is secure against one-time leakage of any polynomial time, 3-split-state leakage function whose output length is at most l, and one-time tampering via any polynomial-time 3-split-state tampering function. The locality we achieve is polylogarithmic in the security parameter

New Techniques for Zero-Knowledge: Leveraging Inefficient Provers to Reduce Assumptions and Interaction

We present a transformation from NIZK with inefficient provers in the uniform random string (URS) model to ZAPs (two message witness indistinguishable proofs) with inefficient provers. While such a transformation was known for the case where the prover is efficient, the security proof breaks down if the prover is inefficient. Our transformation is obtained via new applications of Nisan-Wigderson designs, a combinatorial object originally introduced in the derandomization literature. We observe that our transformation is applicable both in the setting of super-polynomial provers/poly-time adversaries, as well as a new fine-grained setting, where the prover is polynomial time and the verifier/simulator/zero knowledge distinguisher are in a lower complexity class, such as $\mathsf{NC}^1$. We also present $\mathsf{NC}^1$-fine-grained NIZK in the URS model for all of $\mathsf{NP}$ from the worst-case assumption \oplus L/\mathsf{\poly} \not\subseteq \mathsf{NC}^1. Our techniques yield the following applications: 1. ZAPs for $\mathsf{AM}$ from Minicrypt assumptions (with super-polynomial time provers), 2. $\mathsf{NC}^1$-fine-grained ZAPs for $\mathsf{NP}$ from worst-case assumptions, 3. Protocols achieving an offline\u27\u27 notion of NIZK (oNIZK) in the standard (no-CRS) model with uniform soundness in both the super-polynomial setting (from Minicrypt assumptions) and the $\mathsf{NC}^1$-fine-grained setting (from worst-case assumptions). The oNIZK notion is sufficient for use in indistinguishability-based proofs

Lattice Isomorphism as a Group Action and Hard Problems on Quadratic Forms

Group actions have been used as a foundation in Public-key Cryptography to provide a framework for hard problems and assumptions. In this work we formalize the Lattice Isomorphism Problem (LIP) within the context of cryptographic group actions. We show that a quadratic number of queries to a randomized oracle outputting LIP instances sharing the same secret is enough for inverting the group action in polynomial time. We use this result to uncover a family of weak isomorphisms and to derive two new hard problems equivalent to LIP for quadratic forms with trivial automorphism group

Quasi-Cyclic Stern Proof of Knowledge

International audienceThe ongoing NIST standardization process has shown that Proof of Knowledge (PoK) based signatures have become an important type of possible post-quantum signatures. Regarding code-based cryptography, the main original approach for PoK based signatures is the Stern protocol which allows to prove the knowledge of a small weight vector solving a given instance of the Syndrome Decoding (SD) problem over F2. It features a soundness error equal to 2/3. This protocol was improved a few years later by Véron who proposed a variation of the scheme based on the General Syndrome Decoding (GSD) problem which leads to better results in terms of communication. A few years later, the AGS protocol introduced a variation of the Véron protocol based on Quasi-Cyclic (QC) matrices. The AGS protocol permits to obtain an asymptotic soundness error of 1/2 and an improvement in terms of communications. In the present paper, we introduce the Quasi-Cyclic Stern PoK which constitutes an adaptation of the AGS scheme in a SD context, as well as several new optimizations for code-based PoK. Our main optimization on the size of the signature cannot be applied to GSD based protocols such as AGS and therefore motivated the design of our new protocol. In addition, we also provide a special soundness proof that is compatible with the use of the Fiat-Shamir transform for 5-round protocols. This approach is valid for our protocol but also for the AGS protocol which was lacking such a proof. We compare our results with existing signatures including the recent code-based signatures based on PoK leveraging the MPC in the head paradigm. In practice, our new protocol is as fast as AGS while reducing its associated signature length by 20%. As a consequence, it constitutes an interesting trade-off between signature length and execution time for the design of a code-based signature relying only on the difficulty of the SD problem

Partial Key Exposure in Ring-LWE-Based Cryptosystems: Attacks and Resilience

We initiate the study of partial key exposure in ring-LWE-based cryptosystems. Specifically, we - Introduce the search and decision Leaky-RLWE assumptions (Leaky-SRLWE, Leaky-DRLWE), to formalize the hardness of search/decision RLWE under leakage of some fraction of coordinates of the NTT transform of the RLWE secret and/or error. - Present and implement an efficient key exposure attack that, given certain $1/4$-fraction of the coordinates of the NTT transform of the RLWE secret, along with RLWE instances, recovers the full RLWE secret for standard parameter settings. - Present a search-to-decision reduction for Leaky-RLWE for certain types of key exposure. - Analyze the security of NewHope key exchange under partial key exposure of $1/8$-fraction of the secrets and error. We show that, assuming that Leaky-DRLWE is hard for these parameters, the shared key $v$ (which is then hashed using a random oracle) is computationally indistinguishable from a random variable with average min-entropy $238$, conditioned on transcript and leakage, whereas without leakage the min-entropy is $256$

On the Leakage Resilience of Ring-LWE Based Public Key Encryption

We consider the leakage resilience of the Ring-LWE analogue of the Dual-Regev encryption scheme (R-Dual-Regev for short), originally presented by Lyubashevsky et al.~(Eurocrypt \u2713). Specifically, we would like to determine whether the R-Dual-Regev encryption scheme remains IND-CPA secure, even in the case where an attacker leaks information about the secret key. We consider the setting where $R$ is the ring of integers of the $m$-th cyclotomic number field, for $m$ which is a power-of-two, and the Ring-LWE modulus is set to $q \equiv 1 \mod m$. This is the common setting used in practice and is desirable in terms of the efficiency and simplicity of the scheme. Unfortunately, in this setting $R_q$ is very far from being a field so standard techniques for proving leakage resilience in the general lattice setting, which rely on the leftover hash lemma, do not apply. Therefore, new techniques must be developed. In this work, we put forth a high-level approach for proving the leakage resilience of the R-Dual-Regev scheme, by generalizing the original proof of Lyubashevsky et al.~(Eurocrypt \u2713). We then give three instantiations of our approach, proving that the R-Dual-Regev remains IND-CPA secure in the presence of three natural, non-adaptive leakage classes

Non-Malleable Codes for Bounded Depth, Bounded Fan-in Circuits

We show how to construct efficient, unconditionally secure non-malleable codes for bounded output locality. In particular, our scheme is resilient against functions such that any output bit is dependent on at most $n^{\delta}$ bits, where $n$ is the total number of bits in a codeword and $0 \leq \delta < 1$ a constant. Notably, this tampering class includes $\mathsf{NC}^0$

Non-Malleable Codes from Average-Case Hardness: AC0, Decision Trees, and Streaming Space-Bounded Tampering

We show a general framework for constructing non-malleable codes against tampering families with average-case hardness bounds. Our framework adapts ideas from the Naor-Yung double encryption paradigm such that to protect against tampering in a class F, it suffices to have average-case hard distributions for the class, and underlying primitives (encryption and non-interactive, simulatable proof systems) satisfying certain properties with respect to the class. We instantiate our scheme in a variety of contexts, yielding efficient, non-malleable codes (NMC) against the following tampering classes: 1. Computational NMC against AC0 tampering, in the CRS model, assuming a PKE scheme with decryption in AC0 and NIZK. 2. Computational NMC against bounded-depth decision trees (of depth $t^\epsilon$, where $t$ is the number of input variables and constant $0<\epsilon<1$), in the CRS model and under the same computational assumptions as above. 3. Information theoretic NMC (with no CRS) against a streaming, space-bounded adversary, namely an adversary modeled as a read-once branching program with bounded width. Ours are the first constructions that achieve each of the above in an efficient way, under the standard notion of non-malleability