3,560 research outputs found
Polynomial-Time, Semantically-Secure Encryption Achieving the Secrecy Capacity
In the wiretap channel setting, one aims to get information-theoretic privacy
of communicated data based only on the assumption that the channel from sender
to receiver is noisier than the one from sender to adversary. The secrecy
capacity is the optimal (highest possible) rate of a secure scheme, and the
existence of schemes achieving it has been shown. For thirty years the ultimate
and unreached goal has been to achieve this optimal rate with a scheme that is
polynomial-time. (This means both encryption and decryption are proven
polynomial time algorithms.) This paper finally delivers such a scheme. In fact
it does more. Our scheme not only meets the classical notion of security from
the wiretap literature, called MIS-R (mutual information security for random
messages) but achieves the strictly stronger notion of semantic security, thus
delivering more in terms of security without loss of rate
The chaining lemma and its application
We present a new information-theoretic result which we call the Chaining Lemma. It considers a so-called “chain” of random variables, defined by a source distribution X(0)with high min-entropy and a number (say, t in total) of arbitrary functions (T1,…, Tt) which are applied in succession to that source to generate the chain (Formula presented). Intuitively, the Chaining Lemma guarantees that, if the chain is not too long, then either (i) the entire chain is “highly random”, in that every variable has high min-entropy; or (ii) it is possible to find a point j (1 ≤ j ≤ t) in the chain such that, conditioned on the end of the chain i.e. (Formula presented), the preceding part (Formula presented) remains highly random. We think this is an interesting information-theoretic result which is intuitive but nevertheless requires rigorous case-analysis to prove. We believe that the above lemma will find applications in cryptography. We give an example of this, namely we show an application of the lemma to protect essentially any cryptographic scheme against memory tampering attacks. We allow several tampering requests, the tampering functions can be arbitrary, however, they must be chosen from a bounded size set of functions that is fixed a prior
Security analysis of standard authentication and key agreement protocols utilising timestamps
We propose a generic modelling technique that can be used to extend existing frameworks for theoretical security analysis in order to capture the use of timestamps. We apply this technique to two of the most popular models adopted in literature (Bellare-Rogaway and Canetti-Krawczyk). We analyse previous results obtained using these models in light of the proposed extensions, and demonstrate their application to a new class of protocols. In the timed CK model we concentrate on modular design and analysis of protocols, and propose a more efficient timed authenticator relying on timestamps. The structure of this new authenticator implies that an authentication mechanism standardised in ISO-9798 is secure. Finally, we use our timed extension to the BR model to establish the security of an efficient ISO protocol for key transport and unilateral entity authentication
Implementation of higher-order absorbing boundary conditions for the Einstein equations
We present an implementation of absorbing boundary conditions for the
Einstein equations based on the recent work of Buchman and Sarbach. In this
paper, we assume that spacetime may be linearized about Minkowski space close
to the outer boundary, which is taken to be a coordinate sphere. We reformulate
the boundary conditions as conditions on the gauge-invariant
Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli scalars. Higher-order radial derivatives are eliminated
by rewriting the boundary conditions as a system of ODEs for a set of auxiliary
variables intrinsic to the boundary. From these we construct boundary data for
a set of well-posed constraint-preserving boundary conditions for the Einstein
equations in a first-order generalized harmonic formulation. This construction
has direct applications to outer boundary conditions in simulations of isolated
systems (e.g., binary black holes) as well as to the problem of
Cauchy-perturbative matching. As a test problem for our numerical
implementation, we consider linearized multipolar gravitational waves in TT
gauge, with angular momentum numbers l=2 (Teukolsky waves), 3 and 4. We
demonstrate that the perfectly absorbing boundary condition B_L of order L=l
yields no spurious reflections to linear order in perturbation theory. This is
in contrast to the lower-order absorbing boundary conditions B_L with L<l,
which include the widely used freezing-Psi_0 boundary condition that imposes
the vanishing of the Newman-Penrose scalar Psi_0.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. Minor clarifications. Final version to appear in
Class. Quantum Grav
Lower bounds for polynomials using geometric programming
We make use of a result of Hurwitz and Reznick, and a consequence of this
result due to Fidalgo and Kovacec, to determine a new sufficient condition for
a polynomial of even degree to be a sum of
squares. This result generalizes a result of Lasserre and a result of Fidalgo
and Kovacec, and it also generalizes the improvements of these results given in
[6]. We apply this result to obtain a new lower bound for , and we
explain how can be computed using geometric programming. The lower
bound is generally not as good as the lower bound introduced
by Lasserre and Parrilo and Sturmfels, which is computed using semidefinite
programming, but a run time comparison shows that, in practice, the computation
of is much faster. The computation is simplest when the highest degree
term of has the form , , . The
lower bounds for established in [6] are obtained by evaluating the
objective function of the geometric program at the appropriate feasible points
Everyday stranger harassment and coping among Asian Indian and U.S. students
In this project, the researcher investigated the impact of everyday stranger harassment (ESH) on
body shame, body surveillance, control beliefs, and fear of rape among U.S. and Asian Indian
female college students. Strategies used by women to cope with ESH also were examined. The
project consisted of a pilot and main study. In the pilot study, relying on the Systematic Test of
Equivalence Procedure (STEP), feedback was sought from experts who had experience
conducting research in India in the area of ESH. Results indicated that self-report surveys and
Likert response formats can be utilized in India with college students. Expert feedback also was
used to linguistically modify items on the scales administered and add new items to the Coping
with ESH scale. Employing these two sets of procedures helped to improve the overall validity
of the instruments so that they were relevant in the Asian Indian cultural setting. In the main
study, 250 U.S. and 259 Asian Indian college students were recruited. Results revealed that there
were no differences in the frequency with which U.S. and Asian Indian participants experienced
ESH. Additionally, among U.S. participants, passive coping with ESH moderated the
relationship between verbal pressure (evaluative verbal comments from strangers) and body
shame (feeling ashamed about one’s body because it does not match cultural standards of
beauty). In the Asian Indian population, passive coping with ESH mediated the relationship of
verbal pressure with body control beliefs (the degree of perceived control over one’s appearance)
and body shame. In both the U.S. and Asian Indian samples, verbal pressure had an indirect,
positive relationship with fear of rape (fear of being victimized by stranger rape) via body shame.
The findings of the main study highlight the direct and indirect relationship of verbal pressure on
body shame and fear of rape. All of the results are discussed in terms of prior research on ESH,
facets of the U.S. and India culture, objectification theory, and the shadow hypothesis.
Implications for theory, research, and practice also are presented.Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and CounselingThesis (Ph. D.
Forward-Security in Private-Key Cryptography
This paper provides a comprehensive treatment of forward-security in the context of sharedkey based cryptographic primitives, as a practical means to mitigate the damage caused by key-exposure. We provide definitions of security, practical proven-secure constructions, and applications for the main primitives in this area. We identify forward-secure pseudorandom bit generators as the central primitive, providing several constructions and then showing how forward-secure message authentication schemes and symmetric encryption schemes can be built based on standard schemes for these problems coupled with forward-secure pseudorandom bit generators. We then apply forward-secure message authentication schemes to the problem of maintaining secure access logs in the presence of break-ins
Efficient public-key cryptography with bounded leakage and tamper resilience
We revisit the question of constructing public-key encryption and signature schemes with security in the presence of bounded leakage and tampering memory attacks. For signatures we obtain the first construction in the standard model; for public-key encryption we obtain the first construction free of pairing (avoiding non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs). Our constructions are based on generic building blocks, and, as we show, also admit efficient instantiations under fairly standard number-theoretic assumptions.
The model of bounded tamper resistance was recently put forward by Damgård et al. (Asiacrypt 2013) as an attractive path to achieve security against arbitrary memory tampering attacks without making hardware assumptions (such as the existence of a protected self-destruct or key-update mechanism), the only restriction being on the number of allowed tampering attempts (which is a parameter of the scheme). This allows to circumvent known impossibility results for unrestricted tampering (Gennaro et al., TCC 2010), while still being able to capture realistic tampering attack
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