International Association for Cryptologic Research

# IACR News Central

You can also access the full news archive.

Further sources to find out about changes are CryptoDB, ePrint RSS, ePrint Web, Event calender (iCal).

2013-10-05
15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

In this paper, we describe new techniques in meet-in-the-middle attacks. Our basic technique is called a \\emph{linear key sieve} since it exploits as filtering conditions linear dependencies between key bits that are guessed from both sides of the attack. This should be contrasted with related previous attacks, which only exploited

a \\emph{linear state sieve} (i.e., linear dependencies between state bits that are computed from

both sides of the attack). We apply these techniques to the lightweight block cipher LED-64, and improve some of the best known attacks on step-reduced variants of this cipher in all attack models. As a first application of the linear key sieve, we describe a chosen plaintext attack on 2-step LED-64, which reduces the time complexity of the

best previously published attack on this variant from $2^{56}$ to $2^{48}$. Then, we present the first attack on 2-step LED-64 in the \\emph{known plaintext model}. In this attack, we show for the first time that the splice-and-cut technique (which inherently requires chosen messages) can also be applied in the known plaintext model, and we use the linear key sieve in order to obtain an attack with the same time complexity as our chosen plaintext attack. Finally, we describe a related-key attack on 3-step LED-64 which improves the best previously published attack (presented at Asiacrypt 2012) in all the complexity parameters of time/data/memory from $2^{60}$ to $2^{49}$. As our first two single-key attacks, the related-key attack is also based on the linear key sieve, but it uses additional techniques in differential meet-in-the-middle which are interesting in their own right.

15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

The relation between cryptographic key lengths and security depends on the cryptosystem used. This leads to confusion and to insecure parameter choices. In this note a universal security measure is proposed that puts all cryptographic primitives on the same footing, thereby making it easier to get comparable security across the board.

15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

Side-Channel Analysis (SCA) is commonly used to recover secret keys involved in the implementation of publicly known cryptographic algorithms. On the other hand, Side-Channel Analysis for Reverse Engineering (SCARE) considers an adversary who aims at recovering the secret design of some cryptographic algorithm from its implementation. Most of previously published SCARE attacks enable the recovery of some secret parts of a cipher design --{\\it e.g.} the substitution box(es)-- assuming that the rest of the cipher is known. Moreover, these attacks are often based on idealized leakage assumption where the adversary recovers noise-free side-channel information. In this paper, we address these limitations and describe a generic SCARE attack that can recover the full secret design of any iterated block cipher with common structure. Specifically we consider the family of Substitution-Permutation Networks with either a classical structure (as the AES) or with a Feistel structure. Based on a simple and usual assumption on the side-channel leakage we show how to recover all parts of the design of such ciphers. We then relax our assumption and describe a practical SCARE attack that deals with noisy side-channel leakages.

15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

We investigate the problem of algebraic manipulation detection (AMD) over a communication channel that partially leaks information to an adversary. We assume the adversary is computationally unbounded and there is no shared key or correlated randomness between the sender and the receiver. We introduce leakage-resilient (LR)-AMD codes to detect algebraic manipulation in this model.

We consider two leakage models. The first model, called \\emph{linear leakage}, requires the adversary\'s uncertainty (entropy) about the message (or encoding randomness) to be a constant fraction of its length. This model can be seen as an extension of the original AMD study by Cramer et al. \\cite{CDFPW08} to when some leakage to the adversary is allowed. We study \\emph{randomized strong} and \\emph{deterministic weak} constructions of linear (L)LR-AMD codes. We derive lower and upper bounds on the redundancy of these codes and show that known optimal (in rate) AMD code constructions can serve as optimal LLR-AMD codes. In the second model, called \\emph{block leakage}, the message consists of a sequence of blocks and at least one block remains with uncertainty that is a constant fraction of the block length. We focus on deterministic block (B)LR-AMD codes. We observe that designing optimal such codes is more challenging: LLR-AMD constructions cannot function optimally under block leakage. We thus introduce a new optimal BLR-AMD code construction and prove its security in the model.

We show an application of LR-AMD codes to tampering detection over wiretap channels. We next show how to compose our BLR-AMD construction, with a few other keyless primitives, to provide both integrity and confidentiality in transmission of messages/keys over such channels. This is the best known solution in terms of randomness and code redundancy. We discuss our results and suggest directions for future research.

15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

We present an adaptively secure functional encryption (FE) scheme based on

deterministic finite automata (DFA). The construction uses composite-order bilinear

pairings and is built upon the selectively secure DFA-based FE scheme of Waters (Crypto 2012).

The scheme is proven secure using the dual system methodology under static subgroup decision assumptions.

A dual system proof requires generating of semi-functional components from the instance.

In addition, these components must be shown to be properly distributed in an attacker\'s view.

This can be ensured by imposing a restriction on the automata and strings over which the

scheme is built i.e., every symbol can appear at most once in a string and in the set of

transition tuples of an automata.

First a basic construction with the restrictions is obtained and proved to be adaptively secure.

We then show how to extend this basic scheme to a full scheme where the restrictions can be relaxed

by placing a bound on the number of occurrences of any symbol in a string and in

the set of transitions. With the relaxed restrictions, our system

supports functionality defined by a larger class of regular languages.

15:17 [Pub][ePrint]

Block ciphers use Substitution boxes (S-boxes) to create confusion into the cryptosystems. Functions used as S-boxes should have low differential uniformity, high nonlinearity and algebraic degree larger than 3 (preferably strictly larger). They should be fastly computable; from this viewpoint, it is better when they are in even number of variables. In addition, the functions should be bijections in a Substitution-Permutation Network. Almost perfect nonlinear (APN) functions have the lowest differential uniformity 2 and the existence of APN bijections over $\\F_{2^n}$ for even $n\\ge 8$ is a big open problem. In the present paper, we focus on constructing differentially 4-uniform bijections suitable for designing S-boxes for block ciphers. Based on the idea of permuting the inverse function, we design a construction providing a large number of differentially 4-uniform bijections with maximum algebraic degree and high nonlinearity. For every even $n\\ge 12$, we mathematically prove that the functions in a subclass of the constructed class are CCZ-inequivalent to known differentially 4-uniform power functions and to quadratic functions. This is the first mathematical proof that an infinite class of differentially 4-uniform bijections is CCZ-inequivalent to known differentially 4-uniform power functions and to quadratic functions. We also get a general lower bound on the nonlinearity of our functions, which can be very high in some cases, and obtain three improved lower bounds on the nonlinearity for three special subcases of functions which are extremely large.

2013-10-04
23:47 [Event][New]

Submission: 10 March 2014
From June 21 to June 25
Location: Oxford, England

06:34 [Event][New]

Submission: 15 December 2013
From April 13 to April 15
Location: Paris, France

06:25 [Job][New]

Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, www.compute.dtu.dk/english would like to invite applications for two Postdoc positions of each 18 months, both starting 1 January 2014 or soon thereafter. The topic of the project is lightweight cryptology, which regards scenarios involving strongly resource-constrained devices.

Candidates for the first postdoc position should have a strong cryptanalytic and mathematical background and be able to analyze the security of ciphers to be designed. Candidates for the second postdoc should have a solid background in hardware design and automation and be able to work on the physical constraints and optimization of the hardware implementations.

06:25 [Job][New]

Applications are invited for Lectureships in Secure Digital Systems to undertake research in Data, Network and/or Malware security within the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), which is part of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EEECS). Candidates will also be required to undertake lecturing duties at undergraduate and post-graduate level and to actively engage in major research with industry.

Applicants must have at least a 2:1 Honours Degree (or equivalent) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or closely related discipline and a PhD, or expect, within 6 months, to obtain a PhD, in a relevant subject. Evidence of high quality research in a relevant field commensurate with stage of academic career, or extensive industrial experience in a relevant area, is essential. Applicants with research expertise in one or more of the following areas are strongly encouraged to apply: applied cryptography, side channel analysis, security protocols, malware/botnet analysis, network forensics, cloud security, threat and attack mitigation, insider threat behaviour, software security.

2013-10-01
21:17 [Pub][ePrint]

The goal of general-purpose program obfuscation is to make an arbitrary computer program unintelligible\'\' while preserving its functionality. At least as far back as the work of Diffie and Hellman in 1976, researchers have contemplated applications of general-purpose obfuscation. However, until 2013, even heuristic constructions for general-purpose obfuscation were not known.

This changed with the work of Garg, Gentry, Halevi, Raykova, Sahai, and Waters ({FOCS 2013}), which gave the first candidate construction of general-purpose obfuscation. The heart of their construction is an obfuscator for log-depth (\\textbf{NC$^1$}) circuits, building upon a simplified subset of the Approximate Multilinear Maps framework of Garg, Gentry, and Halevi ({Eurocrypt 2013}) that they call Multilinear Jigsaw Puzzles.

Given the importance of general-purpose obfuscation, it is imperative that we gain as much confidence as possible in candidates for general-purpose obfuscation. In this work, we focus on the following question: Do there exist \\emph{algebraic} attacks (a.k.a. generic multilinear attacks) against candidate constructions of general-purpose obfuscation? Indeed, Garg \\emph{et al.} posed

the problem of proving that there exist no generic multilinear attacks against their core \\textbf{NC$^1$} scheme as a major open problem in their work. Solving this problem will give us essential evidence that mathematical approaches to general purpose obfuscation introduced by Garg \\emph{et al.} are sound.

This problem was first addressed in the recent work of Brakerski and Rothblum (eprint 2013), who constructed a variant of the Garg \\emph{et al.} candidate obfuscator, and proved that it achieves the strongest definition of security for general-purpose obfuscation --- Virtual Black Box (VBB) security --- against

all generic multilinear attacks, albeit under an unproven assumption they introduce as the Bounded Speedup Hypothesis, which strengthens the Exponential Time Hypothesis.

In this work, we resolve the open problem of Garg \\emph{et al.} completely, by removing the need for this additional assumption. More specifically, we describe

a different (and arguably simpler) variant of the construction of Garg \\emph{et al.}, for which we can prove that it achieves Virtual Black Box security against

all generic multilinear attacks, \\emph{with no further assumptions}.