Attribute-based encryption (ABE) enables encryption of messages under access policies so that only users with attributes satisfying the policy can decrypt the ciphertext. In standard ABE, an arbitrary number of colluding users, each without an authorized attribute set, cannot decrypt the ciphertext. However, all existing ABE schemes rely on concrete cryptographic assumptions such as the hardness of certain problems over bilinear maps or integer lattices. Furthermore, it is known that ABE cannot be constructed from generic assumptions such as public-key encryption using black-box techniques. In this work, we revisit the problem of constructing ABE that tolerates collusions of arbitrary but a priori bounded size. We present an ABE scheme secure against bounded collusions that requires only semantically secure public-key encryption. Our scheme achieves significant improvement in the size of the public parameters, secret keys, and ciphertexts over the previous construction of bounded-collusion ABE from minimal assumptions by Gorbunov et al. (CRYPTO 2012). We also obtain bounded-collusion symmetric-key ABE (which requires the secret key for encryption) by replacing the public-key encryption with symmetric-key encryption, which can be built from the minimal assumption of one-way functions.

In this work we study the problem of private set-intersection in the multi-party setting and design two protocols with the following improvements compared to prior work. First, our protocols are designed in the so-called star network topology, where a designated party communicates with everyone else, and take a new approach of leveraging the 2PC protocol of [FreedmanNP04]. This approach minimizes the usage of a broadcast channel, where our semi-honest protocol does not make any use of such a channel and all communication is via point-to-point channels. In addition, the communication complexity of our protocols scales with the number of parties. More concretely, (1) our first semi-honest secure protocol implies communication complexity that is linear in the input sizes, namely $O((\sum_{i=1}^n m_i)\cdot\kappa)$ bits of communication where $\kappa$ is the security parameter and $m_i$ is the size of $P_i$'s input set, whereas overall computational overhead is quadratic in the input sizes only for a designated party, and linear for the rest. We further reduce this overhead by employing two types of hashing schemes. (2) Our second protocol is proven secure in the malicious setting. This protocol induces communication complexity $O((n^2 + nm_\maxx + nm_\minn\log m_\maxx)\kappa)$ bits of communication where $m_\minn$ (resp. $m_\maxx$) is the minimum (resp. maximum) over all input sets sizes and $n$ is the number of parties.

Achieving constant-round adaptively secure protocols (where all parties can be corrupted) in the plain model is a notoriously hard problem. Very recently, three works published in TCC 2015 (Dachman-Soled et al., Garg and Polychroniadou, Canetti et al.), solved the problem in the Common Reference String (CRS) model. In this work, we present a constant-round adaptive UC-secure computation protocol for all well-formed functionalities in the tamper-proof hardware model using stateless tokens from only one-way functions. In contrast, all prior works in the CRS model require very strong assumptions, in particular, the existence of indistinguishability obfuscation. As a corollary to our techniques, we present the first adaptively secure protocols in the Random Oracle Model (ROM) with round complexity proportional to the depth of circuit implementing the functionality. Our protocols are secure in the Global Random Oracle Model introduced recently by Canetti, Jain and Scafuro in CCS 2014 that provides strong compositional guarantees. More precisely, we obtain an adaptively secure UC-commitment scheme in the global ROM assuming only one-way functions. In comparison, the protocol of Canetti, Jain and Scafuro achieves only static security and relies on the specific assumption of Discrete Diffie-Hellman assumption (DDH).

We show that the recent structure-preserving signature (SPS) scheme of Kiltz, Pan and Wee [CRYPTO 2015], provably secure under the standard bilinear pairings group assumption SXDH, can be improved to have one less group element and one less pairing product equation in the signature verification step. Our improved SPS scheme only requires six group elements (five in one group, and one in the other), and two pairing product equations for verification. The number of pairing product equations is optimal, as it matches a known lower bound of Abe et al [CRYPTO 2011]. The number of group elements in the signature also approaches the known lower bound of four for SXDH assumption. Further, while the earlier scheme had a security reduction which incurred a security loss that is quadratic in number of queries $Q$, our novel security reduction incurs only a $Q \log{Q}$ factor loss in security. Structure-preserving signatures are used pervasively in group signatures, group encryptions, blind signatures, proxy signatures and many other anonymous credential applications. Our work directly leads to improvements in these schemes. Moreover, the improvements are usually of a higher multiplicative factor order, as these constructions use Groth-Sahai NIZK proofs for zero-knowledge verification of pairing-product equations. We also give our construction under the more general and standard $\D_k$-MDDH (Matrix-DDH) assumption. The signature size in our scheme is $3k+2$ elements in one group, and one element in the other. The number of pairing product equations required for verification is only $2k$, whereas the earlier schemes required at least $2k+1$ equations.

We point out the risks of protecting relational databases via Searchable Symmetric Encryption (SSE) schemes by proposing an inference attack exploiting the structural properties of relational databases. We show that record-injection attacks mounted on relational databases have worse consequences than their file-injection counterparts on un- structured databases. Moreover, we discuss some techniques to reduce the effectiveness of inference attacks exploiting the access pattern leakage existing in SSE schemes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that investigates the security of relational databases protected by SSE schemes.

We propose a new generic framework for constructing fully secure attribute based encryption (ABE) in multilinear settings. It is applicable in a generic manner to any predicates. Previous generic frameworks of this kind are given only in bilinear group settings, where applicable predicate classes are limited. Our framework provides an abstraction of dual system paradigms over composite-order graded multilinear encoding schemes in a black-box manner. As applications, we propose new fully secure ABE systems for general predicates, namely, ABE for circuits. We obtain two schemes for each of key-policy (KP) and ciphertext-policy (CP) variants of ABE. All of our four fully secure schemes can deal with unbounded-size circuits, while enjoy succinctness, meaning that the key and ciphertext sizes are (less than or) proportional to corresponding circuit sizes. In the CP-ABE case, no scheme ever achieves such properties, even when considering selectively secure systems. Furthermore, our second KP-ABE achieves constant-size ciphertexts, whereas our second CP-ABE achieves constant-size keys. Previous ABE systems for circuits are either selectively secure (Gorbunov et al. STOC'13, Garg et al. Crypto'13, and subsequent works), or semi-adaptively secure (Brakerski and Vaikuntanathan Crypto'16), or fully-secure but not succinct and restricted to bounded-size circuits (Garg et al. ePrint 2014/622, and Garg et al. TCC'16-A).

When data maintained in a decentralized fashion needs to be synchronized or exchanged between different databases, related data sets usually get associated with a unique identifier. While this approach facilitates cross-domain data exchange, it also comes with inherent drawbacks in terms of controllability. As data records can easily be linked, no central authority can limit or control the information flow. Worse, when records contain sensitive personal data, as is for instance the case in national social security systems, such linkability poses a massive security and privacy threat. An alternative approach is to use domain-specific pseudonyms, where only a central authority knows the cross-domain relation between the pseudonyms. However, current solutions require the central authority to be a fully trusted party, as otherwise it can provide false conversions and exploit the data it learns from the requests. We propose an (un)linkable pseudonym system that overcomes those limitations, and enables controlled yet privacy-friendly exchange of distributed data. We prove our protocol secure in the UC framework and provide an efficient instantiation based on discrete-logarithm related assumptions.

Verifiable Random Functions (VRFs) as introduced by Micali, Rabin and Vadhan are a special form of Pseudo Random Functions (PRFs) wherein a secret key holder can also prove validity of the function evaluation relative to a statistically binding commitment. Prior works have approached the problem of constructing VRFs by proposing a candidate under specific number theoretic setting --- mostly in bilinear groups --- and then grapple with the challenges of proving security in the VRF environments. These constructions achieved different results and tradeoffs in practical efficiency, tightness of reductions and cryptographic assumptions. In this work we take a different approach. Instead of tackling the VRF problem as a whole we demonstrate a simple and generic way of building Verifiable Random Functions from more basic and narrow cryptographic primitives. Then we can turn to exploring solutions to these primitives with a more focused mindset. In particular, we show that VRFs can be constructed generically from the ingredients of: (1) a 1-bounded constrained pseudo random function for a functionality that is ``admissible hash friendly" , (2) a non-interactive statistically binding commitment scheme (without trusted setup) and (3) a non-interactive witness indistinguishable proofs or NIWIs. The first primitive can be replaced with a more basic puncturable PRF constraint if one is willing to settle for selective security or assume sub-exponential hardness of assumptions. In the second half of our work we support our generic approach by giving new constructions of the underlying primitives. We first provide new constructions of perfectly binding commitments from the Learning with Errors (LWE) and Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) assumptions. Second, we give give two new constructions of 1-bounded constrained PRFs for admissible hash friendly constructions. Our first construction is from the $\nddh$ assumption. The next is from the $\phi$ hiding assumption.

Over the years, SSL/TLS has become an essential part of Internet security. As such, it should offer robust and state-of-the-art security, in particular for HTTPS, its first application. Theoretically, the protocol allows for a trade-off between secure algorithms and decent performance. Yet in practice, servers do not always support the latest version of the protocol, nor do they all enforce strong cryptographic algorithms. To assess the quality of HTTPS and other TLS deployment at large, several studies have been led to grasp the state of the ecosystem, and to characterize the quality of certificate chains in particular. In this paper, we propose to analyse some of the existing data concerning TLS measures on the Internet. We studied several datasets, from the first public ones in 2010 to more recent scans. Even if the collection methodology and the used tools vary between campaigns, we propose a unified and reproducible way to analyse the TLS ecosystem through different datasets. Our approach is based on a set of open-source tools, concerto. Our contribution is therefore threefold: an analysis of existing datasets to propose a unified methodology, the implementation of our approach with concerto, and the presentation of some results to validate our toolsets.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are operated by a handful of mining pools. Nearly $95\%$ of Bitcoin's and $80\%$ of Ethereum's mining power resides with less than ten and six mining pools respectively. Although miners benefit from low payout variance in pooled mining, centralized mining pools require members to trust that pool operators will remunerate them fairly. Furthermore, centralized pools pose the risk of transaction censorship from pool operators, and open up possibilities for collusion between pools for perpetrating severe attacks. In this work, we propose SmartPool, a novel protocol design for a decentralized mining pool. Our protocol shows how one can leverage {\em smart contracts}, autonomous blockchain programs, to decentralize cryptocurrency mining. SmartPool gives transaction selection control back to miners while yielding low-variance payouts. SmartPool incurs mining fees lower than centralized mining pools and is designed to scale to a large number of miners. We implemented and deployed a robust SmartPool implementation on the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic networks. To date, our deployed pools have handled a peak hashrate of 30 GHs from Ethereum miners, resulting in $105$ blocks, costing miners a mere $0.6\%$ of block rewards in transaction fees.

{\em Verifiable random functions} (VRFs) are pseudorandom functions where the owner of the seed, in addition to computing the function's value $y$ at any point $x$, can also generate a non-interactive proof $\pi$ that $y$ is correct, without compromising pseudorandomness at other points. Being a natural primitive with a wide range of applications, considerable efforts have been directed towards the construction of such VRFs. While these efforts have resulted in a variety of algebraic constructions (from bilinear maps or the RSA problem), the relation between VRFs and other general primitives is still not well understood. We present new constructions of VRFs from general primitives, the main one being {\em non-interactive witness-indistinguishable proofs} (NIWIs). This includes: \begin{itemize} \item A selectively-secure VRF assuming NIWIs and non-interactive commitments. As usual, the VRF can be made adaptively-secure assuming subexponential hardness of the underlying primitives. \item An adaptively-secure VRF assuming (polynomially-hard) NIWIs, non-interactive commitments, and {\em (single-key) constrained pseudorandom functions} for a restricted class of constraints. \end{itemize} The above primitives can be instantiated under various standard assumptions, which yields corresponding VRF instantiations, under different assumptions than were known so far. One notable example is a non-uniform construction of VRFs from subexponentially-hard trapdoor permutations, or more generally, from {\em verifiable pseudorandom generators} (the construction can be made uniform under a standard derandomization assumption). This partially answers an open question by Dwork and Naor (FOCS '00). The construction and its analysis are quite simple. Both draw from ideas commonly used in the context of {\em indistinguishability obfuscation}.

We present an algorithm for the approximate $k$-List problem for the Euclidean distance that improves upon the Bai-Laarhoven-Stehle (BLS) algorithm from ANTS'16. The improvement stems from the observation that almost all the solutions to the approximate $k$-List problem form a particular configuration in $n$-dimensional space. Due to special properties of configurations, it is much easier to verify whether a $k$-tuple forms a configuration rather than checking whether it gives a solution to the $k$-List problem. Thus, phrasing the $k$-List problem as a problem of finding such configurations immediately gives a better algorithm. Furthermore, the search for configurations can be sped up using techniques from Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH). Stated in terms of configuration-search, our LSH-like algorithm offers a broader picture on previous LSH algorithms. For the Shortest Vector Problem, our configuration-search algorithm results in an exponential improvement for memory-efficient sieving algorithms. For $k=3$, it allows us to bring down the complexity of the BLS sieve algorithm on an $n$-dimensional lattice from $2^{0.4812n+o(n)}$ to $2^{0.3962n + o(n)}$ with the same space-requirement $2^{0.1887n + o(n)}$. Note that our algorithm beats the Gauss Sieve algorithm with time resp. space requirements of $2^{0.415n+o(n)}$ resp. $2^{0.208n + o(n)}$, while being easy to implement. Using LSH techniques, we can further reduce the time complexity down to $2^{0.3717n + o(n)}$ while retaining a memory complexity of $2^{0.1887n+o(n)}$.

Many modern block ciphers are constructed based on the paradigm of substitution-permutation networks (SPNs). But, somewhat surprisingly---especially in comparison with Feistel networks, which have been analyzed by dozens of papers going back to the seminal work of Luby and Rackoff---there are essentially no provable-security results about SPNs. In this work, we initiate a comprehensive study of the security of SPNs as strong pseudorandom permutations when the underlying "$S$-box" is modeled as a public random permutation. We show that 3~rounds of S-boxes are necessary and sufficient for secure linear SPNs, but that even 1-round SPNs can be secure when non-linearity is allowed. Additionally, our results imply security in settings where an SPN structure is used for domain extension of a block cipher, even when the attacker has direct access to the small-domain block cipher.

In a recent result, Dachman-Soled et al.~(TCC '15) 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. Unfortunately, the locality of their construction in the continual setting was Omega(log n), meaning that if the original message size was n, then Omega(log n) positions of the codeword had to be accessed upon each decode and update instruction. In this work, we ask whether super-constant locality is inherent in this setting. We answer the question affirmatively by showing tight upper and lower bounds. Specifically, in any threat model which allows for a rewind attack-wherein the attacker leaks a small amount of data, waits for the data to be overwritten and then writes the original data back-we show that a locally decodable and updatable non-malleable code with block size Chi in poly(lambda) number of bits requires locality delta(n) in omega(1), where n = poly(lambda) is message length and lambda is security parameter. On the other hand, we re-visit the threat model of Dachman-Soled et al.~(TCC '15)-which indeed allows the adversary to launch a rewind attack-and present a construction of a locally decodable and updatable non-malleable code with block size Chi in Omega(lambda^{1/mu}) number of bits (for constant 0 < mu < 1) with locality delta(n), for any delta(n) in omega(1), and n = poly(lambda).

We study the security of {\em Oblivious Random Access Machines (ORAM)} in the quantum world. First we introduce a new formal treatment of ORAMs, which is at the same time elegant and simpler than the known formalization by Goldreich and Ostrovsky. Then we define and analyze the notion of post-quantum security for ORAMs, i.e., classical ORAMs resistant against quantum adversaries. We show that merely switching %from classically secure to post-quantum secure encryption in a classically secure ORAM construction does not generally yield a post-quantum secure ORAM construction. On the other hand, we provide a post-quantum secure construction based on a modification of Path-ORAM, the most efficient general ORAM construction, introduced by Stefanov et al. Furthermore, we initiate the study of {\em Quantum ORAMs (QORAMs)}, that is, ORAM constructions meant to be executed between quantum parties acting on arbitrary quantum data. We address many problems arising when formalizing Quantum ORAMs, and we provide a secure construction (based on Path-ORAM and a quantum encryption scheme introduced by Alagic et al.) which has the interesting property of making read and write operations {\em inherently equivalent}. In so doing, we develop a novel technique of quantum extractability which is of independent interest. We believe that QORAMs represent a natural and interesting step in the direction of achieving privacy in future scenarios where quantum computing is ubiquitous.

Pinocchio is a practical zk-SNARK that allows a prover to perform cryptographically verifiable computations with verification effort sometimes less than performing the computation itself. A recent proposal showed how to make Pinocchio adaptive (or ``hash-and-prove''), i.e., to enable proofs with respect to computation-independent commitments. This enables computations to be chosen after the commitments have been produced, and for data to be shared in different computations in a flexible way. Unfortunately, this proposal is not zero-knowledge. In particular, it cannot be combined with Trinocchio, a system in which Pinocchio is outsourced to three workers that do not learn the inputs thanks to multi-party computation (MPC). In this paper, we show how to make Pinocchio adaptive in a zero-knowledge way; apply it to make Trinocchio work on computation-independent commitments; present tooling to easily program fleible verifiable computations (with or without MPC); and use it to build a prototype in a medical research case study.

Recently, Hofheinz, Jager, Khurana, Sahai, Waters and Zhandry proposed a new primitive called universal samplers that allows oblivious sampling from arbitrary distributions, and showed how to construct universal samplers using indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) in the ROM. One important limitation for applying universal samplers in practice is that the constructions are built upon indistinguishability obfuscation. The costs of using current iO constructions is prohibitively large. We ask is whether the cost of a (universal) sampling could be paid by one party and then shared (soundly) with all other users? We address this question by introducing the notion of universal samplers with verification. Our notion follows the general path of Hofheinz et al, but has additional semantics that allows for validation of a sample. In this work we define and give a construction for universal samplers with verification. Our verification procedure is simple and built upon one-time signatures, making verification of a sample much faster than computing it. Security is proved under the sub exponential hardness of indistinguishability obfuscation, puncturable pseudorandom functions, and one-time signatures.

A chameleon-hash function is a hash function that involves a trapdoor the knowledge of which allows one to find arbitrary collisions in the domain of the function. In this paper, we introduce the notion of chameleon-hash functions with ephemeral trapdoors. Such hash functions feature additional, i.e., ephemeral, trapdoors which are chosen by the party computing a hash value. The holder of the main trapdoor is then unable to find a second pre-image of a hash value unless also provided with the ephemeral trapdoor used to compute the hash value. We present a formal security model for this new primitive as well as provably secure instantiations. The first instantiation is a generic black-box construction from any secure chameleon-hash function. We further provide three direct constructions based on standard assumptions. Our new primitive has some appealing use-cases, including a solution to the long-standing open problem of invisible sanitizable signatures, which we also present.

Multi-key fully homomorphic encryption (MFHE) schemes allow polynomially many users without trusted setup assumptions to send their data (encrypted under different FHE keys chosen by users independently of each other) to an honest-but-curious server that can compute the output of an arbitrary polynomial-time computable function on this joint data and issue it back to all participating users for decryption. One of the main open problems left in MFHE was dealing with malicious users without trusted setup assumptions. We show how this can be done, generalizing previous results of circuit-private FHE. Just like standard circuit-private FHE, our security model shows that even if both ciphertexts and public keys of individual users are not well-formed, no information is revealed regarding the server computation--- other than that gained from the output on some well-formed inputs of all users. MFHE schemes have direct applications to server-assisted multiparty computation (MPC), called on-the-fly MPC, introduced by López-Alt et al. (STOC '12), where the number of users is not known in advance. In this setting, a poly-time server wants to evaluate a circuit $C$ on data uploaded by multiple clients and encrypted under different keys. Circuit privacy requires that users' work is independent of $|C|$ held by the server, while each client learns nothing about $C$ other than its output. We present a framework for transforming MFHE schemes with no circuit privacy into maliciously circuit-private schemes. We then construct 3-round on-the-fly MPC with circuit privacy against malicious clients in the plain model.

Access Control Encryption (ACE) is a novel paradigm for encryption which allows to control not only what users in the system are allowed to \emph{read} but also what they are allowed to \emph{write}. The original work of Damgård et al.~\cite{cryptoeprint:2016:106} introducing this notion left several open questions, in particular whether it is possible to construct ACE schemes with polylogarithmic complexity (in the number of possible identities in the system) from standard cryptographic assumptions. In this work we answer the question in the affirmative by giving (efficient) constructions of ACE for an interesting class of predicates which includes equality, comparison, interval membership, and more. We instantiate our constructions based both on standard pairing assumptions (SXDH) or more efficiently in the generic group model.

We present the idea of externally verifiable oblivious RAM (ORAM). Our goal is to allow a client and server carrying out an ORAM protocol to have disputes adjudicated by a third party, allowing for the enforcement of penalties against an unreliable or malicious server. We give a security definition that guarantees protection not only against a malicious server but also against a client making false accusations. We then give modifications of the Path ORAM and Ring ORAM protocols that meet this security definition. These protocols both have the same asymptotic runtimes as the semi-honest original versions and require the external verifier to be involved only when the client or server deviates from the protocol. Finally, we implement externally verified ORAM, along with an automated cryptocurrency contract to use as the external verifier.

Algebraic analysis of block ciphers aims at finding the secret key by solving a collection of polynomial equations that describe the internal structure of a cipher for chosen observations of plaintext/ciphertext pairs. Although algebraic attacks are addressed for cryptanalysis of block and stream ciphers, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of algebraic representation of the cipher on efficiency of solving the resulting collection of equations. The work investigates different S-box representations and their effect on complexity of algebraic attacks. In particular, we observe that a S-box representation defined in the work as \textit{Forward-Backward} (FWBW) leads to a collection of equations that can be solved efficiently. We show that the $SR(10,2,1,4)$ cipher can be broken using standard algebra software \textsc{Singular} and FGb. This is the best result achieved so far. The effect of description of S-boxes for some light-weight block ciphers is investigated. A by-product of this result is that we have achieved some improvements on the algebraic cryptanalysis of LBlock, PRESENT and MIBS light-weight block ciphers. Our study and experiments confirms a counter-intuitive conclusion that algebraic attacks work best for the FWBW S-box representation. This contradicts a common belief that algebraic attacks are more efficient for quadratic S-box representation.

We explore the function field of the jacobian JH of a hyperelliptic curve H of genus 2 in order to find reduced coordinates to represent points of JH and do arithmetic. We show how this relates to the usual Mumford representation of points of JH. Moreover we identify the open subsets of JH where our reduced coordinates are defined, characterizing the elements which can be reduced and we discuss the group operation with them.

Functional Encryption (FE) is a new paradigm supporting restricted decryption keys of function $f$ that allows one to learn $f(x_j)$ from encryptions of messages $x_j$. A natural and practical security requirements for FE is to keep not only messages $x_1,\ldots,x_q$ but also functions $f_1,\ldots f_q$ confidential from encryptions and decryptions keys, except inevitable information $\{f_i(x_j)\}_{i,j\in[q]}$, for any polynomial a-priori unknown number $q$, where $f_i$'s and $x_j$'s are adaptively chosen by adversaries. Such the security requirement is called {\em full function privacy}. In this paper, we particularly focus on function-private FE for inner product functionality in the {\em private key setting} (simply called Inner Product Encryption (IPE)). To the best of our knowledge, there are two approaches for fully function-private IPE schemes in the private key setting. One of which is to employ a general transformation from (non-function-private) FE for general circuits (Brakerski and Segev, TCC 2015). This approach requires heavy crypto tools such as indistinguishability obfuscation (for non-function-private FE for general circuits) and therefore inefficient. The other approach is relatively practical; it directly constructs IPE scheme by using {\em dual pairing vector spaces (DPVS)} (Bishop et al. ASIACRYPT 2015, Datta et al. PKC 2016, and Tomida et al. ISC 2016). \quad We present a new approach for practical function-private IPE schemes that does not employ DPVS but generalizations of Brakerski-Segev transformation. Our generalizations of Brakerski-Segev transformation are easily combinable with existing (non-function-private) IPE schemes as well as (non-function-private) FE schemes for general circuits in several levels of security. Our resulting IPE schemes achieve better performance in comparison with Bishop et al. IPE scheme as well as Datta et al. IPE scheme while preserving the same security notion under the same complexity assumption. In comparison with Tomida et al. IPE scheme, ours have comparable performance in the size of both ciphertext and decryption key, but better performance in the size of master key.

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) promises ubiquitous, cheap, connected devices. Unfortunately, most of these devices are hastily developed and will never receive code updates. Part of the IoT’s security problem is cryptographic, but established cryptographic solutions seem too heavy or too inflexible to adapt to new use cases. Here we describe Strobe, a new lightweight framework for building both cryptographic primitives and network protocols. Strobe is a sponge construction in the same family as Markku Saarinen’s BLINKER framework. The Strobe framework is simple and extensible. It is suitable for use as a hash, authenticated cipher, pseudorandom generator, and as the symmetric component of a network protocol engine. With an elliptic curve or other group primitive, it also provides a flexible Schnorr signature variant. Strobe can be instantiated with different sponge functions for different purposes. We show how to instantiate Strobe as an instance of NIST’s draft cSHAKE algorithm. We also show a lightweight implementation which is especially suitable for 16- and 32- bit microcontrollers, and also for small but high-speed hardware.

In this paper we provide new algebraic tools to study the relationship between different Matrix Diffie-Hellman (MDDH) Problems, which are recently introduced as a natural generalization of the so-called Linear Problem. Namely, we provide an algebraic criterion to decide whether there exists a generic black-box reduction, and in many cases, when the answer is positive we also build an explicit reduction with the following properties: it only makes a single oracle call, it is tight and it makes use only of operations in the base group. It is well known that two MDDH problems described by matrices with a different number of rows are separated by an oracle computing certain multilinear map. Thus, we put the focus on MDDH problems of the same size. Then, we show that MDDH problems described with a different number of parameters are also separated (meaning that a successful reduction cannot decrease the amount of randomness used in the problem instance description). When comparing MDDH problems of the same size and number of parameters, we show that they are either equivalent or incomparable. This suggests that a complete classification into equivalence classes could be done in the future. In this paper we give some positive and negative partial results about equivalence, in particular solving the open problem of whether the Linear and the Cascade MDDH problems are reducible to each other. The results given in the paper are limited by some technical restrictions in the shape of the matrices and in the degree of the polynomials defining them. However, these restrictions are also present in most of the work dealing with MDDH Problems. Therefore, our results apply to all known instances of practical interest.