CS 355: Topics in Cryptography

Syllabus

(Spring 2000)

The course is a seminar on topics in cryptography. Course topics this year include pseudorandomness, security notions for both encryption and signatures, random oracle analysis, and a bit of distributed computations. The course is intended for graduate students interested in cryptography research.

Topic by lecture - highly tentative

Introduction. Crash course in probability, pair wise independence, large deviation bounds.

Part I: Pseudorandomness

A bit of complexity theory. Definition of one-way functions. Amplification of one-wayness.
Motivation and definition of PRNGs. Next bit test. Proof of universality.
Hard core bits. Blum-Micali generator. Example: discrete log.
Goldreich-Levin theorem. Application: generators based on subset sum.
Definition of PRFs. Applications and constructions.
Motivation and Definition of PRPs. Luby-Rackoff a la Naor-Reingold.
Left-over-hash Lemma. (HILL)

Part II: Security notions

When is a cipher secure? Semantic security. Non-malleability.
Constructions: probabilistic encryption, Cramer-Shoup.
Random oracle analysis
When are digital signatures unforgable?
Signatures based on strong-RSA.
Signatures based on UOWHF.

Part III: Zero knowledge protocols

Interactive proof systems. Definition of zero knowledge. Examples.
Zero knowledge proofs of knowledge. Authentication protocols.
Witness indistinguishability.
Non interactive zero knowledge.

Part IV: Basic distributed computation.

Introduction to secure function evaluation. Applications.
Oblivious transfer. Yao's two party protocol and GMW.
The BGW multi-party protocol.

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Last update: Mar. 20, 2000 by Dan Boneh.