PRABHANJAN ANANTH
PRABHANJAN ANANTH
Embedded Files
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
1119 Harold Frank Hall,
Department of Computer Science,
University of California, Santa Barbara
Email: prabhanjan at cs ucsb edu
Ph.D.
Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Postdoctoral Associate
Glenn and Susanne Culler Assistant Professor
Glenn and Susanne Culler Assistant Professor
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I'm a cryptographer and I'm interested in proposing theoretically grounded solutions for problems inspired from the real world. Recently, I have mainly focused on exploring the feasibility and infeasibility of cryptographic notions equipped with quantum capabilities.
Some topics I have worked on recently:
Unclonable cryptography: this is an area of quantum cryptography that leverages the no-cloning principle of quantum mechanics to achieve cryptographic tasks that are impossible to achieve classically. There are many fascinating primitives in this area and I have mainly focused on quantum software copy-protection and unclonable encryption.
Quantum pseudorandomness: I'm interested in understanding the (in)feasibility of generating quantum states or unitaries that mimic the behavior of the corresponding Haar random objects against computationally bounded adversaries. I have explored the constructions of different quantum pseudorandom objects (specifically, pseudorandom quantum states and unitaries) in addition to its implications to cryptography.
Watermarking generative AI content: as generative AI models rise in popularity, it is important to be able to tell whether content is produced using a generative AI model or whether it is human produced. Watermarking allows us to address this problem. In particular, the process of watermarking a generative AI model does not significantly deteriorate the quality of the model while injecting a watermark into any content it produces that allows detection. I have explored the constructions of watermarking schemes both from an information-theoretic as well as from a cryptographic perspective.
I'm grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting my research!
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
(Note: Only published research papers with proceedings are numbered below)
2026
Less is More: On Copy Complexity in Quantum Cryptography
(with Eli Goldin)
QIP 2026
Gluing Random Unitaries with Inverses and Applications to Strong Pseudorandom Unitaries
(with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
QIP 2026
2025
63. On the Limitations of Pseudorandom Unitaries
(with Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
TCC 2025
62. Revocable Encryption, Programs, and More: The Case of Multi-Copy Security
(with Saachi Mutreja, Alexander Poremba)
ITC 2025
61. Pseudorandom Unitaries in the Haar Random Oracle Model [Part I, Part II]
(with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
CRYPTO 2025
(with Omar Alrabiah, Miranda Christ, Yevgeniy Dodis, Sam Gunn)
STOC 2025
(Invited to the SICOMP Special Issue for STOC'25)
59. Pseudorandomness in the (Inverseless) Haar Random Oracle Model
(with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
EUROCRYPT 2025
58. Simultaneous Haar Indistinguishability with Applications to Unclonable Cryptography
(with Fatih Kaleoglu, Henry Yuen)
ITCS 2025
57. Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge with Space-Bounded Simulation
(with Alex B. Grilo)
LATINCRYPT 2025
Cryptography in the Common Haar State Model: Feasibility Results and Separations
(with Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
QIP 2025
Copy-Protecting Puncturable Functionalities, Revisited
(with Amit Behera, Zikuan Huang)
TQC 2025
Less is More: On Copy Complexity in Quantum Cryptography
(with Eli Goldin)
Copy-Protection from UPO, Revisited
(with Amit Behera, Zikuan Huang, Fuyuki Kitagawa, Takashi Yamakawa) [subsumes ABH]
Quantum One-Time Programs: Less Assumptions, More Feasibility, and One-Message 2PC
(with Divyanshu Bhardwaj)
Non-Interactive MPC, |Revisited>
(with Divyanshu Bhardwaj, Aparna Gupte) [subsumes AB]
2024
56. Cryptography in the Common Haar State Model: Feasibility Results and Separations
(with Aditya Gulati, Yao-Ting Lin)
TCC 2024
(preliminary version will appear in QCRYPT 2024)
55. Quantum Key-Revocable Dual-Regev Encryption, Revisited
(with Zihan Hu, Zikuan Huang)
TCC 2024
(with Vipul Goyal, Jiahui Liu, Qipeng Liu)
ASIACRYPT 2024
53. NIZKs with Maliciously Chosen CRS: Subversion Advice-ZK and Accountable Soundness
(with Gilad Asharov, Vipul Goyal, Hadar Kaner, Pratik Soni, Brent Waters)
SCN 2024
52. A Modular Approach to Unclonable Cryptography
(with Amit Behera)
CRYPTO 2024
(with Aditya Gulati, Fatih Kaleoglu, Yao-Ting Lin)
EUROCRYPT 2024
50. Pseudorandom Strings from Pseudorandom Quantum States
(with Yao-Ting Lin, Henry Yuen)
ITCS 2024
49. Provable Robust Watermarking for AI-Generated Text
(with Xuandong Zhao, Lei Li, Yu-Xiang Wang)
ICLR 2024
48. ORTOA: A Family of One Round Trip Protocols For Operation-Type Obliviousness
(with Sujaya Maiyya, Yuval Steinhart, Adrian Davila, Jason Du, Divyakant Agrawal, Amr El Abbadi)
EDBT 2024
2023
47. Revocable Cryptography from Learning with Errors
(with Alexander Poremba, Vinod Vaikuntanathan)
TCC 2023
46. On the (Im)Plausibility of Public-Key Quantum Money from Collision-Resistant Hash Functions
(with Zihan Hu, Henry Yuen)
ASIACRYPT 2023
45. Cloning Games: A General Framework for Unclonable Primitives
(with Fatih Kaleoglu, Qipeng Liu)
CRYPTO 2023
QCRYPT 2023
Pseudorandom Quantum States, Revisited: New Properties, Variants, Constructions, and Cryptographic Applications
(with Aditya Gulati, Luowen Qian and Henry Yuen)
QIP 2023 (short plenary talk)
On the Feasibility of Unclonable Encryption, and More
(with Fatih Kaleoglu, Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu, Mark Zhandry)
QIP 2023 (contributed talk)
2022
44. Pseudorandom (Function-Like) Quantum State Generators: New Definitions and Applications
(with Aditya Gulati, Luowen Qian and Henry Yuen)
TCC 2022
QCRYPT 2022
43. Collusion-Resistant Functional Encryption for RAMs
(with Kai-Min Chung, Xiong Fan, Luowen Qian)
ASIACRYPT 2022
42. Cryptography from Pseudorandom Quantum States
(with Luowen Qian, Henry Yuen)
CRYPTO 2022
QCRYPT 2022
[Twitter summary by Henry]
41. On the Feasibility of Unclonable Encryption, and More
(with Fatih Kaleoglu, Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu, Mark Zhandry)
CRYPTO 2022
40. Pre-Constrained Encryption
(with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, Giulio Malavolta)
ITCS 2022
A Note on Copy-Protection from Random Oracles
(with Fatih Kaleoglu)
Quantum Cryptography Workshop 2022
2021
39. Unclonable Encryption, Revisited
(with Fatih Kaleoglu)
TCC 2021
38. On the Concurrent Composition of Quantum Zero-Knowledge
(with Kai-Min Chung, Rolando L. La Placa)
CRYPTO 2021
37. Secure Software Leasing [Video]
(with Rolando L. La Placa)
EUROCRYPT 2021
QIP 2021 (joint short plenary talk with ABDS)
[Shtetl-Optimized]
36. Towards Accountability in CRS Generation
(with Gilad Asharov, Hila Dahari, Vipul Goyal)
EUROCRYPT 2021
Journal of Cryptology 2025
35. Unbounded MPC from Learning with Errors
(with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, Giulio Malavolta)
EUROCRYPT 2021
2020
34. Secure Quantum Extraction Protocols (with Rolando L. La Placa)
TCC 2020
33. Multi-key Fully-Homomorphic Encryption in the Plain Model
(with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin and Giulio Malavolta) [subsumes AJJ]
TCC 2020
32. Towards Efficiency Preserving Round-Compression Compilers in MPC
(with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel and Abhishek Jain)
ASIACRYPT 2020
2019
31. Optimal Bounded-Collusion Secure Functional Encryption
(with Vinod Vaikuntanathan)
TCC 2019
30. Fully Homomorphic NIZK and NIWI Proofs
(with Apoorvaa Deshpande, Yael Tauman Kalai and Anna Lysyanskaya)
TCC 2019
29. From FE Combiners to Secure MPC and Back (with Saikrishna Badrinarayanan, Aayush Jain, Nathan Manohar and Amit Sahai)
TCC 2019
28. Towards Attribute-Based Encryption from LWE: Sublinear Decryption and More
(with Xiong Fan and Elaine Shi)
ASIACRYPT 2019
27. Indistinguishability Obfuscation Without Multilinear Maps: New Paradigms via Low Degree Weak Pseudorandomness and Security Amplification
(with Aayush Jain, Huijia Lin, Christian Matt and Amit Sahai; merge of [AJS18] and [LM18])
CRYPTO 2019
26. Two Round Information-Theoretic MPC with Malicious Security
(with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel and Abhishek Jain)
EUROCRYPT 2019
2018
25. Succinct Garbling Schemes from Functional Encryption through a Local Simulation Paradigm (with Alex Lombardi)
TCC 2018
24. Private Circuits: A Modular Approach
(with Yuval Ishai and Amit Sahai)
CRYPTO 2018
23. Round-Optimal Secure Multiparty Computation with Honest Majority
(with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel and Abhishek Jain)
CRYPTO 2018
2017
22. On Secure Two-Party Computation in Three Rounds (with Abhishek Jain)
TCC 2017
21. A New Approach to Round-Optimal Secure Multiparty Computation (with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel and Abhishek Jain)
CRYPTO 2017
20. Indistinguishability Obfuscation for Turing Machines: Constant Overhead and Amortization (with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai)
CRYPTO 2017
19. Projective Arithmetic Functional Encryption and Indistinguishability Obfuscation From Degree-5 Multilinear Maps
(with Amit Sahai)
EUROCRYPT 2017
18. Cryptography with Updates
(with Aloni Cohen and Abhishek Jain)
EUROCRYPT 2017
17. Patchable Indistinguishability Obfuscation: iO for Evolving Software (with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai)
EUROCRYPT 2017
16. Robust Transforming Combiners from Indistinguishability Obfuscation to Functional Encryption
(with Aayush Jain and Amit Sahai)
EUROCRYPT 2017
2016
15. Delegating RAM Computations with Adaptive Soundness and Privacy (with Yu-Chi Chen, Kai-Min Chung, Huijia Lin and Wei-Kai Lin)TCC 2016-B
14. Universal Obfuscation and Witness Encryption: Boosting Correctness and Combining Security
(with Aayush Jain, Moni Naor, Amit Sahai and Eylon Yogev)
CRYPTO 2016
13. Functional Encryption for Turing Machines
(with Amit Sahai)
TCC 2016-A
2015
12. Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Compact Functional Encryption
(with Abhishek Jain)
CRYPTO 2015
11. From Selective to Adaptive Security in Functional Encryption
(with Zvika Brakerski, Gil Segev and Vinod Vaikuntanathan)
CRYPTO 2015
Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Functional Encryption for Simple Functions
(with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai)
2014
10. Optimizing Obfuscation: Avoiding Barrington’s Theorem (with Divya Gupta, Yuval Ishai and Amit Sahai)
ACM CCS 2014
9. Interactive Proofs under Continual Memory Leakage
(with Vipul Goyal and Omkant Pandey)
CRYPTO 2014
8. Achieving Privacy in Verifiable Computation with Multiple Servers; Without FHE and without Pre-processing
(with Nishanth Chandran, Vipul Goyal, Bhavana Kanukurthi and Rafail Ostrovsky)
PKC 2014
7. Lower Bounds in the Hardware Token Model
(with Shashank Agrawal, Vipul Goyal, Manoj Prabhakaran and Alon Rosen)
TCC 2014
2013
6. On the (In)security of Fischlin's Paradigm (with Raghav Bhaskar, Vipul Goyal and Vanishree Rao)
TCC 2013
5. Non Observability In the Random Oracle Model
(with Raghav Bhaskar)
ProvSec 2013
Differing-Inputs Obfuscation and Applications
(with Dan Boneh, Sanjam Garg, Amit Sahai and Mark Zhandry)
2012
4. Complexity of Grobner Basis Detection and Border Basis Detection (with Ambedkar Dukkipati)Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 2012
3. An Algebraic Characterization of Rainbow Connectivity
(with Ambedkar Dukkipati)
CASC 2012
2011
2. Rainbow Connectivity: Hardness and Tractability
(with Meghana Nasre and Kanthi K. Sarpatwar)
FSTTCS 2011
1. Border Basis Detection is NP-Complete (with Ambedkar Dukkipati)
ISSAC 2011
TEACHING
TEACHING
Undergraduate
CS 138: Automata and Formal Languages (W 21, F22, F23, F24, S26)
CS 178: Introduction to Cryptography (S21, F21, S22, W23, W25, W26)
Graduate
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Cryptography (W20, S26)
CS 292G: Topics in Quantum Cryptography (F20, W22)
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Quantum Computing (S23, S24)
CS 292G: Post-quantum Cryptography (S25)
CS 138: Automata and Formal Languages (W 21, F22, F23, F24, S26)
CS 178: Introduction to Cryptography (S21, F21, S22, W23, W25, W26)
Graduate
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Cryptography (W20, S26)
CS 292G: Topics in Quantum Cryptography (F20, W22)
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Quantum Computing (S23, S24)
CS 292G: Post-quantum Cryptography (S25)
ADVISING
ADVISING
CURRENT STUDENTS
Ph.D.:
Divyanshu Bhardwaj
PAST STUDENTS
Ph.D.:
Fatih Kaleoglu (first job after graduation: Global Technology Applied Research at JPMorgan Chase)
Undergraduate:
Zikuan Huang (Tsinghua University -> Columbia University)
Siyuan Chen (Tsinghua University)
Zihan Hu (BS, Tsinghua University -> Ph.D. student at EPFL)
Manu Kondapaneni (BS, UCSB -> Ph.D. student at Northeastern University)
Aditya Gulati (BS, IIT Kanpur -> Ph.D. student at UCSB)
Zackary Glazewski (BS, UCSB)
Rowan-James Tran (BS, UCSB)
Aashay Parab (BS, UCSB)
Anika Arora (BS, UCSB)
Mohit Sharma (IIT Roorkee)
Philip Axelrod (BS, UCSB)
Masters:
Hrishikesh Saikia (MS, Chennai Mathematical Institute)
Saikumar Yadugiri (MS, UCSB -> Ph.D. student at University of Wisconsin Madison)
PROGRAM COMMITTEES
PROGRAM COMMITTEES
2018: PKC, ASIACRYPT
2020: TCC
2022: PKC, CRYPTO, Quantum Cryptography workshop (co-organized with Asiacrypt 2022)
2023: EUROCRYPT, ITC, TCC
2024: STACS, TCC, ASIACRYPT (area chair)
2025: ITCS, EUROCRYPT, ArcticCrypt, TCC, QCRYPT, ACM QSec Workshop (co-located with ACM CCS)
2026: QIP
Local chair: ITC 2025
Editorial Board: IACR Communications in Cryptography (2024)
MISC
MISC
For UCSB visitors: check this out for useful tips to navigate Santa Barbara!
For UCSB students:
If you are interested in taking my course but have not yet enrolled: please meet me right after the first lecture. If you can't make it the first lecture, meet me after the second lecture.
If you have taken one of my courses and interested in receiving a letter of recommendation from me (for BS/MS or Masters): I typically only write letters for students who have secured an A+ in my course and in some rare cases, A. If you have never interacted with me during/after the lectures, it is unlikely that I'll write a letter for you.
If you are interested in doing research: as an undergraduate student, it can be challenging to pursue research. Before deciding on the research area, it is a good first step to understand the research process to make sure that you are comfortable with it. Here are some useful articles:
If you are an undergraduate student interested in pursuing research with me: you should have taken courses CS 138 and CS 178 before reaching out to me. You should have a strong mathematical background and should be comfortable with mathematical proofs. In some rare cases, I'll make an exception.
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