Analyzing security of a protocol

Project Description

The project will involve further developing the concept of function-revealing encryption (FRE), a notion recently developed by the PI and others. FRE allows extracting out certain information from encrypted data. Work to be done involves: (1) understanding and implementing the FRE schemes that we currently have, (2) implementing and experimentally evaluating their performance,

(3) finding and developing concrete applications for these schemes (machine learning, information retrieval, etc.), and

(4) modifying and extending the scheme for these or additional applications.

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes will include:

(1) syntax and security definitions for constructions for advanced encryption schemes like FRE, (2) understanding how FRE fits into the web of broader cryptographic concepts like functional encryption, garbled circuits, program obfuscation, and so on, (3) being able to translate cryptographic constructions into prototype implementations. This will increase comfortability with both cryptography and general mathematical rigor.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites include comfortability with basic discrete math and algorithmic notation, understanding undergraduate level algorithms, high mathematical aptitude and logical reasoning for proofs, moderate programming skills. Some knowledge of security and cryptography would be helpful but not required.