CAS CS548, Spring 2012: Cryptographic Protocols
SOC B67, Tue, Thu 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Instructor: Ran Canetti. Office hours: Tue 3:30-5pm. Email: canetti@bu.edu
Syllabus:
The course will provide an introduction to
cryptographic protocols, reviewing some of the basic models,
definitions, proof techniques and results. Familiarity with the
foundations of cryptography (e.g. CAS CS538 or equivalent) will be
expected. Here is a tentative list of topics, by week:
Week 1: Zero-Knowledge (ZK). ZK protocols for NP. Sequential composition. ZK in constant # of rounds.
Week 2: Impossibility for Black-Box 3 rounds ZK. The Barak Protocol.
Week 3: Non-interactive ZK (NIZK).
Week 4: Encryption secure against chosen ciphertex attacks (CCA) from NIZK.
Week 5: CCA secure encryption in the random oracle model.
Week 6: Signatures schemes from identification in the random oracle model.
Week 7: Concurrent ZK.
Week 8: Non-malleable commitments and ZK.
Week 9: Secure multi party computation (MPC): Introduction, the GMW protocol.
Week 10: The BGW protocol.
Week 11: Notions of security for MPC: Basic, Universally Composable (UC) security.
Week 12: UC security of the BGW protocol, on the security of the GMW protocol.
Week 13: UC commitments.
Week 14: UC multi party computation (the CLOS protocol).
Course requirements: There will be
weekly problem sets (around 10 altogether). Each problem set is
due in class the following week. You are encouraged to
collaborate and consult external resources in solving the homework
problems. However, you should write the solution on your own, and
list all external resources and collaborators. For more details
on the collaboration policy see the policy for the Fall 2010
class, which is available here.
In addition, there will be a final exam. The final grade will
consist of 70% homework grades and 30% final exam - but you have
to pass the exam to pass the course.
Reading material: Oded Goldreich’s Foundations of Cryptography covers some of the material. The other material is covered mainly by research and survey papers. A list of papers relevant for each class will be given ahead of time.
Problem Sets: