Limits on the power of garbling techniques for public-key encryption

Sanjam Garg, Mohammad Hajiabadi, Mohammad Mahmoody, Ameer Mohammed

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding whether public-key encryption can be based on one-way functions is a fundamental open problem in cryptography. The seminal work of Impagliazzo and Rudich [STOC’89] shows that black-box constructions of public-key encryption from one-way functions are impossible. However, this impossibility result leaves open the possibility of using non-black-box techniques for achieving this goal. One of the most powerful classes of non-black-box techniques, which can be based on one-way functions (OWFs) alone, is Yao’s garbled circuit technique [FOCS’86]. As for the non-black-box power of this technique, the recent work of Döttling and Garg [CRYPTO’17] shows that the use of garbling allows us to circumvent known black-box barriers in the context of identity-based encryption. We prove that garbling of circuits that have OWF (or even random oracle) gates in them are insufficient for obtaining public-key encryption. Additionally, we show that this model also captures (non-interactive) zero-knowledge proofs for relations with OWF gates. This indicates that currently known OWF-based non-black-box techniques are perhaps insufficient for realizing public-key encryption.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdvances in Cryptology – CRYPTO 2018 - 38th Annual International Cryptology Conference, 2018, Proceedings
EditorsHovav Shacham, Alexandra Boldyreva
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages335-364
Number of pages30
ISBN (Print)9783319968773
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Event38th Annual International Cryptology Conference, CRYPTO 2018 - Santa Barbara, United States
Duration: Aug 19 2018Aug 23 2018

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume10993 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference38th Annual International Cryptology Conference, CRYPTO 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySanta Barbara
Period8/19/188/23/18

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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