diff options
| author | Thibaut Horel <thibaut.horel@gmail.com> | 2021-06-30 00:06:18 -0400 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Thibaut Horel <thibaut.horel@gmail.com> | 2021-06-30 00:06:18 -0400 |
| commit | 0a59531fc1a6d7c29f6a86c21a96e75a62b9851e (patch) | |
| tree | 58ca6338ffe4e0c5defed1443beb77f37816a756 | |
| parent | 66733475b696ad47700a7b36a22c6c2d616d4e0f (diff) | |
| download | reviews-0a59531fc1a6d7c29f6a86c21a96e75a62b9851e.tar.gz | |
Add TCC 2021 review
| -rw-r--r-- | tcc-2021-154.txt | 105 |
1 files changed, 105 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tcc-2021-154.txt b/tcc-2021-154.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e77a2b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/tcc-2021-154.txt @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +Overall grade: 5 +Confidence level: 3 +Editorial: 2 + +Summary +======= + +This paper considers the problem of building pseudorandom generators (PRGs) and +universal one-way hash functions (UOWHFs) from regular one-way functions +(OWFs), when the regularity is unknown. Black-box constructions for this +specific case are already known, using O(n) calls to the OWF and seed/key +length O(n), which is optimal up to logarithmic factors. + +However these known constructions make adaptive calls to the one-way function +(typically, the one-way function is applied to the hashed output of the +previous call). The main contribution of the present work is to give two new +constructions (of PRG and UOWHF respectively) which only make non-adaptive +calls to the one-way function, and thus can be implemented more efficiently +when calls can be made in parallel. + +The two constructions are simple and look almost identical: the common +structure is to uniformly sample t independent inputs x_1, ... , x_t and +a 2-universal hash function h (which needs to be shrinking for the UOWHF +construction) and output the concatenation of the h(x_i, f(x_{i+1})) for i in +[1 .. t-1]. For the UOWHF construction, f(x_1) and x_t need to be part of the +output as well. + +The two constructions are proved to be secure (via black-box reductions) for +t = O(n/log n) and thus achieve an optimal call complexity, but at the cost of +a suboptimal key/seed length of O(n^2). + +General comments +================ + +The problem considered in this paper is natural and interesting, since the +role/importance of adaptivity in many cryptographic constructions and +reductions is still poorly understood. + +The results are compelling: it is satisfying that simple and similar +constructions yield secure constructions, and the proofs are relatively simple +to follow. I checked the proof fairly carefully and everything seems correct +(see one minor technical comment below). + +The main open question suggested by this work is whether the increase in +key/seed length (from O(n) to O(n^2)) is inherent to non-adaptivity or could be +avoided with better constructions. Intuitively, it seems necessary but the +authors do not prove any result in this direction. However, tighter lower +bounds for non-adaptive constructions seem hard to obtain. + +Technical comments +================== + +* in the proof of claim 3.3 at the bottom of page 13, it is stated that "given + f(x_1), the min-entropy of x_1, f(x_2) is at least n-2.beta.log n". This uses + some notion of conditional min-entropy which hasn't been defined by the + authors. Since there are several ways to define conditional min-entropy, + a formal definition should be given in the preliminaries. Relatedly, the end + of this proof uses the leftover hash lemma but the version stated in the + preliminaries is for (standard) min-entropy. So an appropriate version of the + leftover hash lemma needs for conditional min-entropy (with auxiliary + variable) needs to be stated in the preliminaries. I didn't check carefully, + but it seems that everything should still go through with average conditional + min-entropy. + +* this is more of a point about exposition, but I couldn't figure out why it is + important to output x_t as the last block of the UOWHF construction. Where + does it matter in the proof? I might have missed something, but a little bit + more explanation about it would be nice. + +Minor comments +============== + +The paper contains many typos and would benefit from a thorough proofreading +pass. A non exhaustive list: + +* abstract, last sentence of first paragraph: black-cox --> black-box +* bottom of page 2: extra comma and space after O(n^7) +* page 3, "Lower bounds": G:{0,1}^m --> {0,1}^{m+s}, I think the m should be + replaced with n +* page 6, "Regular one-way functions": consecrated --> concentrated +* page 9, above Definition 2.8: refinement --> relaxation +* page 9, above Lemma 2.9: collision resistance --> collision resistant +* page 10, beginning of Lemma 2.16: some sets --> some set +* page 11, Lemma 3.2: the leftmost probability should also be over the sampling + of h +* page 11, Algorithm 1, item 2: last superscript should be (t-l+1)n log + n (there is +1 missing) +* page 12 equation 1: leftmost probability is also missing the sampling of h +* page 12, claim 3.3 above equation (2): "and a function" --> "and every + function" (otherwise it is unclear that it is a universal quantification over + i) +* page 16, first line of Proof of Claim 4.4: Sine --> Since +* page 16, first line of Proof of Claim 4.4: hols --> holds +* page 19, last line of proof of Claim 4.6: last --> penultimate +* page 19, equation of Claim 4.7: the summation should be over x_1' in + f^{-1}(f(x_1)) (there is a missing 1 subscript) +* page 20, equation (10): same as previous item +* page 21: same as previous item +* page 21: "equality holds bt" --> "equality holds by" + +Summary +======= + +I believe this paper will be a valuable contribution to the TCC community after +the above remarks are taken into account. |
