From the impossibility of obfuscation to a new non-black-box simulation technique

Nir Bitansky, Omer Paneth

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

The introduction of a non-black-box simulation technique by Barak (FOCS 2001) has been a major landmark in cryptography, breaking the previous barriers of black-box impossibility. Barak's techniques were subsequently extended and have given rise to various powerful applications. We present the first non-black-box simulation technique that does not rely on Barak's technique (or on non-standard assumptions). Our technique is based on essentially different tools: it does not invoke universal arguments}, nor does it rely on collision-resistant hashing. Instead, the main ingredient we use is the impossibility of general program obfuscation (Barak et al., CRYPTO 2001). Using our technique, we construct a new resettably-sound zero-knowledge (rsZK) protocol. rsZK protocols remain sound even against cheating provers that can repeatedly reset the verifier to its initial state and random tape. Indeed, for such protocols black-box simulation is impossible. Our rsZK protocol is the first to be based solely on semi-honest oblivious transfer and does not rely on collision-resistant hashing, in addition, our protocol does not use PCP machinery. In the converse direction, we show a generic transformation from any rsZK protocol to a family of functions that cannot be obfuscated.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6375300
Pages (from-to)223-232
Number of pages10
JournalProceedings - Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, FOCS
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event53rd Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, FOCS 2012 - New Brunswick, NJ, United States
Duration: Oct 20 2012Oct 23 2012

Keywords

  • non-black-box-simulation
  • resettable-security
  • zero-knowledge

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science

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