We present general definitions of security for multi-party cryptographic protocols, with focus on the task of evaluating a probabilistic function of the parties' inputs. We show that, with respect to these definitions, security is preserved under a natural composition operation. The definitions follow the general paradigm of known definitions; yet some substantial modifications and simplifications are introduced. The composition operation is the natural `subroutine substitution' operation, formalized by Micali and Rogaway. We consider several standard settings for multi-party protocols, including the cases of eavesdropping, Byzantine, non-adaptive and adaptive adversaries, as well as the information-theoretic and the computational models. In particular, in the computational model we provide the first definition of security of protocols that is shown to be preserved under composition.

Abstract. Recently, Canetti and Krawczyk (Eurocrypt’2001) formulated a notion of security for key-exchange (ke) protocols, called SKsecurity, and showed that this notion suffices for constructing secure channels. However, their model and proofs do not suffice for proving more general composability properties of SK-secure ke protocols. We show that while the notion of SK-security is strictly weaker than a fully-idealized notion of key exchange security, it is sufficiently robust for providing secure composition with arbitrary protocols. In particular, SK-security guarantees the security of the key for any application that desires to set-up secret keys between pairs of parties. We also provide new definitions of secure-channels protocols with similarly strong composability properties, and show that SK-security suffices for obtaining these definitions. To obtain these results we use the recently proposed framework of “universally composable (UC) security. ” We also use a new tool, called “noninformation oracles, ” which will probably find applications beyond the present case. These tools allow us to bridge between seemingly limited indistinguishability-based definitions such as SK-security and more powerful, simulation-based definitions, such as UC security, where general composition theorems can be proven. Furthermore, based on such composition theorems we reduce the analysis of a full-fledged multi-session keyexchange protocol to the (simpler) analysis of individual, stand-alone, key-exchange sessions.

Consider a set of parties who do not trust each other, nor the channels by which they communicate. Still, the parties wish to correctly compute some common function of their local inputs, while keeping their local data as private as possible. This, in a nutshell, is the problem of secure multiparty computation. This problem is fundamental in cryptography and in the study of distributed computations. It takes many different forms, depending on the underlying network, on the function to be computed, and on the amount of distrust the parties have in each other and in the network. We study several aspects of secure multiparty computation. We first present new definitions of this problem in various settings. Our definitions draw from previous ideas and formalizations, and incorporate aspects that were previously overlooked. Next we study the problem of dealing with adaptive adversaries. (Adaptive adversaries are adversaries that corrupt parties during the course of the computation, based on...

A fundamental problem in designing secure multi-party protocols is how to deal with adaptive adversaries (i.e., adversaries that may choose the corrupted parties during the course of the computation), in a setting where the channels are insecure and secure communication is achieved by cryptographic primitives based on the computational limitations of the adversary.

Abstract. This paper proposes a simple threshold Public-Key Cryptosystem (PKC) which is secure against adaptive chosen ciphertext attack, under the Decisional Diffie-Hellman (DDH) intractability assumption. Previously, it was shown how to design non-interactive threshold PKC secure under chosen ciphertext attack, in the random-oracle model and under the DDH intractability assumption [25]. The random-oracle was used both in the proof of security and to eliminate interaction. General completeness results for multi-party computations [6,13] enable in principle converting any single server PKC secure against CCA (e.g., [19,17]) into a threshold one, but the conversions are inefficient and require much interaction among the servers for each ciphertext decrypted. The recent work by Cramer and Shoup [17] on single server PKC secure against adaptive CCA is the starting point for the new proposal. 1

This paper provides a comprehensive treatment of forward-security in the context of sharedkey based cryptographic primitives, as a practical means to mitigate the damage caused by key-exposure. We provide definitions of security, practical proven-secure constructions, and applications for the main primitives in this area. We identify forward-secure pseudorandom bit generators as the central primitive, providing several constructions and then showing how forward-secure message authentication schemes and symmetric encryption schemes can be built based on standard schemes for these problems coupled with forward-secure pseudorandom bit generators. We then apply forward-secure message authentication schemes to the problem of maintaining secure access logs in the presence of break-ins.

We consider verifiable secret sharing (VSS) and multiparty computation (MPC) in the secure-channels model, where a broadcast channel is given and a non-zero error probability is allowed. In this model Rabin and Ben-Or proposed VSS and MPC protocols secure against an adversary that can corrupt any minority of the players. In this paper, we first observe that a subprotocol of theirs, known as weak secret sharing (WSS), is not secure against an adaptive adversary, contrary to what was believed earlier. We then propose new and adaptively secure protocols for WSS, VSS and MPC that are substantially more efficient than the original ones. Our protocols generalize easily to provide security against general Q²-adversaries.

In Crypto'99, Bellare and Miner introduced forward-secure signatures as digital signature

We show that there exists a natural protocol problem which has a simple solution in the random-oracle (RO) model and which has no solution in the complexity-theoretic (CT) model, namely the problem of constructing a non-interactive communication protocol secure against adaptive adversaries a.k.a. non-interactive non-committing encryption. This separation between the models is due to the so-called programability of the random oracle. We show this by providing a formulation of the RO model in which the oracle is not programmable, and showing that in this model, there does not exist non-interactive non-committing encryption.

Recently we solved the long-standing open problem of justifying a Dolev-Yao type model of cryptography as used in virtually all automated protocol provers under active attacks. The justification was done by defining an ideal system handling Dolev-Yao-style terms and a cryptographic realization with the same user interface, and by showing that the realization is as secure as the ideal system in the sense of reactive simulatability. This definition encompasses arbitrary active attacks and enjoys general composition and property-preservation properties. Security holds in the standard model of cryptography and under standard assumptions of adaptively secure primitives.