appliedcryptography/slides/2-5.tex

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\title{Applied Cryptography}
\author{Nadim Kobeissi}
\institute{American University of Beirut}
\instituteimage{images/aub_white.png}
\date{\today}
\coversubtitle{CMPS 297AD/396AI\\Fall 2025}
\coverpartname{Part 2: Real-World Cryptography}
\covertopicname{2.5: High-Assurance Cryptography}
\coverwebsite{https://appliedcryptography.page}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[plain]
	\titlepage
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\begin{frame}{Slides not complete and may contain errors}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item This slide deck is not finished, may contain errors, and is missing important material. Do not rely on it yet.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\section{Introduction}

\begin{frame}{Perfect security and confidence}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item In 1949, Claude Shannon proved that symmetric encryption achieves perfect confidentiality only when the key is longer than the message it encrypts
		\item In other words, a system in which we may have 100\% confidence in its security must be impractical
		\item Therefore, because we cannot have complete confidence in the security of practical cryptographic systems, we must rely on other methods to raise our confidence in their security
		\item Different methods exist depending on the cryptographic system
	\end{itemize}
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\begin{frame}{Cryptanalysis}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item One way is to have many people try to break the cryptographic system
		\item If no one succeeds after several years, we guess it's probably secure
		\item This method works for any cryptographic system, but it does not provide the highest level of confidence
		\item It may be that nobody managed to break the cryptographic system because:
		      \begin{itemize}
			      \item We didn't put enough resources into trying to break it
			      \item Everyone who tried was not clever enough
		      \end{itemize}
		\item Thankfully, for many cryptographic systems, we have better ways to raise our confidence
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Proving the absence of some attacks}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item A complementary method is to collect general classes of attacks against the cryptographic system under study
		\item Mathematically prove that these types of attacks do not work
		\item Example: On symmetric encryption algorithms, it is customary to prove that they resist against differential cryptanalysis
	\end{itemize}
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\begin{frame}{Reduction proofs}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item On some cryptographic systems, especially on cryptographic protocols that assemble other cryptographic components (such as symmetric encryption, signatures, etc)
		\item We can mathematically prove that the security of the whole system reduces to the security of each cryptographic component
		\item Informally, the mathematical proof says: if you show me how to efficiently break the security of my cryptographic system, I can use this knowledge to show you how to efficiently break the security of one of its cryptographic components
		\item Because the cryptographic components are believed to be secure (e.g. because they resisted cryptanalysis so far), this implies that the cryptographic system is also believed to be secure
	\end{itemize}
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\begin{frame}{Trade-offs in security proofs}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item When possible, reduction proofs are considered to be the gold standard
		\item However, when it is too difficult to do such a proof, it is common to make stronger assumptions about the security of cryptographic components
		\item Example: the Random Oracle Model assumes that cryptographic hash functions are ``perfect''
	\end{itemize}
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\begin{frame}{Trade-offs in security proofs}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item One may say that cryptographic hash functions are not perfect, therefore these proofs have no value
		\item However, we argue that a proof with strong assumptions is better than no proof at all
		\item In the end, this is a trade-off between the strength of the security theorem and the practical doability of its proof
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Symbolic model verification}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item If we push the trade-off cursor further and make the strongest assumptions, we obtain what is called the ``symbolic model''
		\item Informally, security theorems in the symbolic model prove that it is impossible for an adversary to break the whole cryptographic system when the adversary only has black-box access to cryptographic components
		\item In other words, if we assume that the cryptographic components being used in the system are ``perfect''
		\item Again, these are strong assumptions, but a proof with strong assumptions is better than no proof at all
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Symbolic model: another perspective}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item Another way to understand the symbolic model is that it only considers adversaries that perform logical attacks
		\item Logical attacks are attacks that only have a black-box use of cryptographic components
		\item Therefore, the symbolic model proves the absence of the whole class of logical attacks
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Computer-checked proofs}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item As we shall see in the next section, mathematical proofs may contain errors and security proofs are no exception
		\item We can rely on computers to raise our confidence that our mathematical proof is free of errors
		\item This is done by having the computer mechanically verify each step of the proof
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Intuitive comparison}
	\bigimagewithcaption{cas_comparison.png}{Source: Cas Cremers}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Slides not complete and may contain errors}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item This slide deck is not finished, may contain errors, and is missing important material. Do not rely on it yet.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[plain]
	\titlepage
\end{frame}
\end{document}