A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering
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This blog is reserved for more serious things, and ordinarily I wouldn’t spend time on questions like the above. But much as I’d like to spend my time writing about exciting topics, sometimes the world requires a bit of what Brad Delong calls “Intellectual Garbage Pickup,” namely: correcting wrong, or mostly-wrong ideas that spread unchecked …...
This blog is reserved for more serious things, and ordinarily I wouldn’t spend time on questions like the above. But much as I’d like to spend my time writing about exciting topics, sometimes the world requires a bit of what Brad Delong calls “Intellectual Garbage Pickup,” namely: correcting wrong, or mostly-wrong ideas that spread unchecked …...
Update (April 19): Yilei Chen announced the discovery of a bug in the algorithm, which he does not know how to fix. This was independently discovered by Hongxun Wu and Thomas Vidick. At present, the paper does not provide a polynomial-time algorithm for solving LWE. If you’re a normal person — that is, a person … Continue reading A quick post on...
Update (April 19): Yilei Chen announced the discovery of a bug in the algorithm, which he does not know how to fix. This was independently discovered by Hongxun Wu and Thomas Vidick. At present, the paper does not provide a polynomial-time algorithm for solving LWE. If you’re a normal person — that is, a person … Continue reading A quick post on...
It’s been a while since I wrote an “attack of the week” post, and the fault for this is entirely mine. I’ve been much too busy writing boring posts about Schnorr signatures! But this week’s news brings an exciting story with both technical and political dimensions: new reports claim that Chinese security agencies have developed … Continue reading...
It’s been a while since I wrote an “attack of the week” post, and the fault for this is entirely mine. I’ve been much too busy writing boring posts about Schnorr signatures! But this week’s news brings an exciting story with both technical and political dimensions: new reports claim that Chinese security agencies have developed … Continue reading...
This post continues a long, wonky discussion of Schnorr signature schemes and the Dilithium post-quantum signature. You may want to start with Part 1. In the previous post I discussed the intuition behind Schnorr signatures, beginning with a high-level design rationale and ending with a concrete instantiation. As a reminder: our discussion began...
This post continues a long, wonky discussion of Schnorr signature schemes and the Dilithium post-quantum signature. You may want to start with Part 1. In the previous post I discussed the intuition behind Schnorr signatures, beginning with a high-level design rationale and ending with a concrete instantiation. As a reminder: our discussion began...
Warning: extremely wonky cryptography post. Also, possibly stupid and bound for nowhere. One of the hardest problems in applied cryptography (and perhaps all of computer science!) is explaining why our tools work the way they do. After all, we’ve been gifted an amazing basket of useful algorithms from those who came before us. Hence it’s …...
Warning: extremely wonky cryptography post. Also, possibly stupid and bound for nowhere. One of the hardest problems in applied cryptography (and perhaps all of computer science!) is explaining why our tools work the way they do. After all, we’ve been gifted an amazing basket of useful algorithms from those who came before us. Hence it’s …...
Recently a reader wrote in and asked if I would look at Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, presumably to give thoughts on it from a privacy perspective. This was honestly the last thing I wanted to do, since life is short and this seemed like an obvious waste of it. Of course a project devoted to literally … Continue reading Some rough impressions...
Recently a reader wrote in and asked if I would look at Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, presumably to give thoughts on it from a privacy perspective. This was honestly the last thing I wanted to do, since life is short and this seemed like an obvious waste of it. Of course a project devoted to literally … Continue reading Some rough impressions...
Back in March I was fortunate to spend several days visiting Brussels, where I had a chance to attend a panel on “chat control“: the new content scanning regime being considered by the EU Commission. Among various requirements, this proposed legislation would mandate that client-side scanning technology be incorporated into encrypted text...
Back in March I was fortunate to spend several days visiting Brussels, where I had a chance to attend a panel on “chat control“: the new content scanning regime being considered by the EU Commission. Among various requirements, this proposed legislation would mandate that client-side scanning technology be incorporated into encrypted text...
A few weeks ago I ran into a conversation on Twitter about the weaknesses of applied cryptography textbooks, and how they tend to spend way too much time lecturing people about Feistel networks and the boring details of AES. Some of the folks in this conversation suggested that instead of these things, we should be … Continue reading PRFs, PRPs...
A few weeks ago I ran into a conversation on Twitter about the weaknesses of applied cryptography textbooks, and how they tend to spend way too much time lecturing people about Feistel networks and the boring details of AES. Some of the folks in this conversation suggested that instead of these things, we should be … Continue reading PRFs, PRPs...
As a rule, book reviews are not a thing I usually do. So when I received an out-of-the-blue email from Cory Doctorow last week asking if I would review his latest book, Red Team Blues, it took a minute to overcome my initial skepticism. While I’m a fan of Cory’s work, this is a narrow/nerdy … Continue reading Book Review: Red Team Blues →
As a rule, book reviews are not a thing I usually do. So when I received an out-of-the-blue email from Cory Doctorow last week asking if I would review his latest book, Red Team Blues, it took a minute to overcome my initial skepticism. While I’m a fan of Cory’s work, this is a narrow/nerdy … Continue reading Book Review: Red Team Blues →
On March 23 I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at the European Internet Services Providers Association (EuroISPA). The focus of this discussion was on recent legislative proposals, especially the EU Commission’s new “chat control” content scanning proposal, as well as the future of encryption and fundamental rights. These are the...
On March 23 I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at the European Internet Services Providers Association (EuroISPA). The focus of this discussion was on recent legislative proposals, especially the EU Commission’s new “chat control” content scanning proposal, as well as the future of encryption and fundamental rights. These are the...
You might have seen the news today that Apple is announcing a raft of improvements to Macs and iOS devices aimed at improving security and privacy. These include FIDO support, improvements to iMessage key verification, and a much anticipated announcement that the company is abandoning their plans for (involuntary) photo scanning. While every...