Calmon, Flavio P., Medard, Muriel, Varia, Mayank, Duffy, Ken R., Christiansen, Mark M. and Zeger, Linda M. (2015) Hiding Symbols and Functions: New Metrics and Constructions for Information-Theoretic Security. Working Paper. arXiv.
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Abstract
We present information-theoretic definitions and results for analyzing symmetric-key encryption
schemes beyond the perfect secrecy regime, i.e. when perfect secrecy is not attained.
We adopt two lines of analysis, one based on lossless source coding, and another akin to ratedistortion
theory. We start by presenting a new information-theoretic metric for security, called
ǫ-symbol secrecy, and derive associated fundamental bounds. This metric provides a parameterization
of secrecy that spans other information-theoretic metrics for security, such as weak
secrecy and perfect secrecy. We then introduce list-source codes (LSCs), which are a general
framework for mapping a key length (entropy) to a list size that an eavesdropper has to resolve
in order to recover a secret message. We provide explicit constructions of LSCs, and show that
LSCs that achieve high symbol secrecy also achieve a favorable tradeoff between key length and
uncertainty list size. We also demonstrate that, when the source is uniformly distributed, the
highest level of symbol secrecy for a fixed key length can be achieved through a construction
based on minimum-distance separable (MDS) codes. Using an analysis related to rate-distortion
theory, we then show how symbol secrecy can be used to determine the probability that an eavesdropper
correctly reconstructs functions of the original plaintext. More specifically, we present
lower bounds for the minimum-mean-squared-error of estimating a target function of the plaintext
given that a certain set of functions of the plaintext is known to be hard (or easy) to infer,
either by design of the security system or by restrictions imposed on the adversary. We illustrate
how these bounds can be applied to characterize security properties of symmetric-key encryption
schemes, and, in particular, extend security claims based on symbol secrecy to a functional
setting. Finally, we discuss the application of our methods in key distribution, storage and
privacy.
Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
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Additional Information: | Preprint submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. |
Keywords: | Hiding Symbols; Functions; Metrics; Constructions; Information-Theoretic Security; encryption; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Hamilton Institute |
Item ID: | 6761 |
Identification Number: | arXiv:1503.08513 |
Depositing User: | Dr Ken Duffy |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jan 2016 16:43 |
Publisher: | arXiv |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/6761 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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