Michel Abdalla

Bio: Michel Abdalla is an academic researcher from École Normale Supérieure. The author has contributed to research in topics: Encryption & Password. The author has an hindex of 41, co-authored 142 publications receiving 6667 citations. Previous affiliations of Michel Abdalla include Alcatel-Lucent & Bell Labs.

Password-Based authenticated key exchange in the three-party setting

Abstract: Password-based authenticated key exchange are protocols which are designed to be secure even when the secret key or password shared between two users is drawn from a small set of values. Due to the low entropy of passwords, such protocols are always subject to on-line guessing attacks. In these attacks, the adversary may succeed with non-negligible probability by guessing the password shared between two users during its on-line attempt to impersonate one of these users. The main goal of password-based authenticated key exchange protocols is to restrict the adversary to this case only. In this paper, we consider password-based authenticated key exchange in the three-party scenario, in which the users trying to establish a secret do not share a password between themselves but only with a trusted server. Towards our goal, we recall some of the existing security notions for password-based authenticated key exchange protocols and introduce new ones that are more suitable to the case of generic constructions. We then present a natural generic construction of a three-party protocol, based on any two-party authenticated key exchange protocol, and prove its security without making use of the Random Oracle model. To the best of our knowledge, the new protocol is the first provably-secure password-based protocol in the three-party setting.

Searchable encryption revisited: consistency properties, relation to anonymous IBE, and extensions

Abstract: We identify and fill some gaps with regard to consistency (the extent to which false positives are produced) for public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS). We define computational and statistical relaxations of the existing notion of perfect consistency, show that the scheme of [7] is computationally consistent, and provide a new scheme that is statistically consistent. We also provide a transform of an anonymous IBE scheme to a secure PEKS scheme that, unlike the previous one, guarantees consistency. Finally we suggest three extensions of the basic notions considered here, namely anonymous HIBE, public-key encryption with temporary keyword search, and identity-based encryption with keyword search.

The Oracle Diffie-Hellman Assumptions and an Analysis of DHIES

Abstract: This paper provides security analysis for the public-key encryption scheme DHIES (formerly named DHES and DHAES), which was proposed in [7] and is now in several draft standards. DHIES is a Diffie-Hellman based scheme that combines a symmetric encryption method, a message authentication code, and a hash function, in addition to number-theoretic operations, in a way which is intended to provide security against chosen-ciphertext attacks. In this paper we find natural assumptions under which DHIES achieves security under chosen-ciphertext attack. The assumptions we make about the Diffie-Hellman problem are interesting variants of the customary ones, and we investigate relationships among them, and provide security lower bounds. Our proofs are in the standard model; no random-oracle assumption is required.

Searchable Encryption Revisited: Consistency Properties, Relation to Anonymous IBE, and Extensions

Abstract: We identify and fill some gaps with regard to consistency (the extent to which false positives are produced) for public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS). We define computational and statistical relaxations of the existing notion of perfect consistency, show that the scheme of Boneh et al. (Advances in Cryptology—EUROCRYPT 2004, ed. by C. Cachin, J. Camenisch, pp. 506–522, 2004) is computationally consistent, and provide a new scheme that is statistically consistent. We also provide a transform of an anonymous identity-based encryption (IBE) scheme to a secure PEKS scheme that, unlike the previous one, guarantees consistency. Finally, we suggest three extensions of the basic notions considered here, namely anonymous hierarchical identity-based encryption, public-key encryption with temporary keyword search, and identity-based encryption with keyword search.

Password-based authenticated key exchange in the three-party setting

Abstract: Password-based authenticated key exchange (PAKE) consists of protocols which are designed to be secure even when the secret key used for authentication is a human-memorable password. In the article, the authors consider PAKE protocols in the 3-party scenario, in which the users trying to establish a common secret do not share a password between themselves but only with a trusted server. Towards their goal, the authors recall some of the existing security notions for PAKE protocols and introduce new ones that are more suitable to the case of generic constructions of 3-party protocols. The authors then present a natural generic construction of a 3-party PAKE protocol from any 2-party PAKE protocol and prove its security. To the best of the authors knowledge, the new protocol is the first provably secure PAKE protocol in the 3-party setting.

Attribute-based encryption for fine-grained access control of encrypted data

Abstract: As more sensitive data is shared and stored by third-party sites on the Internet, there will be a need to encrypt data stored at these sites. One drawback of encrypting data, is that it can be selectively shared only at a coarse-grained level (i.e., giving another party your private key). We develop a new cryptosystem for fine-grained sharing of encrypted data that we call Key-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (KP-ABE). In our cryptosystem, ciphertexts are labeled with sets of attributes and private keys are associated with access structures that control which ciphertexts a user is able to decrypt. We demonstrate the applicability of our construction to sharing of audit-log information and broadcast encryption. Our construction supports delegation of private keys which subsumesHierarchical Identity-Based Encryption (HIBE).

Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Abstract: After two decades of research and development, elliptic curve cryptography now has widespread exposure and acceptance. Industry, banking, and government standards are in place to facilitate extensive deployment of this efficient public-key mechanism. Anchored by a comprehensive treatment of the practical aspects of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), this guide explains the basic mathematics, describes state-of-the-art implementation methods, and presents standardized protocols for public-key encryption, digital signatures, and key establishment. In addition, the book addresses some issues that arise in software and hardware implementation, as well as side-channel attacks and countermeasures. Readers receive the theoretical fundamentals as an underpinning for a wealth of practical and accessible knowledge about efficient application. Features & Benefits: * Breadth of coverage and unified, integrated approach to elliptic curve cryptosystems * Describes important industry and government protocols, such as the FIPS 186-2 standard from the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology * Provides full exposition on techniques for efficiently implementing finite-field and elliptic curve arithmetic* Distills complex mathematics and algorithms for easy understanding* Includes useful literature references, a list of algorithms, and appendices on sample parameters, ECC standards, and software toolsThis comprehensive, highly focused reference is a useful and indispensable resource for practitioners, professionals, or researchers in computer science, computer engineering, network design, and network data security.

Short Group Signatures

Abstract: We construct a short group signature scheme. Signatures in our scheme are approximately the size of a standard RSA signature with the same security. Security of our group signature is based on the Strong Diffie-Hellman assumption and a new assumption in bilinear groups called the Decision Linear assumption. We prove security of our system, in the random oracle model, using a variant of the security definition for group signatures recently given by Bellare, Micciancio, and Warinschi.

Practical Secure Aggregation for Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning

Abstract: We design a novel, communication-efficient, failure-robust protocol for secure aggregation of high-dimensional data. Our protocol allows a server to compute the sum of large, user-held data vectors from mobile devices in a secure manner (i.e. without learning each user's individual contribution), and can be used, for example, in a federated learning setting, to aggregate user-provided model updates for a deep neural network. We prove the security of our protocol in the honest-but-curious and active adversary settings, and show that security is maintained even if an arbitrarily chosen subset of users drop out at any time. We evaluate the efficiency of our protocol and show, by complexity analysis and a concrete implementation, that its runtime and communication overhead remain low even on large data sets and client pools. For 16-bit input values, our protocol offers $1.73 x communication expansion for 210 users and 220-dimensional vectors, and 1.98 x expansion for 214 users and 224-dimensional vectors over sending data in the clear.