The impossibility of obfuscation with auxiliary input or a universal simulator

Nir Bitansky, Ran Canetti, Henry Cohn, Shafi Goldwasser, Yael Tauman Kalai, Omer Paneth, Alon Rosen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper we show that indistinguishability obfuscation for general circuits implies, somewhat counterintuitively, strong impossibility results for virtual black box obfuscation. In particular, it implies: - The impossibility of average-case virtual black box obfuscation with auxiliary input for any circuit family with super-polynomial pseudo-entropy (for example, many cryptographic primitives). Impossibility holds even when the auxiliary input depends only on the public circuit family, and not which circuit in the family is being obfuscated. - The impossibility of average-case virtual black box obfuscation with a universal simulator (with or without any auxiliary input) for any circuit family with super-polynomial pseudo-entropy. These bounds significantly strengthen the impossibility results of Goldwasser and Kalai (FOCS 2005).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Cryptology, CRYPTO 2014 - 34th Annual Cryptology Conference, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages71-89
Number of pages19
EditionPART 2
ISBN (Print)9783662443804
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event34rd Annual International Cryptology Conference, CRYPTO 2014 - Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Duration: 17 Aug 201421 Aug 2014

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
NumberPART 2
Volume8617 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference34rd Annual International Cryptology Conference, CRYPTO 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySanta Barbara, CA
Period17/08/1421/08/14

Funding

FundersFunder number
European Commission
International Business Machines Corporation
National Science Foundation1218461

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