When Is a Proof Actually Not?
summary
Finds concrete forgeries: a flawed Pedersen key generation in SwissPost-Scytl-iVote mixing and decryption proofs lets someone who knows the discrete log open commitments arbitrarily, enabling undetectable fake shuffles (math worked out in hours, exploit coded in four days) and a Fiat–Shamir misuse lets a mixer fabricate decryption proofs; a Civitas plaintext equivalence instantiation lets colluding trustees force the test to return “equal” by zeroing randomness. Fixes: regenerate parameters securely, include all claim data in hashes, and reject the trivial (1,1) ciphertext.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:22Sometimes something that looks like a proof actually isn't
- 0:55The hidden (false) assumption can be subtle
- 1:31Sometimes a cryptographic proof actually isn't
- 2:55How not to prove your election outcome
- 3:38Swiss complete verifiability
- 7:441. The Shuffle Proof: Pedersen Commitments
- 10:171. The Shuffle Proof: Commitment parameter generation
- 12:061. The Shuffle Proof: Testing an exploit
- 13:181. The Shuffle Proof: Fake proof
- 14:231. The Shuffle Proof: Summary
- 15:50Good thing they had some genuine independent review before using it
- 16:46Doesn't NSW have a law mandating open public access to the source code?
- 23:182. The Decryption Proof: The Weak Fiat-Shamir Heuristic: Implications
- 25:062. The Decryption Proof: New South Wales iVote? iVote and Swiss Post
- 27:40What about quality academic systems built by people who really knew what they were doing?
- 29:04A subtle misalignment of assumptions in CJ
- 32:03Plaintext Equivalence in the Civitas implementation of JCJ
- 36:12Conclusion
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