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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23

Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov, Rohit Chatterjee, Yunqi Li, and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Prange’s information set algorithm is a well-known decoding algorithm for linear codes. It decodes corrupted codewords of most 𝔽₂-linear codes C of message length n up to relative error rate O(log n / n) in poly(n) time. We show that the error rate can be improved to O((log n)² / n), provided: (1) the decoder has access to a polynomial-length advice string that depends on C only, and (2) C is n^{-Ω(1)}-balanced. As a consequence we improve the error tolerance in decoding random linear codes if inefficient preprocessing of the code is allowed. This reveals potential vulnerabilities in cryptographic applications of Learning Noisy Parities with low noise rate. Our main technical result is that the Hamming weight of Hw, where the rows of H are a random sample of short dual codewords, measures the proximity of a received word w to the code in the regime of interest. Given such H as advice, our algorithm corrects errors by locally minimizing this measure. We show that for most codes, the error rate tolerated by our decoder is asymptotically optimal among all algorithms whose decision is based on thresholding Hw for an arbitrary polynomial-size advice matrix H.

Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov, Rohit Chatterjee, Yunqi Li, and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan. Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 23:1-23:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Chatterjee, Rohit and Li, Yunqi and Vasudevan, Prashant Nalini},
  title =	{{Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253107},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: Linear codes, nearest codeword problem, learning parity with noise}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.19

Limitations to Computing Quadratic Functions on Reed-Solomon Encoded Data

Authors: Keller Blackwell and Mary Wootters

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

We study the problem of low-bandwidth non-linear computation on Reed-Solomon encoded data. Given an [n,k] Reed-Solomon encoding of a message vector 𝐟 ∈ 𝔽_q^k, and a polynomial g ∈ 𝔽_q[X₁, X₂, …, X_k], a user wishing to evaluate g(𝐟) is given local query access to each codeword symbol. The query response is allowed to be the output of an arbitrary function evaluated locally on the codeword symbol, and the user’s aim is to minimize the total information downloaded in order to compute g(𝐟). This problem has been studied before for linear functions g; in this work we initiate the study of non-linear functions by starting with quadratic monomials. For q = p^e and distinct i,j ∈ [k], we show that any scheme evaluating the quadratic monomial g_{i,j} := X_i X_j must download at least 2 log₂(q-1) - 3 bits of information when p is an odd prime, and at least 2log₂(q-2) -4 bits when p = 2. When k = 2, our result shows that one cannot do significantly better than the naive bound of k log₂(q) bits, which is enough to recover all of 𝐟. This contrasts sharply with prior work for low-bandwidth evaluation of linear functions g(𝐟) over Reed-Solomon encoded data, for which it is possible to substantially improve upon this bound [Venkatesan Guruswami and Mary Wootters, 2016; Tamo et al., 2018; Shutty and Wootters, 2021; Kiah et al., 2024; Con and Tamo, 2022]. Some proofs have been omitted from this extended abstract; the full version can be found at [Keller Blackwell and Mary Wootters, 2025].

Cite as

Keller Blackwell and Mary Wootters. Limitations to Computing Quadratic Functions on Reed-Solomon Encoded Data. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 19:1-19:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{blackwell_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.19,
  author =	{Blackwell, Keller and Wootters, Mary},
  title =	{{Limitations to Computing Quadratic Functions on Reed-Solomon Encoded Data}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253064},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distributed computation, Reed-Solomon codes}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.71

Lower Bounds on FSS from Dynamic Data Structures

Authors: Niv Gilboa and Daniel Weber

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

In Function Secret Sharing (FSS), a dealer with a given function f: {0,1}ⁿ → 𝔾 from n bits to a commutative group 𝔾 such that f is in a function class ℱ shares succinct keys with two properties. Evaluating each key separately on a common input x results in additive shares of f(x) and any subset of the keys does not provide information on f. Two-party FSS schemes which are reducible to One-way Functions (OWF) have applications in cryptography, complexity, and in practical data security systems. We establish a two-way transformation between a two-party FSS scheme for a function class ℱ, which is black-box reducible to an OWF, or even black-box reducible to a family of Pseudo-Random Functions (PRF) and a dynamic data structure that supports range queries on ℱ. A data structure of this type enables dynamically adding functions to a multiset of functions F ⊆ ℱ, and answering range queries on the output of F, i.e., returning ∑_{f ∈ F} f(x) for a query x. The data structures are defined in one of several models which abstract RAM. The correspondence together with known lower bounds on the update time and the query time in data structures leads to the first non-trivial lower bounds on FSS schemes which are black-box reducible to PRF. These lower bounds apply to FSS schemes with polynomial key size and include: - For ℱ^d_{box}, the class of all functions which assign a constant group element β ∈ 𝔾 to any input in a specified d-dimensional box and 0 to all other inputs: if the key sharing function, Gen, runs in time polynomial in n and the evaluation function is Eval then: - If d ≥ 2 and 𝔾 = ℤ₂ then Eval’s running time is Ω ((n^{3/2})/(log³ n)). - If d ≥ 2 and 𝔾 is cyclic such that log |𝔾| = (1 + ε) n then Eval’s running time is Ω ((n/(log n)) ²). - If d > 2 is a constant and further, Gen and Eval correspond to operations on data structures in the Oblivious Group Model (this includes all known FSS from OWF techniques), then the product of Eval’s time and the key size is Ω(n^{d-1}). - For ℱ_{mono}, the class of all monomials ax^b ∈ 𝔽_{2ⁿ}[X] such that b ≤ B, assuming n^{ω(1)} ≤ B ≤ 2^{n/4}: if Gen runs in polynomial time, then Eval’s running time is Ω ((n √{log B})/(log² n)).

Cite as

Niv Gilboa and Daniel Weber. Lower Bounds on FSS from Dynamic Data Structures. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 71:1-71:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{gilboa_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.71,
  author =	{Gilboa, Niv and Weber, Daniel},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds on FSS from Dynamic Data Structures}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{71:1--71:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.71},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253585},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.71},
  annote =	{Keywords: FSS, Data Structures, Lower Bounds, Black-Box Reductions}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.109

Cloning Games, Black Holes and Cryptography

Authors: Alexander Poremba, Seyoon Ragavan, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a new toolkit for analyzing cloning games, a notion that captures stronger and more quantitative versions of the celebrated quantum no-cloning theorem. This framework allows us to analyze a new cloning game based on binary phase states. Our results provide evidence that these games may be able to overcome important limitations of previous candidates based on BB84 states and subspace coset states: in a model where the adversaries are restricted to making a single oracle query, we show that the binary phase variant is t-copy secure when t = o(n/log n). Moreover, for constant t, we obtain the first optimal bounds of O(2^{-n}), asymptotically matching the value attained by a trivial adversarial strategy. We also show a worst-case to average-case reduction which allows us to show the same quantitative results for the new and natural notion of Haar cloning games. Our analytic toolkit, which we believe will find further applications, is based on binary subtypes and uses novel bounds on the operator norms of block-wise tensor products of matrices. To illustrate the effectiveness of these new techniques, we present two applications: first, in black-hole physics, where our asymptotically optimal bound offers quantitative insights into information scrambling in idealized models of black holes; and second, in unclonable cryptography, where we (a) construct succinct unclonable encryption schemes from the existence of pseudorandom unitaries, and (b) propose and provide evidence for the security of multi-copy unclonable encryption schemes.

Cite as

Alexander Poremba, Seyoon Ragavan, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan. Cloning Games, Black Holes and Cryptography. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 109:1-109:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{poremba_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.109,
  author =	{Poremba, Alexander and Ragavan, Seyoon and Vaikuntanathan, Vinod},
  title =	{{Cloning Games, Black Holes and Cryptography}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{109:1--109:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.109},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253961},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.109},
  annote =	{Keywords: Unclonable cryptography, quantum pseudorandomness, black hole physics}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.6

Model-Generic Incrementally Verifiable Computation from Updatable BARGs

Authors: Eden Aldema Tshuva and Rotem Oshman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Incrementally verifiable computation (IVC) is a computationally sound proof system that allows a prover to certify the correctness of a long or ongoing computation in an incremental manner, by repeatedly updating a proof certifying the computation so far. Updating the proof does not require access to the entire trace of the computation, which makes the IVC-prover memory efficient. Recently, such schemes were constructed for deterministic Turing machines from standard cryptographic assumptions (Paneth and Pass, FOCS 2022, and Devadas et al., FOCS 2022). In this work we generalize and extend IVC to support incremental certification and verifiability of a large set of computation models, focusing on distributed and online computation. This allows distributed algorithms to efficiently certify their own execution using low memory and communication overhead. We construct IVC for a variety of computation models by proving one generic lifting theorem from a classical (non-incremental) delegation scheme (also known as SNARG) into full-fledged IVC, while preserving the delegation scheme’s succinctness properties (up to an additive factor which is polynomial in the security parameter and independent of the size of the computation). Using this lifting theorem, we obtain IVC for the following computation models: - RAM and exclusive-read exclusive-write (EREW) PRAM algorithms, using existing delegation schemes for these models. - Streaming algorithms, using the natural memory-efficiency properties of the model. - Massively parallel computation (MPC). Notably, in this model, memory efficiency is a critical bottleneck: the machines participating in an MPC algorithm usually cannot store the entire trace of their computation. Thus, certifying MPC algorithms naturally benefits from IVC. Moreover, since prior to our work, no delegation scheme for this model was known, we also construct a delegation scheme for one-round massively parallel computations, and then apply our lifting theorem to it. - Distributed graph algorithms, using existing distributed delegation schemes (also known as locally verifiable distributed SNARGs). Here, in order to use our lifting theorem we have to first make some observations about the verification procedure of these existing schemes. At the heart of this work is a new abstraction, updatable batch arguments for NP (UpBARGs), which we define and construct. Standard BARGs allow one to prove a batch of k NP-statements using a proof whose length barely grows with k; however, the statements and their witnesses must all be known in advance. In contrast, UpBARGs support adding statements and witnesses on the fly, making them a flexible tool for constructing IVC across different computational models.

Cite as

Eden Aldema Tshuva and Rotem Oshman. Model-Generic Incrementally Verifiable Computation from Updatable BARGs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 6:1-6:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{aldematshuva_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.6,
  author =	{Aldema Tshuva, Eden and Oshman, Rotem},
  title =	{{Model-Generic Incrementally Verifiable Computation from Updatable BARGs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252931},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: incrementally verifiable computation, massively parallel computation, streaming, parallel RAM, batch arguments, SNARG}
}

Document

Brief Announcement

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.66

Brief Announcement: Single-Round Broadcast: Impossibility, Feasibility, and More

Authors: Zhelei Zhou, Bingsheng Zhang, Hong-Sheng Zhou, and Kui Ren

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 356, 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)

Abstract

Broadcast is a fundamental primitive that plays an important role in secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) area. In this work, we revisit the broadcast with selective abort (hereafter, short for broadcast) proposed by Goldwasser and Lindell (DISC 2002; JoC 2005) and study the round complexity of broadcast under different setup assumptions. Our findings are summarized as follows: - We formally prove that 1-round broadcast is impossible under various widely-used setup assumptions (e.g., plain model, random oracle model, and common reference string model, etc.), even if we consider the static security and the stand-alone framework. More concretely, we formalize a notion called consistent oracle to capture these setups, and prove that our impossibility holds under the consistent oracle. Our impossibility holds in both honest majority setting and dishonest majority setting. - We show that 1-round broadcast protocol is possible in the Universal Composition (UC) framework, by assuming stateful trusted hardwares. Our protocol can be proven secure against all-but-one adaptive and malicious corruptions. We bypass our impossibility result since our stateful trusted hardwares do not satisfy the definition of consistent oracle. - We provide an application of 1-round broadcast: we construct the first 1-round multiple-verifier zero-knowledge (which is a special case of MPC) protocol, without assuming the broadcast hybrid world.

Cite as

Zhelei Zhou, Bingsheng Zhang, Hong-Sheng Zhou, and Kui Ren. Brief Announcement: Single-Round Broadcast: Impossibility, Feasibility, and More. In 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 356, pp. 66:1-66:7, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{zhou_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.66,
  author =	{Zhou, Zhelei and Zhang, Bingsheng and Zhou, Hong-Sheng and Ren, Kui},
  title =	{{Brief Announcement: Single-Round Broadcast: Impossibility, Feasibility, and More}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)},
  pages =	{66:1--66:7},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-402-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{356},
  editor =	{Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.66},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248838},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.66},
  annote =	{Keywords: Broadcast, Security with abort, Round optimality}
}

Document

Brief Announcement

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.44

Brief Announcement: Incrementally Verifiable Distributed Computation

Authors: Eden Aldema Tshuva and Rotem Oshman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 356, 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)

Abstract

Incrementally verifiable computation (IVC) is a cryptographic scheme that allows a prover to certify the correctness of a long or ongoing computation in an incremental manner, by repeatedly updating a proof certifying the computation so far. Updating the proof does not require access to the entire trace of the computation, which makes the IVC prover memory efficient. In this work we construct incrementally verifiable distributed computation, which allows a distributed algorithm to efficiently certify its own execution using low memory and communication overhead. Our primary motivation is massively-parallel computation (MPC), where memory efficiency is make-or-break: the machines participating in an MPC algorithm usually cannot store the entire trace of their computation. Thus, certifying MPC algorithms essentially requires distributed IVC. At the heart of this work is a new abstraction, updatable batch arguments for {NP} (UpBARGs), which we define and construct. Standard BARGs allow one to prove a batch of k {NP}-statements using a proof whose length barely grows with k; however, the statements and their witnesses must all be known in advance. In contrast, UpBARGs support adding statements and witnesses on the fly, making them a flexible tool for constructing IVC across different computational models. We use UpBARGs to construct IVC for streaming algorithms, for MPC algorithms, and for PRAM algorithms in the exclusive-read exclusive-write (EREW) model.

Cite as

Eden Aldema Tshuva and Rotem Oshman. Brief Announcement: Incrementally Verifiable Distributed Computation. In 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 356, pp. 44:1-44:7, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{aldematshuva_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.44,
  author =	{Aldema Tshuva, Eden and Oshman, Rotem},
  title =	{{Brief Announcement: Incrementally Verifiable Distributed Computation}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)},
  pages =	{44:1--44:7},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-402-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{356},
  editor =	{Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248829},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: Incrementally verifiable computation, massively parallel computation, streaming, parallel RAM, batch arguments, SNARG}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13

Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks

Authors: Jing Chen, Jin Dong, Jichen Li, Xuanzhi Xia, and Wentao Zhou

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract

Byzantine agreement (BA) is a foundational building block in distributed systems that has been extensively studied for decades. With the growing demand for protocol composition in practice, the security analysis of BA protocols under multi-instance executions has attracted increasing attention. However, most existing adversary models focus solely on party corruption and neglect important threats posed by adversarial manipulations of communication channels in the network. Through channel attacks, messages can be reordered across multiple executions and lead to violations of the protocol’s security guarantees, without the participating parties being corrupted. In this work, we present the first adversary model that combines party corruption and channel attacks. Based on this model, we establish new security thresholds for Byzantine agreement under parallel and concurrent compositions, supported by complementary impossibility and possibility results that match each other to form a tight bound. For the impossibility result, we show that even authenticated Byzantine agreement protocols cannot be secure under parallel composition when n ≤ 3t or n ≤ 2c + 2t + 1, where t and c denote the number of corrupted parties and communication channels, respectively. For the possibility result, we prove the existence of secure protocols for unauthenticated Byzantine agreement under parallel and concurrent composition, when n > 3t and n > 2c+2t+1. More specifically, we provide a general black-box compiler that transforms any single-instance secure BA protocol into one that is secure under parallel executions, and we provide a non-black-box construction for concurrent compositions.

Cite as

Jing Chen, Jin Dong, Jichen Li, Xuanzhi Xia, and Wentao Zhou. Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 13:1-13:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13,
  author =	{Chen, Jing and Dong, Jin and Li, Jichen and Xia, Xuanzhi and Zhou, Wentao},
  title =	{{Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247321},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: Byzantine agreement, protocol composition, channel reorder attack, security threshold}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.12

How Much Public Randomness Do Modern Consensus Protocols Need?

Authors: Joseph Bonneau, Benedikt Bünz, Miranda Christ, and Yuval Efron

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract

Modern blockchain-based consensus protocols aim for efficiency (i.e., low communication and round complexity) while maintaining security against adaptive adversaries. These goals are usually achieved using a public randomness beacon to select roles for each participant. We examine to what extent this randomness is necessary. Specifically, we provide tight bounds on the amount of entropy a Byzantine Agreement protocol must consume from a beacon in order to enjoy efficiency and adaptive security. We first establish that no consensus protocol can simultaneously be efficient, be adaptively secure, and use O(log n) bits of beacon entropy. We then show this bound is tight and, in fact, a trilemma by presenting three consensus protocols that achieve any two of these three properties.

Cite as

Joseph Bonneau, Benedikt Bünz, Miranda Christ, and Yuval Efron. How Much Public Randomness Do Modern Consensus Protocols Need?. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 12:1-12:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bonneau_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.12,
  author =	{Bonneau, Joseph and B\"{u}nz, Benedikt and Christ, Miranda and Efron, Yuval},
  title =	{{How Much Public Randomness Do Modern Consensus Protocols Need?}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247310},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Consensus, Randomness Beacon}
}

Document

APPROX

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.18

A Randomized Rounding Approach for DAG Edge Deletion

Authors: Sina Kalantarzadeh, Nathan Klein, and Victor Reis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

In the DAG Edge Deletion problem, we are given an edge-weighted directed acyclic graph and a parameter k, and the goal is to delete the minimum weight set of edges so that the resulting graph has no paths of length k. This problem, which has applications to scheduling, was introduced in 2015 by Kenkre, Pandit, Purohit, and Saket. They gave a k-approximation and showed that it is UGC-Hard to approximate better than ⌊0.5k⌋ for any constant k ≥ 4 using a work of Svensson from 2012. The approximation ratio was improved to 2/3(k+1) by Klein and Wexler in 2016. In this work, we introduce a randomized rounding framework based on distributions over vertex labels in [0,1]. The most natural distribution is to sample labels independently from the uniform distribution over [0,1]. We show this leads to a (2-√2)(k+1) ≈ 0.585(k+1)-approximation. By using a modified (but still independent) label distribution, we obtain a 0.549(k+1)-approximation for the problem, as well as show that no independent distribution over labels can improve our analysis to below 0.542(k+1). Finally, we show a 0.5(k+1)-approximation for bipartite graphs and for instances with structured LP solutions. Whether this ratio can be obtained in general is open.

Cite as

Sina Kalantarzadeh, Nathan Klein, and Victor Reis. A Randomized Rounding Approach for DAG Edge Deletion. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 18:1-18:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kalantarzadeh_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.18,
  author =	{Kalantarzadeh, Sina and Klein, Nathan and Reis, Victor},
  title =	{{A Randomized Rounding Approach for DAG Edge Deletion}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243840},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation Algorithms, Randomized Algorithms, Linear Programming, Graph Algorithms, Scheduling}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.7

Simultaneous Haar Indistinguishability with Applications to Unclonable Cryptography

Authors: Prabhanjan Ananth, Fatih Kaleoglu, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

We study a novel question about nonlocal quantum state discrimination: how well can non-communicating - but entangled - players distinguish between different distributions over quantum states? We call this task simultaneous state indistinguishability. Our main technical result is to show that the players cannot distinguish between each player receiving independently-chosen Haar random states versus all players receiving the same Haar random state. We show that this question has implications to unclonable cryptography, which leverages the no-cloning principle to build cryptographic primitives that are classically impossible to achieve. Understanding the feasibility of unclonable encryption, one of the key unclonable primitives, satisfying indistinguishability security in the plain model has been a major open question in the area. So far, the existing constructions of unclonable encryption are either in the quantum random oracle model or are based on new conjectures. We leverage our main result to present the first construction of unclonable encryption satisfying indistinguishability security, with quantum decryption keys, in the plain model. We also show other implications to single-decryptor encryption and leakage-resilient secret sharing. These applications present evidence that simultaneous Haar indistinguishability could be useful in quantum cryptography.

Cite as

Prabhanjan Ananth, Fatih Kaleoglu, and Henry Yuen. Simultaneous Haar Indistinguishability with Applications to Unclonable Cryptography. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 7:1-7:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{ananth_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.7,
  author =	{Ananth, Prabhanjan and Kaleoglu, Fatih and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{Simultaneous Haar Indistinguishability with Applications to Unclonable Cryptography}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226352},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum, Haar, unclonable encryption}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.38

Backdoor Defense, Learnability and Obfuscation

Authors: Paul Christiano, Jacob Hilton, Victor Lecomte, and Mark Xu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

We introduce a formal notion of defendability against backdoors using a game between an attacker and a defender. In this game, the attacker modifies a function to behave differently on a particular input known as the "trigger", while behaving the same almost everywhere else. The defender then attempts to detect the trigger at evaluation time. If the defender succeeds with high enough probability, then the function class is said to be defendable. The key constraint on the attacker that makes defense possible is that the attacker’s strategy must work for a randomly-chosen trigger. Our definition is simple and does not explicitly mention learning, yet we demonstrate that it is closely connected to learnability. In the computationally unbounded setting, we use a voting algorithm of [Hanneke et al., 2022] to show that defendability is essentially determined by the VC dimension of the function class, in much the same way as PAC learnability. In the computationally bounded setting, we use a similar argument to show that efficient PAC learnability implies efficient defendability, but not conversely. On the other hand, we use indistinguishability obfuscation to show that the class of polynomial size circuits is not efficiently defendable. Finally, we present polynomial size decision trees as a natural example for which defense is strictly easier than learning. Thus, we identify efficient defendability as a notable intermediate concept in between efficient learnability and obfuscation.

Cite as

Paul Christiano, Jacob Hilton, Victor Lecomte, and Mark Xu. Backdoor Defense, Learnability and Obfuscation. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 38:1-38:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{christiano_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.38,
  author =	{Christiano, Paul and Hilton, Jacob and Lecomte, Victor and Xu, Mark},
  title =	{{Backdoor Defense, Learnability and Obfuscation}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226662},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: backdoors, machine learning, PAC learning, indistinguishability obfuscation}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.23

Accumulation Without Homomorphism

Authors: Benedikt Bünz, Pratyush Mishra, Wilson Nguyen, and William Wang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

Accumulation schemes are a simple yet powerful primitive that enable highly efficient constructions of incrementally verifiable computation (IVC). Unfortunately, all prior accumulation schemes rely on homomorphic vector commitments whose security is based on public-key assumptions. It is an interesting open question to construct efficient accumulation schemes that avoid the need for such assumptions. In this paper, we answer this question affirmatively by constructing an accumulation scheme from non-homomorphic vector commitments which can be realized from solely symmetric-key assumptions (e.g., Merkle trees). We overcome the need for homomorphisms by instead performing spot-checks over error-correcting encodings of the committed vectors. Unlike prior accumulation schemes, our scheme only supports a bounded number of accumulation steps. We show that such bounded-depth accumulation still suffices to construct proof-carrying data (a generalization of IVC). We also demonstrate several optimizations to our PCD construction which greatly improve concrete efficiency.

Cite as

Benedikt Bünz, Pratyush Mishra, Wilson Nguyen, and William Wang. Accumulation Without Homomorphism. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 23:1-23:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bunz_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.23,
  author =	{B\"{u}nz, Benedikt and Mishra, Pratyush and Nguyen, Wilson and Wang, William},
  title =	{{Accumulation Without Homomorphism}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226510},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: Proof-carrying data, incrementally verifiable computation, accumulation schemes}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2024.1

Information-Theoretic Topology-Hiding Broadcast: Wheels, Stars, Friendship, and Beyond

Authors: D'or Banoun, Elette Boyle, and Ran Cohen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 304, 5th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2024)

Abstract

Topology-hiding broadcast (THB) enables parties communicating over an incomplete network to broadcast messages while hiding the network topology from within a given class of graphs. Although broadcast is a privacy-free task, it is known that THB for certain graph classes necessitates computational assumptions, even against "honest but curious" adversaries, and even given a single corrupted party. Recent works have tried to understand when THB can be obtained with information-theoretic (IT) security (without cryptography or setup assumptions) as a function of properties of the corresponding graph class. We revisit this question through a case study of the class of wheel graphs and their subgraphs. The nth wheel graph is established by connecting n nodes who form a cycle with another "center" node, thus providing a natural extension that captures and enriches previously studied graph classes in the setting of IT-THB. We present a series of new findings in this line. We fully characterize feasibility of IT-THB for any class of subgraphs of the wheel, each possessing an embedded star (i.e., a well-defined center connected to all other nodes). Our characterization provides evidence that IT-THB feasibility may correlate with a more fine-grained degree structure - as opposed to pure connectivity - of the corresponding graphs. We provide positive results achieving perfect IT-THB for new graph classes, including ones where the number of nodes is unknown. Further, we provide the first feasibility of IT-THB on non-degenerate graph-classes with t > 1 corruptions, for the class of friendship graphs (Erdös, Rényi, Sós '66).

Cite as

D'or Banoun, Elette Boyle, and Ran Cohen. Information-Theoretic Topology-Hiding Broadcast: Wheels, Stars, Friendship, and Beyond. In 5th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 304, pp. 1:1-1:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{banoun_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2024.1,
  author =	{Banoun, D'or and Boyle, Elette and Cohen, Ran},
  title =	{{Information-Theoretic Topology-Hiding Broadcast: Wheels, Stars, Friendship, and Beyond}},
  booktitle =	{5th Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2024)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-333-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{304},
  editor =	{Aggarwal, Divesh},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2024.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-205090},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2024.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: broadcast, topology-hiding protocols, information-theoretic security}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2023.10

Communication Lower Bounds for Cryptographic Broadcast Protocols

Authors: Erica Blum, Elette Boyle, Ran Cohen, and Chen-Da Liu-Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 281, 37th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2023)

Abstract

Broadcast protocols enable a set of n parties to agree on the input of a designated sender, even in the face of malicious parties who collude to attack the protocol. In the honest-majority setting, a fruitful line of work harnessed randomization and cryptography to achieve low-communication broadcast protocols with sub-quadratic total communication and with "balanced" sub-linear communication cost per party. However, comparatively little is known in the dishonest-majority setting. Here, the most communication-efficient constructions are based on the protocol of Dolev and Strong (SICOMP '83), and sub-quadratic broadcast has not been achieved even using randomization and cryptography. On the other hand, the only nontrivial ω(n) communication lower bounds are restricted to deterministic protocols, or against strong adaptive adversaries that can perform "after the fact" removal of messages. We provide communication lower bounds in this space, which hold against arbitrary cryptography and setup assumptions, as well as a simple protocol showing near tightness of our first bound. - Static adversary. We demonstrate a tradeoff between resiliency and communication for randomized protocols secure against n-o(n) static corruptions. For example, Ω(n⋅ polylog(n)) messages are needed when the number of honest parties is n/polylog(n); Ω(n√n) messages are needed for O(√n) honest parties; and Ω(n²) messages are needed for O(1) honest parties. Complementarily, we demonstrate broadcast with O(n⋅polylog(n)) total communication and balanced polylog(n) per-party cost, facing any constant fraction of static corruptions. - Weakly adaptive adversary. Our second bound considers n/2 + k corruptions and a weakly adaptive adversary that cannot remove messages "after the fact." We show that any broadcast protocol within this setting can be attacked to force an arbitrary party to send messages to k other parties. Our bound implies limitations on the feasibility of balanced low-communication protocols: For example, ruling out broadcast facing 51% corruptions, in which all non-sender parties have sublinear communication locality.

Cite as

Erica Blum, Elette Boyle, Ran Cohen, and Chen-Da Liu-Zhang. Communication Lower Bounds for Cryptographic Broadcast Protocols. In 37th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 281, pp. 10:1-10:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{blum_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2023.10,
  author =	{Blum, Erica and Boyle, Elette and Cohen, Ran and Liu-Zhang, Chen-Da},
  title =	{{Communication Lower Bounds for Cryptographic Broadcast Protocols}},
  booktitle =	{37th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2023)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-301-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{281},
  editor =	{Oshman, Rotem},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2023.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-191361},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2023.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: broadcast, communication complexity, lower bounds, dishonest majority}
}

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