Another look at non-uniformity

Neal Koblitz and Alfred Menezes

Abstract: We argue that it is unnatural and undesirable to use the non-uniform model of complexity for practice-oriented security reductions in cryptography.

Preprint

Related material:
  • Another look at provable security, invited presentation by Alfred Menezes at Eurocrypt 2012 (April 18, 2012).
  • Non-uniform cracks in the concrete: the power of free precompuation, article by Dan Bernstein and Tanja Lange (June 4, 2012; updated on March 6 2013). Slides from recent lectures are available here and here.
    New: Read the negative reports from EUROCRYPT 2013 and ASIACRYPT 2012 and CRYPTO 2013 referees and responses by Bernstein and Lange. In our opinion, the treatment of the Bernstein-Lange paper by these program committees is an example of the "complacency, arrogance and efforts to suppress alternative viewpoints [which are] antithetical to the scientific spirit" that we speak about on the main page of this web site.
  • Slides from a lecture entitled "Non-uniformity" by Neal Koblitz given at ECC 2012 (October 30, 2012).
  • Slides from a lecture entitled "NIST P-256 has a cube-root ECDL algorithm" by Dan Bernstein given at ECC 2012 (October 30, 2012).