Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

National Initiatives

ANR  Simpatic – SIM and PAiring Theory for Information and Communications security

Participants : Guilhem Castagnos, Damien Robert.

http://simpatic.orange-labs.fr

The Simpatic project is an industrial research project, formed by academic research teams and industrial partners: Orange Labs, École Normale Supérieure, INVIA, Oberthur Technologies, ST-Ericsson France, Université de Bordeaux 1, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Université de Paris 8.

The aim of the Simpatic project is to provide the most efficient and secure hardware/software implementation of a bilinear pairing in a SIM card. This implementation will then be used to improve and develop new cryptographic algorithms and protocols in the context of mobile phones and SIM cards. The project will more precisely focus on e-ticketing and e-cash, on cloud storage and on the security of contactless and of remote payment systems.

D. Robert is a participant in the Task 2 whose role is to give state of the art algorithms for pairing computations, adapted to the specific hardware requirements of the Simpatic Project.

G. Castagnos is a participant in the Task 4 whose role is to design new cryptographic primitives adapted to the specific applications of the Simpatic Project.

The Simpatic project has ended in August 2016. The project has shown that pairings can now efficiently be integrated into smart cards publicly deployed, by obtaining performances that outperform the state of the art. Cryptographic tools designed by the project are moreover capable of combining complex functionalities and efficiency in many areas such as digital signatures, minimization of personal data in contactless services, pay TV, or protecting data stored in an untrusted cloud.

ANR  Alambic – AppLicAtions of MalleaBIlity in Cryptography

Participant : Guilhem Castagnos.

https://crypto.di.ens.fr/projects:alambic:main

The Alambic project is a research project formed by members of the Inria Project-Team CASCADE of ENS Paris, members of the AriC Inria project-team of ENS Lyon, and members of the CRYPTIS of the university of Limoges. G. Castagnos is an external member of the team of Lyon for this project.

Non-malleability is a security notion for public key cryptographic encryption schemes that ensures that it is infeasible for an adversary to modify ciphertexts into other ciphertexts of messages which are related to the decryption of the first ones. On the other hand, it has been realized that, in specific settings, malleability in cryptographic protocols can actually be a very useful feature. For example, the notion of homomorphic encryption allows specific types of computations to be carried out on ciphertexts and generate an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches the result of operations performed on the plaintexts. The homomorphic property can be used to create secure voting systems, collision-resistant hash functions, private information retrieval schemes, and for fully homomorphic encryption enables widespread use of cloud computing by ensuring the confidentiality of processed data.

The aim of the Alambic project to investigate further theoretical and practical applications of malleability in cryptography. More precisely, this project focuses on three different aspects: secure computation outsourcing and server-aided cryptography, homomorphic encryption and applications and << paradoxical >> applications of malleability.