Analysis of Random Oracle Instantiation Scenarios for OAEP and Other Practical Schemes

We investigate several previously suggested scenarios of instantiating random oracles (ROs) with “realizable” primitives in cryptographic schemes. As candidates for such “instantiating” primitives we pick perfectly one-way hash functions (POWHFs) and verifiable pseudorandom functions (VPRFs). Our analysis focuses on the most practical encryption schemes such as OAEP and its variant PSS-E and the Fujisaki-Okamoto hybrid encryption scheme. We also consider the RSA Full Domain Hash (FDH) signature scheme. We first show that some previous beliefs about instantiations for some of these schemes are not true. Namely we show that, contrary to Canetti’s conjecture, in general one cannot instantiate either one of the two ROs in the OAEP encryption scheme by POWHFs without losing security. We also confirm through the FDH signature scheme that the straightforward instantiation of ROs with VPRFs may result in insecure schemes, in contrast to regular pseudorandom functions which can pr...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CRYPTO
• Authors: Alexandra Boldyreva, Marc Fischlin
• Keywords: CRYPTO 2005, Encryption Scheme, Fujisaki-Okamoto Hybrid Encryption, Signature Scheme