Positive Results and Techniques for Obfuscation

Informally, an obfuscator O is an efficient, probabilistic “compiler” that transforms a program P into a new program O(P) with the same functionality as P, but such that O(P) protects any secrets that may be built into and used by P. Program obfuscation, if possible, would have numerous important cryptographic applications, including: (1) “Intellectual property” protection of secret algorithms and keys in software, (2) Solving the long-standing open problem of homomorphic public-key encryption, (3) Controlled delegation of authority and access, (4) Transforming Private-Key Encryption into PublicKey Encryption, and (5) Access Control Systems. Unfortunately however, program obfuscators that work on arbitrary programs cannot exist [1]. No positive results for program obfuscation were known prior to this work. In this paper, we provide the first positive results in program obfuscation. We focus on the goal of access control, and give several provable obfuscations for complex acc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: EUROCRYPT
• Authors: Ben Lynn, Manoj Prabhakaran, Amit Sahai
• Keywords: Access Control, Cryptography, EUROCRYPT 2004, Homomorphic Public-key Encryption, Program Obfuscation