News
Upcoming Exam SlotsWritten on 14.04.21 by Nico Döttling Based on your registrations, I have made the following assignments of exam slots for Thursday and Friday. You find the zoom link for the exams in the materials section or here https://cispa-de.zoom.us/j/95391496914?pwd=RDl4c1NCVjNDOHIyRnJMUWpqMDJhdz09 Thursday 15.04:
Based on your registrations, I have made the following assignments of exam slots for Thursday and Friday. You find the zoom link for the exams in the materials section or here https://cispa-de.zoom.us/j/95391496914?pwd=RDl4c1NCVjNDOHIyRnJMUWpqMDJhdz09 Thursday 15.04:
Friday 16.04:
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Q&A ZoomWritten on 12.04.21 (last change on 12.04.21) by Nico Döttling Dear Students, here's the zoom invitation for the Q&A today at 10:00 Nico Döttling is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Obfuscation Q&A Join Zoom Meeting Dear Students, here's the zoom invitation for the Q&A today at 10:00 Nico Döttling is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Obfuscation Q&A Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 917 0338 2532 Dial by your location
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Q&A SessionWritten on 09.04.21 by Nico Döttling Dear Students, we will have a Q&A session on Monday 12.04.21 from 10:00-11:00 |
Slots for Oral ExamsWritten on 09.04.21 by Nico Döttling Dear Students, I've created Registrations for Oral Exams next week. The slots will be assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please try to find a suitable slot. If this is inherently incompatible with your schedule we will try to find alternative arrangements. Thanks for your patience! |
Addendum for ExamsWritten on 19.03.21 by Nico Döttling Dear students, I forgot to mention in my last announcement that the exams will be all online, i.e. they can be taken remotely from wherever you currently are. |
Appointments for ExamsWritten on 19.03.21 by Nico Döttling Dear Students, To avoid any misunderstanding, while the LSF says the exam is on the 22.03, this will not the actual date of your exam. As I have said in the lecture, there is only a date because it was required by the administration. That out of the way, we have 27 registrations for the exam and… Read more Dear Students, To avoid any misunderstanding, while the LSF says the exam is on the 22.03, this will not the actual date of your exam. As I have said in the lecture, there is only a date because it was required by the administration. That out of the way, we have 27 registrations for the exam and will naturally not be able to do them all on the same day. Due to an important deadline we will only be able to conduct most exams after the 12.04. If you need the points for the exam urgently please let us know, we will be able to conduct a small number of oral exams next week (there is one inquiry for this so far). Other than that, we will set 3 date choices in the week starting the 12.04. Thanks for your understanding and Best Regards, Nico Döttling |
Job offerWritten on 18.03.21 by Stella Wohnig Dear students, Dear students, |
Exam ModalitiesWritten on 11.03.21 by Nico Döttling Dear Students, Dear Students, If coming to university physically is a problem for you, please make sure to contact us as soon as possible. |
Please signal interest in an oral exam by registering for "Interest Oral Exam"Written on 02.02.21 by Nico Döttling I've set up a registration called "Interest Oral Exam". If you would like to take the oral exam please register there. Registering is by no means committing, this is just so I get an impression how many people would like to take the exam. Thanks! |
Registration Deadline for the Oral ExamsWritten on 18.01.21 by Nico Döttling The tentative date for the oral exams is around the 22.03.21. This means, if you want to take the exam you have to register until 15.03.21 |
Material for Lecture 07 postedWritten on 06.01.21 by Nico Döttling We have posted the material for lecture 07 |
Lecture will continue tomorrowWritten on 04.01.21 by Nico Döttling The lecture will continue as usual tomorrow, 05.01.21 |
Actually, no lecture todayWritten on 22.12.20 by Nico Döttling Despite my announcement last week there will be no lecture today. It slipped my attention that the semester break has already started yesterday (as announced here https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/dezernat/ls/semestertermine/Wintersemester_2020-21_und_Sommersemester_2021.pdf ). Please… Read more Despite my announcement last week there will be no lecture today. It slipped my attention that the semester break has already started yesterday (as announced here https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/dezernat/ls/semestertermine/Wintersemester_2020-21_und_Sommersemester_2021.pdf ). Please excuse the confusion and have happy holidays! |
Lecture next weekWritten on 15.12.20 by Nico Döttling Quick announcement: There will be a lecture on 22.12.20 |
Material for Lecture 05 postedWritten on 08.12.20 by Nico Döttling We have posted the material for lecture 05 and updated the material for lecture 04 |
Material for Lecture 04 postedWritten on 01.12.20 by Nico Döttling We have posted the material for lecture 04 encrypted computation |
Material for Lecture 03 postedWritten on 24.11.20 by Nico Döttling We have posted the material for Lecture 03: Best Possible Obfuscation |
Material for Lecture 02 postedWritten on 18.11.20 (last change on 24.11.20) by Nico Döttling We have just posted the material for Lecture 02: Impossibility of VBB |
Material for Lecture 01 postedWritten on 10.11.20 by Nico Döttling We have just posted the material for Lecture 01: Introduction |
Zoom RoomWritten on 05.11.20 by Nico Döttling We've added the link to the zoom room in the materials section. The lecture will start next Tuesday at 12:30. See you then! |
Obfuscation, scientifically
Overview
In software design, obfuscation generally refers to various techniques which make computer code unintelligible, or make it hard to reverse engineer program code. Such techniques have been used for decades in an attempt to protect proprietary algorithms in commercial software. Unfortunately, commercially available obfuscation tools are typically broken within a very short time of their introduction.
From a scientific perspective, this raises the question whether the task of obfuscation is possible at all, or whether any conceivable obfuscation scheme can be broken. To approach this question, we first need to agree on a suitable notion of what it means to break an obfuscation scheme. This question was first addressed by a seminal work of Barak et al. (CRYPTO 2001) who considered several ways of defining security for obfuscation schemes.
In this course, we will take a comprehensive tour through the realm of cryptographically secure obfuscation. We will start by surveying the initial impossibility results, and see how they can be circumvented by weakening the security requirements in a meaningful way. We will proceed to show how obfuscation became a central hub of modern cryptography, on which essentially any advanced notion of proof systems and encryption can be based.
Date and Time
Tuesday, 12:30. First Lecture: 10.11.20
Mode of Teaching
While the exact modalities of whether the lectures will be held remotely or in person are not yet settled, we will record the lectures and put them online. If the lectures are held in person, we will enable remote participation via zoom.
Prerequisites
While there are no strict requirements to attend this course beyond being interested in the topic, having taking the core-lecture cryptography is recommended.
Requirements and Exams
There will be no mandatory assignment sheets, but instead we will occasionally provide (non-mandatory) exercises which advance the topics of lecture. The end-of-term exams will be 20-30 min oral exams. We will limit the scope of the topics before the exam. The exams are tentatively in the week of the 22.03.21. If you'd like to take the exam you have to register in the LSF until 15.03.21.