Registration for this course is open until Saturday, 02.11.2030 23:59.

News

Upcoming Exam Slots

Written 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:

  • Franz 10:00 - 10:30
  • Benedikt 10:30 - 11:00
  • Martin 11:00 - 11:30

Friday 16.04:

  • Tajbeed C. 9:00 - 9:30 
  • Markus B. 9:30 - 10:00
  • Léonie M. 10:00 - 10:30
  • Robin G. 10:30 - 11:00
  • Theodor L. 11:00 - 11:30
  • Nils H. 11:30 - 12:00
  • Zubayr K. 14:00 - 14:30
  • Jonas B. 14:30 - 15:00
  • Dominik L. 15:00 - 15:30
  • Koushik C. 15:30 - 16:00

 

Q&A Zoom

Written 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
Time: Apr 12, 2021 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

Join Zoom Meeting
Read more

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
Time: Apr 12, 2021 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

Join Zoom Meeting
https://cispa-de.zoom.us/j/91703382532?pwd=cEN3eVZuZUtCdWYzQ3E5TE94cndwdz09

Meeting ID: 917 0338 2532
Passcode: i%Gpp0
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Meeting ID: 917 0338 2532
Find your local number: https://cispa-de.zoom.us/u/abNmY5IRem


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Q&A Session

Written 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 Exams

Written 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 Exams

Written 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 Exams

Written 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 offer

Written on 18.03.21 by Stella Wohnig

Dear students,

You've all shown great interest in cryptography this semester, so maybe the following might be interesting to you:
We are still looking for tutors for our cryptography introductory lecture for the upcomming summer term.
The main duties would be (online) "tutorials" where you answer… Read more

Dear students,

You've all shown great interest in cryptography this semester, so maybe the following might be interesting to you:
We are still looking for tutors for our cryptography introductory lecture for the upcomming summer term.
The main duties would be (online) "tutorials" where you answer questions of students and/or correcting,

I'll be one of the TAs for the lecture so if you'd be interested in this opportunity, you can e-mail me for more information.
(I also speak German.)

Until then, best regards and best of luck in your exams!
Stella Wohnig (stella.wohnig@cispa.saarland)
 

Exam Modalities

Written on 11.03.21 by Nico Döttling

Dear Students,
since we have an unexpectedly high number of exam registrations already, we might be forced to make changes to the examination mode.  Depending on the final number of registrations on the LSF, the exam might either be fully oral (online) or the grade will be composed of a short… Read more

Dear Students,
since we have an unexpectedly high number of exam registrations already, we might be forced to make changes to the examination mode.  Depending on the final number of registrations on the LSF, the exam might either be fully oral (online) or the grade will be composed of a short multiple choice test that takes place in person and an oral part.

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 Exams

Written 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 posted

Written on 06.01.21 by Nico Döttling

We have posted the material for lecture 07

Lecture will continue tomorrow

Written on 04.01.21 by Nico Döttling

The lecture will continue as usual tomorrow, 05.01.21

Actually, no lecture today

Written 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 week

Written on 15.12.20 by Nico Döttling

Quick announcement: There will be a lecture on 22.12.20

Material for Lecture 05 posted

Written 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 posted

Written on 01.12.20 by Nico Döttling

We have posted the material for lecture 04 encrypted computation

Material for Lecture 03 posted

Written on 24.11.20 by Nico Döttling

We have posted the material for Lecture 03: Best Possible Obfuscation

Material for Lecture 02 posted

Written 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 posted

Written on 10.11.20 by Nico Döttling

We have just posted the material for Lecture 01: Introduction

Zoom Room

Written 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!

Show all

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.

 

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