COMP 537: Cryptography

Course Schedule

This is a tentative schedule of topics and is subject to change. Suggested readings from the Boneh-Shoup textbook (v0.6, denoted BS) and the Katz-Lindell textbook (3rd Edition, denoted KL) are listed for most lectures. Lecture notes for each lecture will be made available to the class.

Symmetric-Key Encryption

• Aug 20: Intro and One Time Pad
  Reading: BS 2.1; KL 1, 2.1-2.3
• Aug 22: Stream ciphers
  Reading: BS 2.2, 3.1-3.3; KL 3.1-3.3
• Aug 27: Block ciphers
  Reading: BS 4.1-4.2; KL 3.5, 7.2.5
• Aug 29: How to use block ciphers
  Reading: BS 4.4, 5.1, 5.3-5.5; KL 3.4, 3.6
• Sep 3: Well-being Day (no class)
  

Message Integrity

• Sep 5: Message integrity
  Reading: BS 6.1-6.11; KL 4.1-4.5, 6.1
• Sep 10: Collision resistant hashing
  Reading: BS 8.1-8.8; KL 6.2-6.4.1, 7.3
• Sep 12: Authenticated encryption
  Reading: BS 9.1-9.7; KL 5.1-5.3

Public Key Cryptography

• Sep 17: Key distribution and intro to groups
  Reading: KL 11.1-11.2, 9.1, 9.3.1-9.3.3
  A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra, Chapter 6
• Sep 19: Public key cryptography
  Reading: BS 10.4-10.5, 10.6.1, 10.7, 11.2-11.3; KL 11.3-11.4, 9.3.2, 9.4.2 12.1-12.2
• Sep 24: Public key encryption
  Reading: BS 11.5, 12.1-12.2, 12.4, 10.2-10.3, 11.4; KL 9.2, 12.3-12.5

Digital Signatures and Authentication

• Sep 26: Digital signatures
  Reading: BS 13.1-13.7; KL 13.1-13.4
• Oct 1: More digital signatures
  Reading: BS 14.1, 14.5-14.6, 13.8-13.9; KL 14.4, 13.6
• Oct 3: Identification protocols
  Reading: BS 18.1-18.6
• Oct 8: Authenticated key exchange, TLS, and private messaging
  Reading: BS 21.1-21.6, 21.10; KL 13.7

Theoretical Foundations

• Oct 10: Minimal assumptions for crypto
  Reading: BS 3.4, 4.2.1, 4.5-4.6; KL 8.4.2-8.7
• Oct 15: The Random Oracle Model
  Reading: BS 8.10.2-8.10.3; KL 6.5, 6.6.5
• Oct 17: Fall Break (no class)
  
• Oct 22: Midterm review
  
• Oct 24: Midterm exam
  

Zero Knowledge

• Oct 29: Introduction to zero-knowledge
  
• Oct 31: Sigma protocols
  Reading: BS 19.1, 19.4, 19.7
• Nov 5: Non-interactive zero-knowledge (NIZKs)
  Reading: BS 19.2-19.3, 19.5.2, 19.6.1, 20.1, 20.3; KL 13.5
• Nov 7: Succinct proofs
  Reading: BS 8.9; KL 6.6.2

Advanced Encryption Topics

• Nov 12: Elliptic curves
  Reading: BS 15.1-15.3; KL 9.3.4
• Nov 14: Pairing-based cryptography
  Reading: BS 15.4-15.6
• Nov 19: Lattice-based cryptography
  Reading: KL 14.3
  Further Reading on Lattices: A Decade of Lattice Cryptography

Multiparty Computation

• Nov 21: Oblivious transfer and two party computation
  Further Reading on MPC: A Pragmatic Introduction to Secure Multi-Party Computation
• Nov 26: Secret sharing and review
  Reading: BS 22.1; KL 15.3
• Nov 28: Thanksgiving Break (no class)
  
• Dec 3: Multiparty computation
  Reading: BS 23.1-23.2

Final Exam Period

• Dec 12, 4-7pm: Final assessment
  

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