600.472
Theoretical Cryptography

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Course Materials by Lecture Date


This schedule is subject to change.
These lectures are a combination of many sources, but will most closely follow the lecture notes of Pass and Shelat and the textbook of Katz and Lindell.

Exams

Midterm, Mar 13
Final, May 10

Homeworks

H1, due Tue Feb 12
H2, due Thu Feb 21
H3, due Thu Mar 06
H4, due Tue Apr 15
H5, due Tue Apr 29

Lecture Topics and Readings

Lecture 1 (Tue Jan 29): Introduction and Overview
Lecture 2 (Thu Jan 31): Information Theoretic Security
Basic Primitives and Reductions
Lecture 3 (Tue Feb 05): Computationally-Bounded Adversaries, One-way Functions and OWF Families
Lecture 4 (Thu Feb 07): Trapdoor and One-way Permutations, the Art of Proofs by Reduction
Lecture 5 (Tue Feb 12): Computational Number Theory
Lecture 6 (Thu Feb 14): Computational Hardness and Candidate Functions
Indistinguishability and Pseudorandomness
Lecture 7 (Tue Feb 19): Computational Indistinguishability and the Hybrid Lemma
Lecture 8 (Thu Feb 21): Pseudorandom Generators, Hard-Core Predicates, and Pseudorandom Functions
Private-Key Encryption
Lecture 9 (Tue Feb 26): Private-Key Encryption: CPA and CCA Definitions
Lecture 10 (Thu Feb 28): Private-Key Encryption: Constructions
Lecture 11 (Tue Mar 04): Practical Blockciphers and Tweakable Extensions
MACs and Hash Functions
Lecture 12 (Thu Mar 06): Message Authentication Codes
Lecture 13 (Tue Mar 11): Collision-Resistant Hash Functions
Midterm and Spring Break
Lecture 14 (Thu Mar 13): Midterm exam; in class in Shaffer 301. Open notes.
Spring break (Tue Mar 18): Spring break; no class.
Spring break (Thu Mar 20): Spring break; no class.
Knowledge
Lecture 15 (Tue Mar 25): Midterm Return & Solutions
Lecture 16 (Thu Mar 27): No class today
Lecture 17 (Tue Apr 01): Zero-Knowledge
Lecture 18 (Thu Apr 03): Commitments
Public-Key Encryption
Lecture 19 (Tue Apr 08): Limitations of Private-Key Encryption and Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
Lecture 20 (Thu Apr 10): Public-Key Encryption: CPA, CCA1 and CCA2 Definitions, El Gamal
Lecture 21 (Tue Apr 15): Attacking and Defending RFID Systems (Matt Green)
Lecture 22 (Thu Apr 17): RSA and Hybrid Encryption
Authentication
Lecture 23 (Tue Apr 22): Digital Signatures: Definition
Lecture 24 (Thu Apr 24): Digital Signatures: Constructions
Wrap-Up
Lecture 25 (Tue Apr 29): On the Limitations of the "Standard" Definitions of Security
Lecture 26 (Thu May 01): Previews of exciting advanced topics
Final Exam Review Session (Matt Green): Tuesday, May 6 at 1:30-3:30pm in Shaffer 300.
The final exam is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 at 2-5pm in Shaffer 301.
Last modified: Thursday, May 1, 2008