arXiv subjects

Mark Simkin

Publications and source records attributed to Mark Simkin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Robust Distributed Arrays: Provably Secure Networking for Data Availability Sampling

Data Availability Sampling (DAS), a central component of Ethereum's roadmap, enables clients to verify data availability without requiring any single client to download the entire dataset. DAS operates by having clients randomly retrieve individual symbols of erasure-encoded data from a peer-to-peer network. While the cryptographic and encoding aspects of DAS have recently undergone formal analysis, the peer-to-peer networking layer remains underexplored, with a lack of security definitions and efficient, provably secure constructions. In this work, we address this gap by introducing a novel distributed data structure that can serve as the networking layer for DAS, which we call robust distributed arrays. That is, we rigorously define a robustness property of a distributed data structure in an open permissionless network, that mimics a collection of arrays. Then, we give a simple and efficient construction and formally prove its robustness. Notably, every individual node is required to store only small portions of the data, and accessing array positions incurs minimal latency. The robustness of our construction relies solely on the presence of a minimal absolute number of honest nodes in the network. In particular, we avoid any honest majority assumption. Beyond DAS, we anticipate that robust distributed arrays can have wider applications in distributed systems.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables with Less Memory and Randomness

In this work we study Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables (IBLTs) with small failure probabilities. IBLTs are highly versatile data structures that have found applications in set reconciliation protocols, error-correcting codes, and even the design of advanced cryptographic primitives. For storing $n$ elements and ensuring correctness with probability at least $1 - \delta$, existing IBLT constructions require $\Omega(n(\frac{\log(1/\delta)}{\log(n)}+1))$ space and they crucially rely on fully random hash functions. We present new constructions of IBLTs that are simultaneously more space efficient and require less randomness. For storing $n$ elements with a failure probability of at most $\delta$, our data structure only requires $\mathcal{O}\left(n + \log(1/\delta)\log\log(1/\delta)\right)$ space and $\mathcal{O}\left(\log(\log(n)/\delta)\right)$-wise independent hash functions. As a key technical ingredient we show that hashing $n$ keys with any $k$-wise independent hash function $h:U \to [Cn]$ for some sufficiently large constant $C$ guarantees with probability $1 - 2^{-\Omega(k)}$ that at least $n/2$ keys will have a unique hash value. Proving this is non-trivial as $k$ approaches $n$. We believe that the techniques used to prove this statement may be of independent interest. We apply our new IBLTs to the encrypted compression problem, recently studied by Fleischhacker, Larsen, Simkin (Eurocrypt 2023). We extend their approach to work for a more general class of encryption schemes and using our new IBLT we achieve an asymptotically better compression rate.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2014

Ubic: Bridging the gap between digital cryptography and the physical world

Advances in computing technology increasingly blur the boundary between the digital domain and the physical world. Although the research community has developed a large number of cryptographic primitives and has demonstrated their usability in all-digital communication, many of them have not yet made their way into the real world due to usability aspects. We aim to make another step towards a tighter integration of digital cryptography into real world interactions. We describe Ubic, a framework that allows users to bridge the gap between digital cryptography and the physical world. Ubic relies on head-mounted displays, like Google Glass, resource-friendly computer vision techniques as well as mathematically sound cryptographic primitives to provide users with better security and privacy guarantees. The framework covers key cryptographic primitives, such as secure identification, document verification using a novel secure physical document format, as well as content hiding. To make a contribution of practical value, we focused on making Ubic as simple, easily deployable, and user friendly as possible.

cs.CR↗