Improved Bounds on the Threshold Gap in Ramp Secret Sharing.

In this paper, we consider linear secret sharing schemes over a finite field Fq, where the secret is a vector in Fℓqand each of the n shares is a single element of Fq. We obtain lower bounds on the so-called threshold gap g of such schemes, defined as the quantity r-t where r is the smallest number such that any subset of r shares uniquely determines the secret and t is the largest number such that any subset of t shares provides no information about the secret. Our main result establishes a family of bounds which are tighter than previously known bounds for ℓ ≳ 2 . Furthermore, we also provide bounds, in terms of n and q , on the partial reconstruction and privacy thresholds, a more fine-grained notion that considers the amount of information about the secret that can be contained in a set of shares of a given size. Finally, we compare our lower bounds with known upper bounds in the asymptotic setting.In this paper, we consider linear secret sharing schemes over a finite field Fq, where the secret is a vector in Fℓqand each of the n shares is a single element of Fq. We obtain lower bounds on the so-called threshold gap g of such schemes, defined as the quantity r-t where r is the smallest number such that any subset of r shares uniquely determines the secret and t is the largest number such that any subset of t shares provides no information about the secret. Our main result establishes a family of bounds which are tighter than previously known bounds for ℓ ≳ 2 . Furthermore, we also provide bounds, in terms of n and q , on the partial reconstruction and privacy thresholds, a more fine-grained notion that considers the amount of information about the secret that can be contained in a set of shares of a given size. Finally, we compare our lower bounds with known upper bounds in the asymptotic setting.

IEEE Transactions on Information TheoryFeb 27, 20196 citations

Bounds on the Threshold Gap in Secret Sharing and its Applications

Ignacio Cascudo, Ronald Cramer, Chaoping Xing

We consider the class of secret sharing schemes where there is no a priori bound on the number of players n but where each of the n share-spaces has fixed cardinality q. We show two fundamental lower bounds on the threshold gap of such schemes. The threshold gap g is defined as r-t, where r is minimal and t is maximal such that the following holds: for a secret with arbitrary a priori distribution, each r-subset of players can reconstruct this secret from their joint shares without error ( r-reconstruction) and the information gain about the secret is nil for each t-subset of players jointly ( t-privacy). Our first bound, which is completely general, implies that if , then g ≥ [( n-t+1)/q] independently of the cardinality of the secret-space. Our second bound pertains to \BBF q-linear schemes with secret-space \BBF qk( k ≥ 2). It improves the first bound when k is large enough. Concretely, it implies that g ≥ [( n-t+1)/ q]+f(q,k,t,n), for some function f that is strictly positive when k is large enough. Moreover, also in the \BBF q-linear case, bounds on the threshold gap independent of t or r are obtained by additionally employing a dualization argument. As an application of our results, we answer an open question about the asymptotics of arithmetic secret sharing schemes and prove that the asymptotic optimal corruption tolerance rate is strictly smaller than 1.We consider the class of secret sharing schemes where there is no a priori bound on the number of players n but where each of the n share-spaces has fixed cardinality q. We show two fundamental lower bounds on the threshold gap of such schemes. The threshold gap g is defined as r-t, where r is minimal and t is maximal such that the following holds: for a secret with arbitrary a priori distribution, each r-subset of players can reconstruct this secret from their joint shares without error ( r-reconstruction) and the information gain about the secret is nil for each t-subset of players jointly ( t-privacy). Our first bound, which is completely general, implies that if , then g ≥ [( n-t+1)/q] independently of the cardinality of the secret-space. Our second bound pertains to \BBF q-linear schemes with secret-space \BBF qk( k ≥ 2). It improves the first bound when k is large enough. Concretely, it implies that g ≥ [( n-t+1)/ q]+f(q,k,t,n), for some function f that is strictly positive when k is large enough. Moreover, also in the \BBF q-linear case, bounds on the threshold gap independent of t or r are obtained by additionally employing a dualization argument. As an application of our results, we answer an open question about the asymptotics of arithmetic secret sharing schemes and prove that the asymptotic optimal corruption tolerance rate is strictly smaller than 1.

IEEE Transactions on Information TheoryMay 21, 201335 citations

Upper and lower bounds for secret sharing schemes with general access structures

Sofia Barbetta

Secret sharing schemes are a fundamental cryptographic tool for securely distributing sensitive information among multiple parties according to a specified access structure. For a given access policy, several schemes with different levels of efficiency may exist. One of the main parameters in this analysis is the share size and a central goal is to minimize it. This thesis studies the complexity of secret sharing schemes by focusing on lower and upper bounds on the share size for arbitrary and explicit access structures. The main objective is to collect the most relevant results in the literature, ranging from early lower bounds due to Karnin et al. and Csirmaz and upper-bound of Liu and Vaikuntanathan to recent advances that have significantly improved known bounds. Despite this progress, a significant gap between lower and upper bounds remains, leaving the determination of the optimal share size an open problem.Secret sharing schemes are a fundamental cryptographic tool for securely distributing sensitive information among multiple parties according to a specified access structure. For a given access policy, several schemes with different levels of efficiency may exist. One of the main parameters in this analysis is the share size and a central goal is to minimize it. This thesis studies the complexity of secret sharing schemes by focusing on lower and upper bounds on the share size for arbitrary and explicit access structures. The main objective is to collect the most relevant results in the literature, ranging from early lower bounds due to Karnin et al. and Csirmaz and upper-bound of Liu and Vaikuntanathan to recent advances that have significantly improved known bounds. Despite this progress, a significant gap between lower and upper bounds remains, leaving the determination of the optimal share size an open problem.

Jan 27, 20260 citations

A Linear Algebraic Approach to Strongly Secure Ramp Secret Sharing for General Access Structures

Reo Eriguchi, Noboru Kunihiro, Koji Nuida

Secret sharing is a cryptographic technique to share a secret among participants in such a way that only authorized subsets are able to recover the secret. Ramp secret sharing schemes can achieve better information ratio than perfect schemes while some partial information on a secret which is composed of several sub-secrets leaks out. The notion of strong security has been introduced to control the amount of information on every subset of the sub-secrets unauthorized sets can obtain. In this paper, we reduce the construction of strongly secure ramp secret sharing for general access structures to a linear algebraic problem. As a result, we show that previous results on strongly secure network coding imply two constructions of a linear transformation which makes a given linear ramp scheme strongly secure. They are explicit or provide a deterministic algorithm while the previous method which works for any linear ramp scheme is probabilistic.Secret sharing is a cryptographic technique to share a secret among participants in such a way that only authorized subsets are able to recover the secret. Ramp secret sharing schemes can achieve better information ratio than perfect schemes while some partial information on a secret which is composed of several sub-secrets leaks out. The notion of strong security has been introduced to control the amount of information on every subset of the sub-secrets unauthorized sets can obtain. In this paper, we reduce the construction of strongly secure ramp secret sharing for general access structures to a linear algebraic problem. As a result, we show that previous results on strongly secure network coding imply two constructions of a linear transformation which makes a given linear ramp scheme strongly secure. They are explicit or provide a deterministic algorithm while the previous method which works for any linear ramp scheme is probabilistic.

International Symposium on Information Theory and its ApplicationsOct 24, 20200 citations

Quadratic Secret Sharing and Conditional Disclosure of Secrets

Amos Beimel, Hussien Othman, Naty Peter

There is a huge gap between the upper and lower bounds on the share size of secret-sharing schemes for $n$ -party access structures; consistent with our current knowledge the optimal share size can be anywhere between polynomial and exponential in $n$ . For linear secret-sharing schemes, the share size for almost all $n$ -party access structures is exponential in $n$ . We would like to study larger classes of secret-sharing schemes with two goals: 1) prove lower bounds for larger classes of secret-sharing schemes; and 2) construct efficient secret-sharing schemes. Given this motivation, Paskin-Cherniavsky and Radune (ITC’20) introduced a new class of secret-sharing schemes in which the shares are generated by applying degree- $d$ polynomials to the secret and some random field elements. We define and study two additional classes of polynomial secret-sharing schemes: 1) schemes in which the reconstruction of the secret is done using polynomials; and 2) schemes in which both sharing and reconstruction are done by polynomials. Our main result is a construction of secret-sharing schemes and conditional disclosure of secrets protocols with quadratic sharing and reconstruction that are more efficient than linear secret-sharing schemes. To complement our results, we prove lower bounds on the share size for schemes with polynomial reconstruction. Finally, we give an evidence that schemes with polynomial sharing are probably stronger than schemes with polynomial reconstruction.There is a huge gap between the upper and lower bounds on the share size of secret-sharing schemes for$n$-party access structures; consistent with our current knowledge the optimal share size can be anywhere between polynomial and exponential in$n$. For linear secret-sharing schemes, the share size for almost all$n$-party access structures is exponential in$n$. We would like to study larger classes of secret-sharing schemes with two goals: 1) prove lower bounds for larger classes of secret-sharing schemes; and 2) construct efficient secret-sharing schemes. Given this motivation, Paskin-Cherniavsky and Radune (ITC’20) introduced a new class of secret-sharing schemes in which the shares are generated by applying degree-$d$polynomials to the secret and some random field elements. We define and study two additional classes of polynomial secret-sharing schemes: 1) schemes in which the reconstruction of the secret is done using polynomials; and 2) schemes in which both sharing and reconstruction are done by polynomials. Our main result is a construction of secret-sharing schemes and conditional disclosure of secrets protocols with quadratic sharing and reconstruction that are more efficient than linear secret-sharing schemes. To complement our results, we prove lower bounds on the share size for schemes with polynomial reconstruction. Finally, we give an evidence that schemes with polynomial sharing are probably stronger than schemes with polynomial reconstruction.

IEEE Transactions on Information TheoryJul 18, 20233 citations

Broadcast Secret-Sharing, Bounds and Applications

Ivan Damgård, Kasper Green Larsen, Sophia Yakoubov

Consider a sender 𝒮 and a group of n recipients. 𝒮 holds a secret message 𝗆 of length l bits and the goal is to allow 𝒮 to create a secret sharing of 𝗆 with privacy threshold t among the recipients, by broadcasting a single message 𝖼 to the recipients. Our goal is to do this with information theoretic security in a model with a simple form of correlated randomness. Namely, for each subset 𝒜 of recipients of size q, 𝒮 may share a random key with all recipients in 𝒜. (The keys shared with different subsets 𝒜 must be independent.) We call this Broadcast Secret-Sharing (BSS) with parameters l, n, t and q. Our main question is: how large must 𝖼 be, as a function of the parameters? We show that (n-t)/q l is a lower bound, and we show an upper bound of ((n(t+1)/(q+t)) -t)l, matching the lower bound whenever t = 0, or when q = 1 or n-t. When q = n-t, the size of 𝖼 is exactly l which is clearly minimal. The protocol demonstrating the upper bound in this case requires 𝒮 to share a key with every subset of size n-t. We show that this overhead cannot be avoided when 𝖼 has minimal size. We also show that if access is additionally given to an idealized PRG, the lower bound on ciphertext size becomes (n-t)/q λ + l - negl(λ) (where λ is the length of the input to the PRG). The upper bound becomes ((n(t+1))/(q+t) -t)λ + l. BSS can be applied directly to secret-key threshold encryption. We can also consider a setting where the correlated randomness is generated using computationally secure and non-interactive key exchange, where we assume that each recipient has an (independently generated) public key for this purpose. In this model, any protocol for non-interactive secret sharing becomes an ad hoc threshold encryption (ATE) scheme, which is a threshold encryption scheme with no trusted setup beyond a PKI. Our upper bounds imply new ATE schemes, and our lower bound becomes a lower bound on the ciphertext size in any ATE scheme that uses a key exchange functionality and no other cryptographic primitives.Consider a sender 𝒮 and a group of n recipients. 𝒮 holds a secret message 𝗆 of length l bits and the goal is to allow 𝒮 to create a secret sharing of 𝗆 with privacy threshold t among the recipients, by broadcasting a single message 𝖼 to the recipients. Our goal is to do this with information theoretic security in a model with a simple form of correlated randomness. Namely, for each subset 𝒜 of recipients of size q, 𝒮 may share a random key with all recipients in 𝒜. (The keys shared with different subsets 𝒜 must be independent.) We call this Broadcast Secret-Sharing (BSS) with parameters l, n, t and q. Our main question is: how large must 𝖼 be, as a function of the parameters? We show that (n-t)/q l is a lower bound, and we show an upper bound of ((n(t+1)/(q+t)) -t)l, matching the lower bound whenever t = 0, or when q = 1 or n-t. When q = n-t, the size of 𝖼 is exactly l which is clearly minimal. The protocol demonstrating the upper bound in this case requires 𝒮 to share a key with every subset of size n-t. We show that this overhead cannot be avoided when 𝖼 has minimal size. We also show that if access is additionally given to an idealized PRG, the lower bound on ciphertext size becomes (n-t)/q λ + l - negl(λ) (where λ is the length of the input to the PRG). The upper bound becomes ((n(t+1))/(q+t) -t)λ + l. BSS can be applied directly to secret-key threshold encryption. We can also consider a setting where the correlated randomness is generated using computationally secure and non-interactive key exchange, where we assume that each recipient has an (independently generated) public key for this purpose. In this model, any protocol for non-interactive secret sharing becomes an ad hoc threshold encryption (ATE) scheme, which is a threshold encryption scheme with no trusted setup beyond a PKI. Our upper bounds imply new ATE schemes, and our lower bound becomes a lower bound on the ciphertext size in any ATE scheme that uses a key exchange functionality and no other cryptographic primitives.

Leibniz international proceedings in informaticsJan 1, 20211 citation

There is a huge gap between the upper and lower bounds on the share size of secret-sharing schemes for

n

-party access structures; consistent with our current knowledge the optimal share size can be anywhere between polynomial and exponential in

n

. For linear secret-sharing schemes, the share size for almost all

n

-party access structures is exponential in

n

. We would like to study larger classes of secret-sharing schemes with two goals: 1) prove lower bounds for larger classes of secret-sharing schemes; and 2) construct efficient secret-sharing schemes. Given this motivation, Paskin-Cherniavsky and Radune (ITC’20) introduced a new class of secret-sharing schemes in which the shares are generated by applying degree-

d

polynomials to the secret and some random field elements. We define and study two additional classes of polynomial secret-sharing schemes: 1) schemes in which the reconstruction of the secret is done using polynomials; and 2) schemes in which both sharing and reconstruction are done by polynomials. Our main result is a construction of secret-sharing schemes and conditional disclosure of secrets protocols with quadratic sharing and reconstruction that are more efficient than linear secret-sharing schemes. To complement our results, we prove lower bounds on the share size for schemes with polynomial reconstruction. Finally, we give an evidence that schemes with polynomial sharing are probably stronger than schemes with polynomial reconstruction.