In card-based cryptography, which uses physical cards for secure computation, proving lower bounds on the number of cards and shuffles is an important research problem. There are two different approaches to demonstrate the impossibility of protocol construction: formal verification and proof using pen and paper. In card-based protocols, shuffles are the most important operations to ensure the correctness and security of protocols. A random cut, which randomly shifts a sequence of cards, is considered the easiest shuffle to implement. For this reason, many protocols using only random cuts as shuffle operations have been proposed, and proving lower bounds on the number of cards and shuffles in this setting is also recognized as an important problem. As for XOR protocols using only random cuts, Toyoda et al. constructed a six-card XOR protocol, but so far it is not clear whether there are protocols with fewer cards. In this paper, we prove the impossibility of a four-card XOR protocol using only random cuts, employing both formal verification and proof using pen and paper. In formal verification, we apply the verification method for AND protocols developed by Koch et al. to XOR protocols, and show that the number of shuffles is at least three. In the proof using pen and paper, we show that a four-card XOR protocol is impossible to construct even when allowing any number of shuffles.
In card-based cryptography, which uses physical cards for secure computation, proving lower bounds on the number of cards and shuffles is an important research problem. There are two different approaches to demonstrate the impossibility of protocol construction: formal verification and proof using pen and paper. In card-based protocols, shuffles are the most important operations to ensure the correctness and security of protocols. A random cut, which randomly shifts a sequence of cards, is considered the easiest shuffle to implement. For this reason, many protocols using only random cuts as shuffle operations have been proposed, and proving lower bounds on the number of cards and shuffles in this setting is also recognized as an important problem. As for XOR protocols using only random cuts, Toyoda et al. constructed a six-card XOR protocol, but so far it is not clear whether there are protocols with fewer cards. In this paper, we prove the impossibility of a four-card XOR protocol using only random cuts, employing both formal verification and proof using pen and paper. In formal verification, we apply the verification method for AND protocols developed by Koch et al. to XOR protocols, and show that the number of shuffles is at least three. In the proof using pen and paper, we show that a four-card XOR protocol is impossible to construct even when allowing any number of shuffles.
In card-based cryptography, a commitment to a Boolean value is usually represented by two face-down cards of different colors or numbers, whose order specifies the one-bit value (namely, 0 or 1). One of the most important primitives in card-based cryptography is a "copy protocol," which is supposed to make two identical copies of a given commitment. In the literature, there are several copy protocols, which can be categorized by kinds of shuffles they use; this paper focuses on those using only the so-called random cut, which is the simplest shuffle, and we propose two copy protocols that are more efficient than the existing ones. Specifically, we first work on a standard deck of cards and design a six-card copy protocol using three random cuts (on average). Since the previous protocol needs 5.5 random cuts, our protocol improves upon it. Next, we shift our attention to the case of a two-colored deck of cards, and construct a six-card copy protocol using three random cuts (on average). Because the previous protocol requires eight cards, our protocol uses two cards fewer than the previous one (although it uses one more shuffle). In addition, going back to the standard-deck setting, we provide a four-card XOR protocol using only one random cut for the first time.
Executing a card-based cryptographic protocol is an attractive way to perform secure multiparty computation (MPC) with a deck of physical cards. Crèpeau and Kilian at CRYPTO 1993 proposed card-based AND and XOR protocols that can deal with a logical conjunction and exclusive-or of variables. Their protocols use a familiar shuffling action called a random cut that can be easily implemented by humans, while the numbers of required cards and shuffles are not small enough to be efficient and the protocols are Las Vegas algorithms, i.e., they are not finite-runtime. Several researchers have improved upon the protocols for a quarter of a century. Eventually, there are many AND protocols in the literature, some of which are quite efficient and practical to execute. By contrast, there are only three XOR protocols including the Crèpeau--Kilian protocol mentioned above. In this paper, we design an efficient XOR protocol using only random cuts; the numbers of required cards and shuffles are six and two (which is fixed), respectively. Our proposed XOR protocol is the first construction of a finite-runtime XOR protocol if we restrict ourselves to use only random cuts.
Card-based cryptographic protocols provide secure multi-party computation using a deck of physical cards. The most important primitive of those protocols is the shuffling operation, and most known protocols rely on uniform shuffles (such as the random cut and random bisection cut) in which each possible outcome is equally likely. However, several protocols with non-uniform shuffles have recently been proposed by Koch et al. Compared to other protocols, their protocols require fewer cards to securely produce a hidden AND value, although implementation of the non-uniform shuffle appearing in their protocols remains an open problem. This paper presents a secure implementation of their non-uniform shuffle. To implement the shuffle, we utilize physical cases that can store piles of cards, such as boxes and envelopes. Therefore, humans are able to perform the non-uniform shuffle using these everyday objects.
In card-based cryptography, designing AND protocols in committed format is a major topic of research. The state-of-the-art AND protocol proposed by Koch, Walzer, and Härtel in ASIACRYPT 2015 uses only four cards, which is the minimum permissible number. Their protocol»s minimality relies on somewhat complicated shuffles having non-uniform probabilities of possible outcomes. Restricting the allowed shuffles to "practical»» ones, namely uniform closed shuffles, to our knowledge, six cards are sufficient: The six-card AND protocol proposed by Mizuki and Sone in 2009 utilizes the random bisection cut, which is a uniform and cyclic (and hence, closed) shuffle. Thus, a question has arisen: Can we improve upon this six-card protocol using only practical shuffles? In other words, whether there exists a five-card AND protocol in committed format using only uniform closed shuffles has been one of the most important open questions in this field. In this paper, we answer the question affirmatively by designing a five-card committed-format AND protocol using only practical shuffles. The shuffles that our protocol uses are random cut and random bisection cut, both of which are uniform cyclic shuffles and can be easily implemented by humans.
Abstract In card-based cryptography, designing AND protocols in committed format is a major research topic. The state-of-the-art AND protocol proposed by Koch, Walzer, and Härtel in ASIACRYPT 2015 uses only four cards, which is the minimum permissible number. The minimality of their protocol relies on somewhat complicated shuffles having non-uniform probabilities of possible outcomes. Restricting the allowed shuffles to uniform closed ones entails that, to the best of our knowledge, six cards are sufficient: the six-card AND protocol proposed by Mizuki and Sone in 2009 utilizes the random bisection cut, which is a uniform and cyclic (and hence, closed) shuffle. Thus, a question has arisen: “Can we improve upon this six-card protocol using only uniform closed shuffles?” In other words, the existence or otherwise of a five-card AND protocol in committed format using only uniform closed shuffles has been one of the most important open questions in this field. In this paper, we answer the question affirmatively by designing five-card committed-format AND protocols using only uniform cyclic shuffles. The shuffles that our protocols use are the random cut and random bisection cut, both of which are uniform cyclic shuffles and can be easily implemented by humans.
In card-based cryptography, the numbers of cards and shuffles are the complexity measures of protocols for secure computations, and the smaller these values are, the better. As the state-of-the-art study to minimize the latter measure, Shinagawa and Nuida showed a surprising result that any n-input logical function can be securely computed with only one shuffle, based on the idea of Yao's garbled circuit. When executing their protocol, the number of required cards is 2n+24q, where the n-input logical function to be computed is represented by q gates. For example, when applied to the n-input AND and XOR functions, the number of gates is n-1, and hence, 26n-24 cards are required. In this paper, we show that the number of required cards can be reduced by focusing on these two specific functions. Specifically, we construct a single-shuffle protocol for the n-input AND function using 4n-2 cards, and construct a single-shuffle protocol for the n-input XOR function using 2n cards.