| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 31, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 18, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1414000 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Nina Amla
namla@nsf.gov (703)292-7991 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $950,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $999,992.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2016 = $239,819.00 FY 2017 = $195,330.00 FY 2018 = $201,003.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
450 JANE STANFORD WAY STANFORD CA US 94305-2004 (650)723-2300 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Gates Stanford CA US 94305-1024 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The Center for Encrypted Functionalities (CORE) tackles the deep and far-reaching problem of general-purpose "program obfuscation," which aims to enhance cybersecurity by making an arbitrary computer program unintelligible while preserving its functionality. This can in turn enable a host of applications, such as hiding from potential adversaries the existence of vulnerabilities that may have been introduced through human error in the design/development process, thereby preventing tampering or deterring reverse engineering, or hiding cryptographic keys within software, thereby strengthening encryption and information transfer.
At the heart of the Center's research activities is the development of new and rigorous mathematical techniques to build faster and more secure general-purpose mechanisms enabling such software. In pursuit of this goal, the CORE team tackles many technical questions: Can secure general-purpose mechanisms avoid the inefficiency overhead that arises from Barrington's Theorem? Can the security of these mechanisms be proven to hold against idealized adversaries, or be based on natural non-interactive hardness assumptions? Can these approaches be securely leveraged to protect data from rogue insiders, who must be able to access some data in the clear? Finally, can these mechanisms be used to reduce the level of interaction required to accomplish secure communication and computation tasks? In addition to its direct research program, the Center organizes retreats and workshops to bring together researchers to carry out the Center's mission. The Center also engages in high-impact outreach efforts, such as the development of free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Intellectual Merit: The Center for Encrypted Functionalities embarked on a multi-year multi-institution inquiry into the mathematical foundations of the problem of “encrypting software” -- that is, compiling software code into a form that hides all implementation-specific details of the software. Such a compiler achieves a technical capability called indistinguishability obfuscation (iO). Over the course of the Frontier Award funding period, our work greatly expanded the far-reaching applications of iO, from enabling secure cloud services to non-interactive group key agreement. In addition, we devised new mathematical algorithms for attacking several proposed iO schemes, including introducing the concept of Annihilation Attacks, and discovering new connections between the Sum of Squares paradigm and attacks on proposed cryptographic pseudorandom generators. We also proposed several new ways to construct secure iO under different assumptions. Most notably, in 2021, our work put iO on a firm mathematical foundation by showing how to realize iO from well-established complexity-theoretic hardness assumptions. This work was awarded a Best Paper Award at ACM STOC 2021.
Broader Impacts: The research work of the center resulted in over forty publications at top conferences and journals, including several articles for a general audience. Our researchers gave invited talks at academic conferences, as well as outreach talks to high school and middle school students in many different forums. The center organized several workshops on advances in program obfuscation, and forged ties with other communities, most notably with the mathematics community to construct a cryptographic multilinear map. Graduate students who were trained as part of this effort are now tenure-track professors at U.T. Austin, UIUC, UCSB, IIT Delhi (India), and UNC, and one has recently accepted a tenure track position at CMU.
Last Modified: 09/20/2021
Modified by: Dan Boneh
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