Paper 2023/702

Building Unclonable Cryptography: A Tale of Two No-cloning Paradigms

Ghada Almashaqbeh, University of Connecticut
Rohit Chatterjee, Stony Brook University
Abstract

Unclonable cryptography builds primitives that enjoy some form of unclonability, such as quantum money, software copy protection, and bounded execution programs. These are impossible in the classical model as classical data is inherently clonable. Quantum computing, with its no-cloning principle, offers a solution. However, it is not enough to realize bounded execution programs; these require one-time memory devices that self-destruct after a single data retrieval query. Very recently, a new no-cloning technology has been introduced [Eurocrypt'22], showing that unclonable polymers---proteins---can be used to build bounded-query memory devices and unclonable cryptographic applications. In this paper, we investigate the relation between these two technologies; whether one can replace the other, or complement each other such that combining them brings the best of both worlds. Towards this goal, we review the quantum and unclonable polymer models, and existing unclonable cryptographic primitives. Then, we discuss whether these primitives can be built using the other technology, and show alternative constructions and notions when possible. We also offer insights and remarks for the road ahead. We believe that this study will contribute in advancing the field of unclonable cryptography on two fronts: developing new primitives, and realizing existing ones using new constructions.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Applications
Publication info
Published elsewhere. SECRYPT 2023
Keywords
Unclonable CryptographyQuantum ComputingUnclonable Polymers
Contact author(s)
ghada @ uconn edu
rochatterjee @ cs stonybrook edu
History
2023-05-22: approved
2023-05-16: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2023/702
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2023/702,
      author = {Ghada Almashaqbeh and Rohit Chatterjee},
      title = {Building Unclonable Cryptography: A Tale of Two No-cloning Paradigms},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2023/702},
      year = {2023},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/702}
}
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