Computer Science Colloquia: Verifiable Oblivious Pseudorandom Functions Applications, Instantiations, and Future Directions
Speaker: Christopher Wood
Abstract:
An Oblivious Pseudorandom Function (OPRF) is a two-party protocol run between a client and server for computing y = F(k, x)for some pseudorandom function F with server key k and client input x such that the client learns y and the server learns nothing. Verifiable OPRFs (VOPRFs) allow servers to prove, in zero knowledge, that the server used the private key k corresponding to some known public key. VOPRFs have demonstrated to be increasingly useful for a variety of applications, including anonymous credentials, password authenticated key exchange, private set intersection, and beyond. In this talk, we will present an overview of VOPRFs and their applications, starting with basic foundations, discuss existing constructions and their limitations, and future open work.
Bio:
Christopher Wood is a Research Lead at Cloudflare Research. Outside of Cloudflare, he is co-chair of the TLS and MASQUE working groups at the IETF, as well as the PEARG research group in the IRTF. Before joining Cloudflare, Christopher worked on transport security, privacy, and cryptography engineering at Apple, as well as future Internet architectures at Xerox PARC. His interests lay at the intersection of network protocol design, communications security, privacy, and applied cryptography. He guides security- and privacy-related projects focused on network protocols such as QUIC, TLS, and DNS, cryptographic protocols such as Privacy Pass and OPAQUE, protocol evolution efforts such as Post Quantum cryptographic experimentation, and anonymity systems such as Tor. Christopher holds a Ph.D. in computer science from UC Irvine, and B.S. and M.S. in computer science and B.S. in software engineering from RIT.
Event Snapshot
When and Where
Who
Open to the Public
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No