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Asymptotic information leakage under one-try attacks†
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2014
Abstract
We study the asymptotic behaviour of (a) information leakage and (b) adversary's error probability in information hiding systems modelled as noisy channels. Specifically, we assume the attacker can make a single guess after observing n independent executions of the system, throughout which the secret information is kept fixed. We show that the asymptotic behaviour of quantities (a) and (b) can be determined in a simple way from the channel matrix. Moreover, simple and tight bounds on them as functions of n show that the convergence is exponential. We also discuss feasible methods to evaluate the rate of convergence. Our results cover both the Bayesian case, where an a priori probability distribution on the secrets is assumed known to the attacker, and the maximum-likelihood case, where the attacker does not know such distribution. In the Bayesian case, we identify the distributions that maximize leakage. We consider both the min-entropy setting studied by Smith and the additive form recently proposed by Braun et al. and show the two forms do agree asymptotically. Next, we extend these results to a more sophisticated eavesdropping scenario, where the attacker can perform a (noisy) observation at each state of the computation and the systems are modelled as hidden Markov models.
- Type
- Special Issue: Quantitative Information Flow
- Information
- Mathematical Structures in Computer Science , Volume 25 , Issue 2: Quantitative Information Flow , February 2015 , pp. 292 - 319
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014
Footnotes
Extended version of Boreale et al. (2011). Work partially supported by the eu project Ascens under the fet open initiative in fp7.
References
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