We will discuss secure multiparty computation (MPC), a suprisingly powerful branch of cryptography that allows mutually untrusting parties to work together to securely run programs on private data. We will discuss both the theory and the practice of this emerging technology. Our discussion will cover computing on private data, zero-knowledge proofs, oblivious RAM, and more.
We will meet Wednesdays and Fridays from 12:30pm – 1:45pm in the Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building, Room 2200. Lectures will be recorded and made available here.
Office Hours will be held 2:00pm on Wednesdays in 4322 Siebel Center and Thursdays at 2:00pm in 4309 Siebel Center.
Homeworks will be made available here and submitted via Gradescope. Use code WJ5GBE to sign up.
A discussion board is available on Piazza.
Book (optional): A Pragmatic Introduction to Secure Multi-Party Computation by David Evans, Vladimir Kolesnikov, and Mike Rosulek. The book is available free of charge: https://securecomputation.org. This is mostly useful as a reference for surface-level course concepts, and it does not reach the technical depth you will need.
Research papers. This is an advanced topics class, and some of the topics are best (or only) documented by the research literature. The lecture schedule will include links to relevant research papers.
The main prerequisite is mathematical maturity. You will be expected to read, understand, and write formal definitions/proofs.
It is advised that you have basic familiarity with concepts in cryptography, such as having completed CS/ECE 407 or similar. More importantly, it is advised that you have a basic understanding of basic computer science theory, especially in terms of understanding computational models like state machines, RAM machines, circuits, etc.
Participation (\(10\%\)). Please show up to class, and participate in discussions in class and on Piazza.
Three-five homework assignments (\(60\%\)). Homework submissions must be typed. You may complete homeworks in any editor, but LaTeX submissions are preferred and templates will be provided.
Final exam (\(30\%\)).
Some extra credit opportunities might be made available throughout the semester. Your first opportunity is to visit office hours within the first three weeks of class for \(1\%\) extra credit.
Homeworks are to be completed and submitted individually. However, you may collaborate with up to one other student on homework assignments. On each homework submission, declare your collaborator (if any). In your collaboration you are expected to discuss the homework, not to copy answers. Plagiarism will not be tolerated (see Academic Integrity).
Date | Topic | Notes | Video | Reading | Extra |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
8/27 | Course Overview and Introduction | Notes, Slides | Video – No Audio, sorry! | Pragmatic MPC Chapter 1 | The Five Card Trick |
8/29 | Semi-Honest Security | Notes, Slides | Video – No Audio, sorry! | Reading on Simulation | |
9/3 | Correlated Randomness | Notes | Video | ||
9/5 | A Three-Party Protocol | Notes |
Topics covered in the course include—but are not limited to—the following:
Definitions of MPC security
Secret Sharing
Oblivious Transfer
Garbled Circuits
Malicious security
Oblivious RAM
Zero Knowledge Proofs
Depending on time remaining, we will review previously discussed topics, and move on to other topics such as (but not limited to):
Function secret sharing
Private Set Intersection
Private Information Retrieval
Universal Circuits
Oblivious Transfer Extension
Garbled RAM
MPC on Asynchronous Networks
Academic dishonesty is a serious offense. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Student Code (https://studentcode.illinois.edu) is considered a part of this syllabus. If you are ever in doubt of what constitutes plagiarism or cheating, do not hesitate to ask me.
To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course instructor and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. To contact DRES you may visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, call 333-4603 (V/TTY), or e-mail a message to disability@illinois.edu.