Are there applications which cannot be done with only factoring trapdoor?

Turbo

7/12/23, 3:31 PM

Suppose we only have to use factoring as trapdoor function and we are disallowed to use other trapdoors, are there applications currently deployed which cannot be done?

0 + 0

discrete-logarithm

factoring

Score:2

Crypto

Daniel S

7/12/23, 5:30 PM

Certainly factoring allows you the big workhorse applications (key encapsulation, digital signatures and (with a little imagination) key agreement). As we look for more functionality, factoring does not always seem to be enough.

Full homomorphic encryption does not seem to be possible (though RSA is multiplicatively homomorphic and Paillier is log-homomorphic). Identifier-based encryption with factoring is shockingly inefficient, and I've not seen a serious proposal for extending it to hierarchical encryption or attribute based encryption. Other pairing-based constructions such as broadcast encryption can be done with factoring, but not nearly as efficiently. Likewise, although zero knowledge proofs of factorisation exists, people have not been able to extend them into the range of functionality of SNARKs and STARKs.

It should also be noted that (satirical submissions aside) factorisation does not represent a secure solution for anything if an adversary has access to a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer.

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fgrieu

7/12/23, 6:34 PM

I don't see what "log-homomorphic" is in the case of Paillier.

Turbo

7/12/23, 6:45 PM

@daniels if factoring can do everything discrete log can and vice versa then why prefer one over the other?

Daniel S

7/12/23, 7:00 PM

@frgieu In Paillier multiplication in the ciphertext group corresponds to addition in the plaintext group and so this sometimes referred to a log-homomorphic.

Daniel S

7/12/23, 7:02 PM

@turbo Principally for reasons of efficiency of computation, bandwidth or simplicity of implementation. For example, because discrete logarithm keys are simpler to produce, forward secrecy is easier for discrete logarithm constructs. Conversely the simplicity of RSA signatures means that some implementations favours them.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Are there applications which cannot be done with only factoring trapdoor?

TH: มีแอพพลิเคชั่นที่ไม่สามารถทำได้ด้วยแฟคตอริ่งแทรปดอร์เพียงอย่างเดียวหรือไม่?

RO: Există aplicații care nu pot fi făcute doar cu factoring trapdoor?

RU: Существуют ли приложения, которые не могут быть выполнены с помощью только факторингового люка?

VI: Có ứng dụng nào không thể thực hiện được chỉ với cửa sập bao thanh toán không?

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