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Let $r(b,t)$ denote the bitstring $b$ rotated to the left by $t$ bits: for example, $$r(00110101,5)=10100110.$$

Let $m(b_1,b_2,b_3)$ denote the majority function: for example, $$m(10010111,00101110,10100000)=10100110.$$

Consider the following game. Player A picks three arbitrary $n$-bit strings $(S_1,S_2,S_3)$ and nine arbitrary integers $(k_1,k_2,\ldots,k_9)$ less than $n.$ Then Player A computes

$$\begin{array}{l} X_1 = m(r(S_1,k_1), r(S_2,k_2), r(S_3,k_3)),\\ X_2 = m(r(S_1,k_4), r(S_2,k_5), r(S_3,k_6)),\\ X_3 = m(r(S_1,k_7), r(S_2,k_8), r(S_3,k_9)), \end{array}$$

then reveals $X_1$, $X_2$ and $X_3$ to Player B (we can assume that $X_1 \neq X_2, X_1 \neq X_3, X_2 \neq X_3.$)

Given $X_1$, $X_2$ and $X_3$, how hard is it (in the average case) for the Player B to find three arbitrary $n$-bit strings $(Y_1,Y_2,Y_3)$ and nine arbitrary integers $(v_1,v_2,\ldots,v_9)$ such that $$\begin{array}{l} X_1 = m(r(Y_1,v_1), r(Y_2,v_2), r(Y_3,v_3)),\\ X_2 = m(r(Y_1,v_4), r(Y_2,v_5), r(Y_3,v_6)),\\ X_3 = m(r(Y_1,v_7), r(Y_2,v_8), r(Y_3,v_9))? \end{array}$$

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  • $\begingroup$ Doesn't look that difficult; one approach would be to assign $v_1=v_2=v_3=0$, nonzero random values for the others, and then do backtracking at a bit level (e.g. look at the four possible bit settings of bit 0 of $X_0$, and follow the implications. My guess is that most branches relatively quickly run into contradictions, and if so, you either find a solution or not (and if not, try other random settings for $v_4$ et al). I haven't actually tried it, though... $\endgroup$
    – poncho
    Jul 20 at 18:07

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