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In the book titled "Secure Multiparty Computation and Secret Sharing" stated that MPC protocol is not secure when the adversary $t>n/2$. This was proved by using a 2 party protocol, but I can't understand why the same applies when $n<2$.

For example, when $n=6$ and $t=3$, the adversary might know the multiplication of the output for the 3 honest players, but as long as their individual inputs are not known, doesn't that consider as secure? Could someone please help me with this problem?

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First, it's important to understand that MPC is not possible for $t \geq n/2$ in the information-theoretic setting (where the adversary is computationally unbounded). In the computational setting, where the adversary is polynomial-time, it is possible to achieve MPC under cryptographic hardness assumptions.

Regarding your specific question, I assume you are referring to a case where we have a polynomial of degree $t$ to share a secret. Indeed, it is possible to share a secret securely for any $t\leq n$. However, the problem is that you need to be able to process that secret. So, if $t=3$ and $n=6$ and you have a degree-3 polynomial, then the first step of multiplication yields a polynomial of degree-6. In order to reconstruct the values, 7 points are needed for a degree-6 polynomial. However, there are only 6 parties and only 6 points. So, this cannot be done.

Of course, the above just says why this approach doesn't work. However, it's possible to prove that no approach can work, and I believe that this also appears in the book.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you Professor, but what if the multiplication is performed using another approach that does not increase the polynomial degree (for example, scalar value * polynomial), does the corruption bound still apply? And also, does this limitation also apply for addition using MPC? $\endgroup$
    – amin
    Jul 24, 2017 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ @amin, are you saying you are doing a single operation, either scalar multiplication or addition? $\endgroup$
    – mikeazo
    Jul 24, 2017 at 23:02
  • $\begingroup$ @amin As I described in my answer, I only showed that the polynomial approach doesn't work. However, I also explained that it's possible to prove that no approach can work. You can find a proof of this in the book you mentioned. $\endgroup$ Jul 25, 2017 at 3:41
  • $\begingroup$ @YehudaLindell Ohh, I get it. Thank you very much for your reply. $\endgroup$
    – amin
    Jul 25, 2017 at 6:32
  • $\begingroup$ @mikeazo yes, I'm curious whether by doing single operation such as scalar multiplication or addition would lead to the same limitation such as the one in polynomial multiplication. $\endgroup$
    – amin
    Jul 25, 2017 at 6:34

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