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The LWE-cryptosystem is only CPA-secure as for example stated in A Decade of Lattice-Based Cryptography. Consider the following system described there (Section 5.2)

  • The secret key is a uniform LWE secret $s \in \mathbb{Z}_q^n$, and the public key is some $m \approx (n+1) \log(q)$ samples $(\bar{a}_i, b_i = \left <\bar{a}_i, s \right > +e$ collected as a the columns of a matrix $A$ $$A = \begin{pmatrix} \bar{A} \\ b^t \end{pmatrix} \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{(n+1) \times m}$$ where $b^t = s^t \bar{A} +e e^t \mod q$.
  • To encrypt a bit $\mu \in \mathbb{Z}_2 = \{0,1\}$ using the public key $A$, one chooses a unifrom $x \in {0,1}^m$ and outputs the ciphertext $$c = A \cdot x + (0, \mu \cdot \lfloor \frac{q}{2} \rceil) \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n+1}$$
  • To decrypt using the secret key $\mathbb{s}$, one computes: $$(-s, 1)^t \cdot c = (-s, 1)^t \cdot A \cdot x +\mu \cdot \lfloor \frac{q}{2} \rceil) \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n+1}$$ $$ = e^t \cdot x + \mu \cdot \lfloor \frac{q}{2} \rceil) \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n+1}$$ $$\approx \mu \cdot \lfloor \frac{q}{2} \rceil \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n+1} \mod q$$ and tests whether it is closer to $0$ or $\frac{q}{2} \mod q$.

The paper states that "we note that the system is trivially breakable under an active, or chosen-ciphertext, attack".

How would such an attack look like? I would consider to encrypt the $0$ bit with $x$ being the all $1$-s vector to retrieve $e$ and then retrieve $s$ via $\bar{A}^{-1} \cdot (b-e)$. Are there any other ways known? And are there known ways to extend these attacks to CPA-secure version of the NIST-pqc finalist candidates, for example, Kyber?

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Consider that adversary $A$ chooses two messages $m_1 = 0$ and $m_2 = 1$ as per Ind-CCA1 game and plays against the challanger.

  • Adversary A sends $m_1$ and $m_2$ to the challenger.

  • Challenger randomly choose $b$ between $0$ and $1$; $b \stackrel{$}{\leftarrow}${0,1}

  • Challenger calculates $c:=Enc(s,m_b)$ and send $c$ to $A$.

  • Adversary performs additional operations in polynomial time, including calls to the encryption/decryption oracles, for ciphertexts different than $c$.

    • $c_0 = EncOracle(0)$

    • $c' = c \oplus c_0$

      i.e. execute a homomorphic addition of $m_b$ with zero!.

    • $m' = DecOracle(c')$

      This is a valid request since $c' \neq c$.

    • And we have $m' = m_b$

  • if $m' = 0$ return $0$
    else return $1$

Adversary wins the game with an advantage 1.

In other words, the ciphertexts are malleable, there is no integrity to secure against CCA1 adversary.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! One question though: The attack laid out calls the decryption oracle after obtaining the challenge. However, the description of IND-CCA1 linked mentions that the attacker has to call the decryption oracle before obtaining the challenge: "That means: the adversary can encrypt or decrypt arbitrary messages before obtaining the challenge ciphertext." Would the attack laid out here not violate this requirement? $\endgroup$ Feb 3, 2022 at 11:55

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