The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security

Elette Boyle; Ilan Komargodski; Neekon Vafa

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11

The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security

Elette Boyle
, Ilan Komargodski
, Neekon Vafa^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

The Rachel and Selim Benin School of Engineering and Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

A memory checker is an algorithmic tool used to certify the integrity of a database maintained on a remote, unreliable, computation-ally bounded server. Concretely, it allows a user to issue instructions to the server and after every instruction, obtain either the correct value or a failure (but not an incorrect answer) with high probability. A recent result due to Boyle, Komargodski, and Vafa (BKV, STOC’24) showed a tradeoﬀ between the size of the local storage and the number of queries the memory checker makes to the server upon every logical instruction. Specifically, they show that every non-trivial memory checker construc-tion with inverse-polynomial soundness and local storage at most n¹⁻ must make Ω(log n/ log log n) queries, and this is tight up to constant factors given known constructions. However, an intriguing question is whether natural relaxations of the security guarantee could allow for more efficient constructions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings
Editors	Serge Fehr, Pierre-Alain Fouque
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	301-330
Number of pages	30
ISBN (Print)	9783031910913
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11
State	Published - 2025
Event	44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, EUROCRYPT 2025 - Madrid, Spain Duration: 4 May 2025 → 8 May 2025

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume	15605 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, EUROCRYPT 2025
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Madrid
Period	4/05/25 → 8/05/25

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© International Association for Cryptologic Research 2025.

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11

Cite this

Boyle, E., Komargodski, I., & Vafa, N. (2025). The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security. In S. Fehr, & P.-A. Fouque (Eds.), Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings (pp. 301-330). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 15605 LNCS). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11

Boyle, Elette ; Komargodski, Ilan ; Vafa, Neekon. / The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security. Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings. editor / Serge Fehr ; Pierre-Alain Fouque. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2025. pp. 301-330 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

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Boyle, E, Komargodski, I & Vafa, N 2025, The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security. in S Fehr & P-A Fouque (eds), Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 15605 LNCS, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 301-330, 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, EUROCRYPT 2025, Madrid, Spain, 4/05/25. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11

The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security. / Boyle, Elette; Komargodski, Ilan; Vafa, Neekon.
Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings. ed. / Serge Fehr; Pierre-Alain Fouque. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2025. p. 301-330 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 15605 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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Boyle E, Komargodski I, Vafa N. The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security. In Fehr S, Fouque PA, editors, Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2025 - 44th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2025, Proceedings. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2025. p. 301-330. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-91092-0_11

The Complexity of Memory Checking with Covert Security

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