Security bounds for sums of random permutations in classical and quantum settings

Indistinguishability of Sum of Permutations: A Fourier Analytic Route to Classical and Quantum Security

Cryptography and Security

Summary

This paper studies how easily one can tell apart the combined output of several scrambled lists (permutations) from random noise, using both regular and quantum queries. The authors analyze the problem using mathematical tools from Fourier analysis, providing precise limits on how many queries an attacker can make before detecting a difference. They also explore variations involving postprocessing steps and related cryptographic constructions. Their results help understand the security limits of these mathematical operations against classical and quantum attacks.

What this means in practice

Authors

Ritam Bhaumik, Chun Guo, Xiaoning Guo, Ashwin Jha

Abstract

We study classical and quantum indistinguishability of sums of independent random permutations and related transformations from permutations to functions. Let $G$ be a finite abelian group of order $N$, and let $π^k_+(x)=π_1(x)+\cdots+π_k(x)$ for $k\geq2$ independent uniform random permutations of $G$. We give a unified Fourier analytic treatment in which the construction is represented by its probability density and a distinguisher by its acceptance function, with the classical and quantum query models imposing different restrictions on the Fourier support of the latter. Classically, we obtain the bound $O_k(q/N^{k-1/2})$ for every $q<N$, and refine it below the birthday threshold to $O_k(q^2/N^k)$. In the quantum model, a simulation argument gives $O_k(N^{-(k-3/2)})$ for $q\leq(N-1)/2$, while Fourier interpolation gives concrete finite bounds up to $q\leq4N/15$ and the query-dependent bounds $O\left(\min\left\{N^{-1/2},q^3/N^2 + 1/N\right\}\right)$ and $O_k\left(\min\left\{q^3/N^k,N^{-(k-3/2)}\right\}\right)$, for $k=2$ and $k \geq 3$, respectively, throughout $1\leq q\leq(N-1)/2$. For $q = 1$, the first bound sharpens to $O(N^{-2})$. Over $G=\mathbb F_2^n$, a one-query Fourier attack matches the order of our one-query bound, while an $N/2$-query parity attack with advantage $1/2$ shows that our bounds reach the constant-advantage query threshold. We further study two variants of sum of permutations over binary vector spaces. First, we allow arbitrary surjective linear postprocessing, which includes truncation, and obtain classical and quantum bounds that retain the output-size dependence. Second, we analyse Dinur's variable-output single-permutation construction, $\mathsf{LXoP}$, for every fixed output width, and derive its classical and quantum security bounds; for one- and two-block outputs, we give concrete quantum security bounds.