Seventh Workshop on
Formal and Computational Cryptography
FCC 2011

Paris, June 30, 2011


The 7th Workshop on Formal and Computational Cryptography will take place in Paris, just after CSF 2011.

Note that FCC takes place in Paris, not in Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay.


Background, aim, and scope

Since the 1980s, two approaches have been developed for analyzing security protocols and systems that rely on cryptography. One of the approaches is based on a computational model that considers issues of computational complexity and probability. Messages are modelled as bitstrings and security properties are defined in a strong form, in essence guaranteeing security with overwhelming probability against all probabilistic polynomial-time attacks. However, it is difficult to prove security of large, complex protocols in this model. The other approach relies on a symbolic model of protocol execution in which messages are modelled using a term algebra and cryptographic primitives are treated as perfect black-boxes, e.g. the only way to decrypt a ciphertext is to use the corresponding decryption key. This abstraction enables significantly simpler and often automated analysis of complex protocols. Since this model places strong constraints on the attacker, a fundamental question is whether such an analysis implies the strong security properties defined in the computational model.

This workshop focuses on approaches that combine and relate symbolic and computational protocol analysis. Over the last few years, there has been a spate of research results in this area. One set of results establish correspondence theorems between the two models, in effect showing that, for a certain class of protocols and properties, security in the symbolic model implies security in the computational model. In other work, researchers use language-based techniques such as process calculi, type systems, and protocol logics to reason directly about the computational model. Finally, several projects are investigating ways of mechanizing computationally sound proofs of cryptographic mechanisms. The workshop seeks results in this area of computationally sound protocol analysis: foundations and tools.


Important dates

  • Deadline for abstract submission: April 17, 2011
  • Notification: May 6, 2011
  • Final abstract due: May 27, 2011
  • Registration deadline: June 13, 2011
  • Workshop: June 30, 2011

Page maintained by Dominique Unruh, last modified on April 19, 2011.