Informally, a one-way function is a function for which computation in one direction is straightforward, while computation in the reverse direction is far more difficult. This is typically described in a more formal, though still not rigorous, way [3, 4, 5] as a function f with domain X and range (codomain) Y where f(x) is ‘easy’ to compute for all x ∈ X; but for ‘virtually all’ elements y ∈ Y, it is ‘computationally infeasible’ to find an x such that f(x) = y. The function f is a one-way permutation when f is a bijective one-way function and X=Y (see also substitutions and permutations).
The seminal paper of Diffie and Hellman [1] was the first to set down the potential of one-way functions in the development of public-key cryptography. The interesting, and important, feature of the one-way function is the asymmetry in computational effort required to perform a function evaluation and its reverse. Diffie and Hellman provided a familiar example of such asymmetry in the difficulty of...
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Robshaw, M. (2005). One-Way Function. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_287
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