Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

On the Hardness of Scheme-Switching Between SIMD FHE Schemes

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCrypto 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14154))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 1096 Accesses

Abstract

Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) schemes are either lightweight and can evaluate boolean circuits or are relatively heavy and can evaluate arithmetic circuits on encrypted vectors, i.e., they perform single instruction multiple data operations (SIMD). SIMD FHE schemes can either perform exact modular arithmetic in the case of the Brakerski-Gentry-Vaikuntanathan (BGV) and Brakerski-Fan-Vercauteren (BFV) schemes or approximate arithmetic in the case of the Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song (CKKS) scheme. While one can homomorphically switch between BGV/BFV and CKKS using the computationally expensive bootstrapping procedure, it is unknown how to switch between these schemes without bootstrapping. Finding more efficient methods than bootstrapping of converting between these schemes was stated as an open problem by Halevi and Shoup, Eurocrypt 2015 [33, 34].

In this work, we provide strong evidence that homomorphic switching between BGV/BFV and CKKS is as hard as bootstrapping. In more detail, if one could efficiently switch between these SIMD schemes, then one could bootstrap these SIMD FHE schemes using a single call to a homomorphic scheme-switching algorithm without applying homomorphic linear transformations. Thus, one cannot hope to obtain significant improvements to homomorphic scheme-switching without also significantly improving the state-of-the-art for bootstrapping.

We also explore the relative hardness of computing homomorphic comparison in these same SIMD FHE schemes as a secondary contribution. We show that given a comparison algorithm, one can bootstrap these schemes using a few calls to the comparison algorithm for typical parameter settings. While we focus on the comparison function in this work, the overall approach to demonstrate relative hardness of computing specific functions homomorphically extends beyond comparison to other useful functions such as min/max or ReLU.

N. Manohar—This work was done while the second and third authors were at SRI International.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Many schemes beforehand had limited homomorphic capabilities. They either had ciphertexts grow exponentially with operations [3, 23, 54] or they had limited homomorphism [6, 40]. See Chap. 3 of Gentry’s dissertation [26] for a survey of previous schemes.

  2. 2.

    All of our results apply to arbitrary cyclotomic fields. See [36] for the full details of BGV in general cyclotomics.

References

  1. Agrawal, R., et al.: FAB: an FPGA-based accelerator for bootstrappable fully homomorphic encryption. In: HPCA, pp. 882–895. IEEE (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alperin-Sheriff, J., Peikert, C.: Practical bootstrapping in quasilinear time. In: Canetti, R., Garay, J.A. (eds.) CRYPTO 2013. LNCS, vol. 8042, pp. 1–20. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40041-4_1

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Armknecht, F., Sadeghi, A.: A new approach for algebraically homomorphic encryption. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 422 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Badawi, A.A., et al.: OpenFHE: open-source fully homomorphic encryption library. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2022/915 (2022). https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/915

  5. Bae, Y., Cheon, J.H., Cho, W., Kim, J., Kim, T.: Meta-BTS: bootstrapping precision beyond the limit. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2022/1167 (2022). https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/1167. To Appear in CCS 2022

  6. Boneh, D., Goh, E.-J., Nissim, K.: Evaluating 2-DNF formulas on ciphertexts. In: Kilian, J. (ed.) TCC 2005. LNCS, vol. 3378, pp. 325–341. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30576-7_18

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Bossuat, J.-P., Mouchet, C., Troncoso-Pastoriza, J., Hubaux, J.-P.: Efficient bootstrapping for approximate homomorphic encryption with non-sparse keys. In: Canteaut, A., Standaert, F.-X. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2021. LNCS, vol. 12696, pp. 587–617. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77870-5_21

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Boura, C., Gama, N., Georgieva, M., Jetchev, D.: CHIMERA: combining ring-LWE-based fully homomorphic encryption schemes. J. Math. Cryptol. 14(1), 316–338 (2020)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Brakerski, Z.: Fully homomorphic encryption without modulus switching from classical GapSVP. In: Safavi-Naini, R., Canetti, R. (eds.) CRYPTO 2012. LNCS, vol. 7417, pp. 868–886. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32009-5_50

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Brakerski, Z., Gentry, C., Vaikuntanathan, V.: (Leveled) fully homomorphic encryption without bootstrapping. In: ITCS, pp. 309–325. ACM (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Chen, H., Chillotti, I., Song, Y.: Improved bootstrapping for approximate homomorphic encryption. In: Ishai, Y., Rijmen, V. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2019. LNCS, vol. 11477, pp. 34–54. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17656-3_2

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Chen, H., Han, K.: Homomorphic lower digits removal and improved FHE bootstrapping. In: Nielsen, J.B., Rijmen, V. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2018. LNCS, vol. 10820, pp. 315–337. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78381-9_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Cheon, J.H., Han, K., Kim, A., Kim, M., Song, Y.: Bootstrapping for approximate homomorphic encryption. In: Nielsen, J.B., Rijmen, V. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2018. LNCS, vol. 10820, pp. 360–384. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78381-9_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Cheon, J.H., Kim, A., Kim, M., Song, Y.: Homomorphic encryption for arithmetic of approximate numbers. In: Takagi, T., Peyrin, T. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2017. LNCS, vol. 10624, pp. 409–437. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70694-8_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Cheon, J.H., Kim, D., Kim, D.: Efficient homomorphic comparison methods with optimal complexity. In: Moriai, S., Wang, H. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2020, Part II. LNCS, vol. 12492, pp. 221–256. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64834-3_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Cheon, J.H., Kim, D., Kim, D., Lee, H.H., Lee, K.: Numerical method for comparison on homomorphically encrypted numbers. In: Galbraith, S.D., Moriai, S. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2019, Part II. LNCS, vol. 11922, pp. 415–445. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34621-8_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Chillotti, I., Gama, N., Georgieva, M., Izabachène, M.: Faster fully homomorphic encryption: bootstrapping in less than 0.1 seconds. In: Cheon, J.H., Takagi, T. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2016. LNCS, vol. 10031, pp. 3–33. Springer, Heidelberg (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53887-6_1

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Chillotti, I., Ligier, D., Orfila, J.-B., Tap, S.: Improved programmable bootstrapping with larger precision and efficient arithmetic circuits for TFHE. In: Tibouchi, M., Wang, H. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2021. LNCS, vol. 13092, pp. 670–699. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92078-4_23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Drucker, N., Moshkowich, G., Pelleg, T., Shaul, H.: BLEACH: cleaning errors in discrete computations over CKKS. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2022/1298 (2022). https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/1298

  20. Ducas, L., Micciancio, D.: FHEW: bootstrapping homomorphic encryption in less than a second. In: Oswald, E., Fischlin, M. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2015. LNCS, vol. 9056, pp. 617–640. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46800-5_24

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Fan, J., Vercauteren, F.: Somewhat practical fully homomorphic encryption. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 144 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Feldmann, A., et al.: F1: a fast and programmable accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption (extended version). CoRR abs/2109.05371 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Fellows, M., Koblitz, N.: Combinatorial cryptosystems galore! (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Geelen, R., et al.: BASALISC: flexible asynchronous hardware accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 657 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Geelen, R., Vercauteren, F.: Bootstrapping for BGV and BFV revisited. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 1363 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Gentry, C.: A fully homomorphic encryption scheme. Diss. Stanford University (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Gentry, C.: Fully homomorphic encryption using ideal lattices. In: STOC, pp. 169–178. ACM (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Gentry, C., Halevi, S., Smart, N.P.: Better bootstrapping in fully homomorphic encryption. In: Fischlin, M., Buchmann, J., Manulis, M. (eds.) PKC 2012. LNCS, vol. 7293, pp. 1–16. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30057-8_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Gentry, C., Halevi, S., Smart, N.P.: Fully homomorphic encryption with polylog overhead. In: Pointcheval, D., Johansson, T. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2012. LNCS, vol. 7237, pp. 465–482. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29011-4_28

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Gentry, C., Halevi, S., Smart, N.P.: Homomorphic evaluation of the AES circuit. In: Safavi-Naini, R., Canetti, R. (eds.) CRYPTO 2012. LNCS, vol. 7417, pp. 850–867. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32009-5_49

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Halevi, S., Polyakov, Y., Shoup, V.: An improved RNS variant of the BFV homomorphic encryption scheme. In: Matsui, M. (ed.) CT-RSA 2019. LNCS, vol. 11405, pp. 83–105. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12612-4_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Halevi, S., Shoup, V.: Algorithms in HElib. In: Garay, J.A., Gennaro, R. (eds.) CRYPTO 2014. LNCS, vol. 8616, pp. 554–571. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44371-2_31

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. Halevi, S., Shoup, V.: Bootstrapping for HElib. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 873 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Halevi, S., Shoup, V.: Bootstrapping for HElib. In: Oswald, E., Fischlin, M. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2015. LNCS, vol. 9056, pp. 641–670. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46800-5_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Halevi, S., Shoup, V.: Faster homomorphic linear transformations in HElib. In: Shacham, H., Boldyreva, A. (eds.) CRYPTO 2018. LNCS, vol. 10991, pp. 93–120. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96884-1_4

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  36. Halevi, S., Shoup, V.: Design and implementation of HElib: a homomorphic encryption library. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 1481 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Han, K., Hhan, M., Cheon, J.H.: Improved homomorphic discrete Fourier transforms and FHE bootstrapping. IEEE Access 7, 57361–57370 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Han, K., Ki, D.: Better bootstrapping for approximate homomorphic encryption. In: Jarecki, S. (ed.) CT-RSA 2020. LNCS, vol. 12006, pp. 364–390. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40186-3_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  39. Iliashenko, I., Zucca, V.: Faster homomorphic comparison operations for BGV and BFV. Proc. Priv. Enhancing Technol. 2021(3), 246–264 (2021). https://doi.org/10.2478/popets-2021-0046

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Ishai, Y., Paskin, A.: Evaluating branching programs on encrypted data. In: Vadhan, S.P. (ed.) TCC 2007. LNCS, vol. 4392, pp. 575–594. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70936-7_31

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  41. Jutla, C.S., Manohar, N.: Modular lagrange interpolation of the mod function for bootstrapping of approximate HE. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2020/1355 (2020). https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/1355

  42. Jutla, C.S., Manohar, N.: Sine series approximation of the mod function for bootstrapping of approximate HE. In: Dunkelman, O., Dziembowski, S. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2022. LNCS, vol. 13275, pp. 491–520. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06944-4_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  43. Kim, A., et al.: General bootstrapping approach for rlwe-based homomorphic encryption. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch., p. 691 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Kim, A., Polyakov, Y., Zucca, V.: Revisiting homomorphic encryption schemes for finite fields. In: Tibouchi, M., Wang, H. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2021. LNCS, vol. 13092, pp. 608–639. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92078-4_21

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  45. Kim, S., Park, M., Kim, J., Kim, T., Min, C.: EvalRound algorithm in CKKS bootstrapping. In: Agrawal, S., Lin, D. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2022. LNCS, vol. 13792, pp. 161–187. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22966-4_6, https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/1256

  46. Lee, E., Lee, J.W., Kim, Y.S., No, J.S.: Optimization of homomorphic comparison algorithm on RNS-CKKS scheme. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2021/1215 (2021). https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1215

  47. Lee, J.-W., Lee, E., Lee, Y., Kim, Y.-S., No, J.-S.: High-precision bootstrapping of RNS-CKKS homomorphic encryption using optimal minimax polynomial approximation and inverse sine function. In: Canteaut, A., Standaert, F.-X. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2021. LNCS, vol. 12696, pp. 618–647. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77870-5_22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  48. Lee, Y., Lee, J.W., Kim, Y.S., Kim, Y., No, J.S., Kang, H.: High-precision bootstrapping for approximate homomorphic encryption by error variance minimization. In: Dunkelman, O., Dziembowski, S. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2022. LNCS, vol. 13275, pp. 551–580. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06944-4_19

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  49. Li, B., Micciancio, D.: On the security of homomorphic encryption on approximate numbers. In: Canteaut, A., Standaert, F.-X. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2021. LNCS, vol. 12696, pp. 648–677. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77870-5_23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  50. Li, B., Micciancio, D., Schultz, M., Sorrell, J.: Securing approximate homomorphic encryption using differential privacy. In: Dodis, Y., Shrimpton, T. (eds.) CRYPTO 2022. LNCS, vol. 13507, pp. 560–589. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15802-5_20

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  51. Liu, Z., Micciancio, D., Polyakov, Y.: Large-precision homomorphic sign evaluation using FHEW/TFHE bootstrapping. In: Agrawal, S., Lin, D. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2022. LNCS, vol. 13792, pp. 130–160. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22966-4_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  52. Lu, W., Huang, Z., Hong, C., Ma, Y., Qu, H.: PEGASUS: bridging polynomial and non-polynomial evaluations in homomorphic encryption. In: IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 1057–1073. IEEE (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Lyubashevsky, V., Peikert, C., Regev, O.: On ideal lattices and learning with errors over rings. In: Gilbert, H. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 2010. LNCS, vol. 6110, pp. 1–23. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13190-5_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  54. Melchor, C.A., Gaborit, P., Herranz, J.: Additively homomorphic encryption with d-operand multiplications. In: Rabin, T. (ed.) CRYPTO 2010. LNCS, vol. 6223, pp. 138–154. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14623-7_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  55. Regev, O.: On lattices, learning with errors, random linear codes, and cryptography. In: STOC, pp. 84–93. ACM (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  56. Regev, O.: On lattices, learning with errors, random linear codes, and cryptography. J. ACM 56(6), 34:1–34:40 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Rivest, R.L., Adleman, L., Dertouzos, M.L., et al.: On data banks and privacy homomorphisms. Found. Secure Comput. 4(11), 169–180 (1978)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  58. Samardzic, N., et al.: F1: a fast and programmable accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption. In: MICRO, pp. 238–252. ACM (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  59. Samardzic, N., et al.: CraterLake: a hardware accelerator for efficient unbounded computation on encrypted data. In: ISCA, pp. 173–187. ACM (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  60. Smart, N.P., Vercauteren, F.: Fully homomorphic SIMD operations. Des. Codes Cryptogr. 71(1), 57–81 (2014)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SRI International, Menlo Park, USA

    Karim Eldefrawy

  2. Duality Technologies, Maplewood, USA

    Nicholas Genise

  3. IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, USA

    Nathan Manohar

Authors
  1. Karim Eldefrawy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicholas Genise
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nathan Manohar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas Genise .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Thomas Johansson

  2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Daniel Smith-Tone

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Eldefrawy, K., Genise, N., Manohar, N. (2023). On the Hardness of Scheme-Switching Between SIMD FHE Schemes. In: Johansson, T., Smith-Tone, D. (eds) Post-Quantum Cryptography. PQCrypto 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14154. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40003-2_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40003-2_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-40002-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-40003-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics