Lower Bound on SNARGs in the Random Oracle Model

Iftach Haitner; Daniel Nukrai; Eylon Yogev

Paper 2022/178

Lower Bound on SNARGs in the Random Oracle Model

Iftach Haitner, Tel Aviv University

Daniel Nukrai, Tel Aviv University

Eylon Yogev, Bar-Ilan University

Abstract

Succinct non-interactive arguments (SNARGs) have become a fundamental primitive in the cryptographic community. The focus of this work is constructions of SNARGs in the Random Oracle Model (ROM). Such SNARGs enjoy post-quantum security and can be deployed using lightweight cryptography to heuristically instantiate the random oracle. A ROM-SNARG is \emph{$(t,\varepsilon)$-sound} if no $t$-query malicious prover can convince the verifier to accept a false statement with probability larger than $\varepsilon$. Recently, Chiesa-Yogev (CRYPTO '21) presented a ROM-SNARG of length ${\Theta}(\log (t/\varepsilon) \cdot \log t)$ (ignoring $\log n$ factors, for $n$ being the instance size). This improvement, however, is still far from the (folklore) lower bound of $\Omega(\log (t/\varepsilon))$. Assuming the \textit{randomized exponential-time hypothesis}, we prove a tight lower bound of ${\Omega}(\log (t/\varepsilon) \cdot \log t)$ for the length of {$(t,\varepsilon)$-sound} ROM-SNARGs. Our lower bound holds for constructions with non-adaptive verifiers and strong soundness notion called \textit{salted soundness}, restrictions that hold for \emph{all} known constructions (ignoring contrived counterexamples). We prove our lower bound by transforming any short ROM-SNARG (of the considered family) into a same length ROM-SNARG in which the verifier asks only a \emph{few} oracles queries, and then apply the recent lower bound of Chiesa-Yogev (TCC '20) for such SNARGs.

Note: Minor fixes.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Foundations
Publication info: A minor revision of an IACR publication in CRYPTO 2022
Keywords: Random oracle SNARGs high-entropy sets lower bound
Contact author(s): iftachh @ tauex tau ac il
daniel nukrai @ gmail com
eylon yogev @ biu ac il
History: 2022-11-09: last of 2 revisions; 2022-02-20: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2022/178
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2022/178,
      author = {Iftach Haitner and Daniel Nukrai and Eylon Yogev},
      title = {Lower Bound on {SNARGs} in the Random Oracle Model},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2022/178},
      year = {2022},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/178}
}