Protecting Passwords with Oblivious Cryptography

Presented at THOTCON 0x9 (2018), May 5, 2018, 3:30 p.m. (25 minutes).

Current schemes to protect user passwords like bcrypt, scrypt, and iterative hashing are insufficient to resist attacks when password digests are stolen. We present a modern cloud service, called Pythia, which protects passwords using a cryptographically keyed pseudorandom function (PRF). Unlike existing schemes like HMAC, Pythia permits key updates as a response to compromises. Key updates nullify stolen password digests, enable digests to be updated to the new key, and don't require users to change their passwords. The keystone of is a new cryptographic construction called a partially-oblivious PRF that provides these new features.


Presenters:

  • Adam Everspaugh
    Dr Adam Everspaugh is a principal engineer and cryptographer for Uptake Technologies, an industrial predictive analytics company in Chicago.

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