Koblitz and Menezes on Provable Security

[Eric Rescorla]

If you haven't already, you should check out the Koblitz and Menezes
paper about Provable Security on eprint:

http://eprint.iacr.org/2004/152.pdf

Here's the abstract:
We give an informal analysis and critique of several typical "provable
security" results. In some cases there are intuitive but convincing argu-
ments for rejecting the conclusions suggested by the formal terminology
and "proofs," whereas in other cases the formalism seems to be consistent
with common sense. We discuss the reasons why the search for mathemat-
ically convincing theoretical evidence to support the security of public-key
systems has been an important theme of researchers. But we argue that
the theorem-proof paradigm of theoretical mathematics is of limited rel-
evance here and often leads to papers that are confusing and misleading.
Because our paper is aimed at the general mathematical public, it is self-
contained and as jargon-free as possible.

You can also find my amateur's writeup at:
http://www.rtfm.com/movabletype/archives/2004_07.html#000995

-Ekr

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