On the Impossibility of Strong Encryption over N0

Abstract

We give two impossibility results regarding strong encryption over an infinite enumerable domain. The first one relates to statistically secure one-time encryption. The second one relates to computationally secure encryption resisting adaptive chosen ciphertext attacks in streaming mode with bounded resources: memory, time delay or output length. Curiously, both impossibility results can be achieved with either finite or continuous domains. The latter result explains why known CCA-secure cryptosystem constructions require at least two passes to decrypt a message with bounded resources. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.