ramacher.at

Sebastian Ramacher

I am a Senior Scientist in the Cryptography group at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna, Austria. Before joining AIT, I was a postdoc working in the Cryptology and Cryptographic Security at IAIK, Graz University of Technology and received a PhD degree with distinction from Graz University of Technology in 2019. My main research interests are in the field of public key cryptography with a focus on post-quantum signature schemes and modern public key cryptography. I am a member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) and the Austrian Mathematical Society (ÖMG).

Publications and Talks

Conferences and Journals

2024

Carsten Baum, Ward Beullens, Shibam Kukherjee, Emmanuela Orsini, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger, Lawrence Roy, Peter School. One Tree to Rule Them All: Optimizing GGM Trees and OWFs for Post-Quantum Signatures. Asiacrypt 2024 (accepted)

2024

Lena Heimberger, Tobias Hennerbichler, Fredrik Meisingseth, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger. OPRFs from Isogenies: Designs and Analysis. ACM AsiaCCS 2024

2024

Behzad Abdolmaleki, Noemi Glaeser, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Circuit-Succinct Universally-Composable NIZKs with Updatable CRS. IEEE CSF 2024

2023

Valerio Cini, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks, Erkan Tairi. (Inner-Product) Functional Encryption with Updatable Ciphertexts. Journal of Cryptology

2023

Christian Göth, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks, Erkan Tairi, Alexander Zikulnig. Optimizing 0-RTT Key Exchange with Full Forward Security. CCSW 2023

2023

Christoph Döberl, Wolfgang Eibner, Simon Gärtner, Manuela Kos, Florian Kutschera, Sebastian Ramacher. Quantum-resistant End-to-End Secure Messaging and Email Communication. SECPID @ ARES 2023

2023

Paul James, Stephan Laschet, Sebastian Ramacher, Luca Torresetti. Key Management Systems for Large-Scale Quantum Key Distribution Networks. SECPID @ ARES 2023

2023

Sonja Bruckner, Sebastian Ramacher, Christoph Striecks. Muckle+: End-to-End Hybrid Authenticated Key Exchanges. PQCrypt 2023

2022

Karl Koch, Stephan Krenn, Tilen Marc, Stefan More, Sebastian Ramacher. KRAKEN: A Privacy-Preserving Data Market for Authentic Data. ACM Data Economy Workshop 2022

2022

Stefan More, Sebastian Ramacher, Lukas Alber, Marco Herzl. Extending Expressive Access Policies with Privacy Features. TrustCom 2022

2021

Jan Bobolz, Fabian Eidens, Stephan Krenn, Sebastian Ramacher, Kai Samelin. Issuer-Hiding Attribute-Based Credentials. CANS 2021

2021

Omar Veledar, Eric Armengaud, Leo Happ Botler, Violeta Damjanovic-Behrendt, Christian Derler, Stefan Jaksic, Lukas Krammer, Christian Lettner, Georg Macher, Stefan Marksteiner, Andreas Martin, Martin Matschnig, Peter Priller, Sebastian Ramacher, Kay Römer, Christoph Schmittner, Christina Tiefnig, Heribert Vallant, Heinz Weiskirchner, Mario Drobics. Steering Drivers of Change: Maximising Benefits of Trustworthy IoT. EuroSPI 2021

2021

Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Andreas Weninger. Privacy-Preserving Authenticated Key Exchange: Stronger Privacy and Generic Constructions. Esorics 2021

2021

Andreas Abraham, Karl Koch, Stefan More, Sebastian Ramacher, Miha Stopar. Privacy-Preserving eID Derivation to Self-Sovereign Identity Systems with Offline Revocation. TrustCom 2021

2021

Lukas Helminger, Daniel Kales, Sebastian Ramacher, Roman Walch. Multi-Party Revocation in Sovrin: Performance through Distributed Trust. CT-RSA 2021

2021

Valerio Cini, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks, Erkan Tairi. Updatable Signatures and Message Authentication Codes. PKC 2021

2021

David Derler, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks. Fine-Grained Forward Secrecy: Allow-List/Deny-List Encryption and Applications. FC 21

2020

Karl Koch, Stephan Krenn, Donato Pellegrino and Sebastian Ramacher Privacy-preserving Analytics for Data Markets using MPC. IFIP Summer School 2020

2020

Lukas Alber, Stefan More, Sebastian Ramacher. Short-Lived Forward-Secure Delegation for TLS. CCSW 2020

2020

Valerio Cini, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks. CCA Secure (Puncturable) KEMs from Encryption With Non-Negligible Decryption Errors. Asiacrypt 2020

2020

Behzad Abdolmaleki, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Lift-and-Shift: Obtaining Simulation Extractable Subversion and Updatable SNARKs Generically. CCS 2020

2020

Daniel Kales, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger, Roman Walch, Mario Werner. Efficient FPGA Implementations of LowMC and Picnic. CT-RSA 2020

2019

Andreas Abraham, Felix Hörandner, Olamide Omolola, Sebastian Ramacher. Privacy-Preserving eID Derivation for Self-Sovereign Identity Systems. ICICS 2019

2019

Felix Hörandner, Sebastian Ramacher, Simon Roth. Selective End-To-End Data-Sharing in the Cloud. ICISS 2019

2019

Martin R. Albrecht, Lorenzo Grassi, Léo Perrin, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger, Dragos Rotaru, Arnab Roy, Markus Schofnegger. Feistel Structures for MPC, and More. Esorics 2019

2019

Daniel Kales, Olamide Omolola, Sebastian Ramacher. Revisting User Privacy for Certificate Transparency. EuroS&P 2019

2019

Itai Dinur, Daniel Kales, Angela Promitzer, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger. Linear Equivalence of Block Ciphers with Partial Non-Linear Layers: Application to LowMC. Eurocrypt 2019

2018

David Derler, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Generic Double-Authentication Preventing Signatures and a Post-Quantum Instantiation. ProvSec 2018

2018

David Derler, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Accumulators with Applications to Ring Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives. PQCrypto 2018

2018

David Derler, Stephan Krenn, Thomas Lorünser, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig, Christoph Striecks. Revisiting Proxy Re-Encryption: Forward Secrecy, Improved Security and Applications. PKC 2018

2018

David Derler, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Short Double- and N-Times-Authentication-Preventing Signatures from ECDSA and More. EuroS&P 2018

2017

Melissa Chase, David Derler, Steven Goldfeder Claudio Orlandi, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger, Daniel Slamanig, Greg Zaverucha. Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge and Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives. CCS 2017

2017

David Derler, Sebastian Ramacher, Daniel Slamanig. Homomorphic Proxy Re-Authenticators and Applications to Verifiable Multi-User Data Aggregation. FC 2017.

2015

Alfred Geroldinger, Sebastian Ramacher, Andreas Reinhart. On v-Marot Mori rings and C-rings. Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society Vol. 52 No. 1/2015

Preprints

2017

Daniel Kales, Léo Perrin, Angela Promitzer, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger. Improvements to the Linear Layer of LowMC: A Faster Picnic

2016

David Derler, Claudio Orlandi, Sebastian Ramacher, Christian Rechberger, Daniel Slamanig. Digital Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives

Talks

2024

Muckle+: End-to-End Authenticated Key Exchanges at QSNP Workshop Quantum Meets Classical Cryptography on January 10, 2024.

2023

Optimizing 0-RTT Key Exchange with Full Forward Security. at CCSW 2023 on November 26, 2023.

2021

Fine-Grained Forward Secrecy: Allow-List/Deny-List Encryption and Applications at FC 21 on March 4, 2021 (together with Daniel Slamanig and Christoph Striecks).

2020

Lift-and-Shift: Obtaining Simulation Extractable Subversion and Updatable SNARKs Generically at Young Researcher Crypto Seminar (organized by TU Darmstadt)

2020

Lift-and-Shift: Obtaining Simulation Extractable Subversion and Updatable SNARKs Generically at Graz University of Technology

2019

Future-Proof Communication Security at the Industry Track of the Graz Security Week 2019 (together with Daniel Slamanig and Christoph Striecks)

2019

Revisting User Privacy for Certificate Transparency at EuroS&P 2019

2018

Generic Double-Authentication Preventing Signatures and a Post-Quantum Instantiation at ProvSec 2018.

2018

Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Accumulators with Applications to Ring Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives at PQCrypto 2018.

2018

Short Double- and N-Times-Authentication-Preventing Signatures from ECDSA and More at EuroS&P 2018.

2017

Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge and Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives at CCS 2017 on November 2, 2017 (together with Steven Goldfeder).

2017

Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge and Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives at Microsoft Research on October 26, 2017.

2017

Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge and Signatures from Symmetric-Key Primitives at CryptoSymposium 2017 on March 28, 2017.

Non-scientific Publications

2023

Stephan Krenn, Thomas Lorünser, Sebastian Ramacher, Florian Wohner. Outsourced Computations Maintaining Confidentiality and Authenticity ERCIM News 2023 (133)

2022

Silvia Gabrielli, Stephan Krenn, Donato Pellegrino, Juan Carlos Pérez Baún, Pilar Pérez Berganza, Sebastian Ramacher, Wim Vandevelde. KRAKEN: A Secure, Trusted, Regulatory-Compliant, and Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Platform Data Spaces

2021

Andreas Abraham, Juan Carlos Perez Braun, Sebastian Ramacher. KRAKEN - Brokerage and Market Platform for Personal Data. ERCIM News 2021 (126)

Blog Posts

Daniel Slamanig and Christoph Striecks and myself wrote a three part series on puncturable encryption titled Puncturable Encryption – A Fine-Grained Approach to Forward-Secure Encryption and More. The series covers motivation, constructions, applications and implementations of puncturable encryption. All parts – Part I, Part II, and Part III – are already available.

NIST PQC Competition: FAEST

FAEST is a digital signature algorithm designed to be secure against quantum computers. The security of FAEST is based on standard cryptographic hashes and ciphers, specifically SHA3 and AES, which are believed to remain secure against quantum adversaries.

The reference implementation is available on GitHub. Packages for Ubuntu are available from my Ubuntu PPA.

NIST PQC Competition: Picnic

The Picnic family of digital signature algorithms is designed to provide security against attacks by quantum computers, in addition to attacks by classical computers. The building blocks are a zero-knowledge proof system (with post-quantum security), and symmetric key primitives like hash functions and block ciphers, with well-understood post-quantum security. Picnic is an Alternate Candiate in round 3 of the ongoing NIST PQC effort.

An implementation optimized for performance is available on GitHub. Packages for Ubuntu are available on my Ubuntu PPA. Python bindings for this implementation are available via PyPI and the PPA. Rust bindings are available as well.

Open Source Implementations

Over the years, I have implemented various protocols and other tools to support the various research projects. Below is an incomplete list of these implementations:

  • pyrelic: a wrapper for relic for easy prototyping in Python.

  • bfe: an implementation of Bloom filter encryption based on the Boneh-Franklin IBE and time-based Bloom filter encryption using the Boneh-Boyen-Goh HIBE.

  • isap-aead: a Rust implementation of the ISAP authenticated encryption scheme.

  • ascon-aead: a Rust implementation of the Ascon authenticated encryption scheme and hash function.

Projects

Upcoming/Ongoing:

Past:

Other Activities

Program Committee

External Reviewer for International Conferences

ACISP 2022; ACM CCS 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020; ACNS 2024, 2018; APKC 2018; Africacrypt 2019, 2016; Asiacrypt 2021, 2017, 2016; CANS 2024; CRYPTO 2024; CT-RSA 2018; Eurocrypt 2023, 2019, 2017; ICDCS 2018; ICISC 2021 2020, 2019, 2016; ICISSP 2021; IFIP SEC 2022, 2021, 2020; IFIP Summer School 2019; IMA CC 2019; ISC 2023; IWSEC 2021; MACIS 2019; PKC 2020; SECPID 2017

Reviewer for Journals

IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security;

Teaching

While at Graz University of Technology, I was involved with the following courses:

I also had the pleasure to (co-)supervise various bachelor’s and master’s thesis:

If you are interested in a bachelor’s or master’s thesis in post-quantum or public-key cryptography, feel free to contact me.

Open Source

For my work on Debian and open source software, see my projects page.

Contact Information