Non-interactive distributed encryption: a new primitive for revocable privacy

Abstract

In this paper we introduce and instantiate a new cryptographic primitive, called non-interactive distributed encryption, that allows a receiver to decrypt a ciphertext only if a minimum number of different senders encrypt the same plaintext. The new functionality can be seen as the dual of the functionality provided by threshold cryptosystems. It is shown that this primitive can be used to solve real-world problems balancing security and privacy needs. In particular it is used to solve the canvas cutters problem (introduced below), that might be of independent interest.