CS 388H: Cryptography

University of Texas at Austin – Spring 2025

Description

This course surveys the foundations of cryptography from formal notions of security to fundamental protocols, including one-way functions, pseudorandom functions, digital signatures, and public-key encryption. We will also cover post-quantum cryptography based on lattices, as well as constructions of advanced primitives such as fully homomorphic encryption and identity-based encryption.

Meeting Time and Place

Location: GDC 6.202
Time: Monday, Wednesday, 3:30pm-5:00pm

This course is in-person only. The lecture room does not support recording, so lectures will not be recorded.

Logistics

Canvas: We will use Canvas, which includes links to Ed Discussion (for announcements and class discussions) and Gradescope (for assignment submission and grading).

Ed Discussion: We will use Ed Discussion for class discussions and for sending out course announcements. If you have a question about the course material or course logistics, please post it on Ed Discussion instead of emailing the course staff directly. You should be automatically added to the Ed Discussion site via Canvas once the semester starts.

Gradescope: Homework submissions will be handled via Gradescope. You should be automatically enrolled in the course via Canvas once the semester starts.

Homework: Please see the Course Organization and Policies page for details on how to format and submit your homeworks as well as the collaboration policy for the course.

Prerequisites

This is a theory course and we will assume that you are comfortable with mathematical proofs. We recommend that you have taken a theory of computation course (e.g., CS 353) and an algorithms course (e.g., CS 331). A basic understanding of probability theory (e.g., MATH 362K) and modular arithmetic will also be helpful.

Reference Material

Throughout the semester, we will post additional reference material here: