English

Plausible Deniability in Fully Homomorphic Computation

Cryptography and Security 2026-05-05 v1

Abstract

We introduce \emph{Plausible Deniability in Fully Homomorphic Computation} (PD-FHC), a framework enabling users to outsource Boolean computations to an untrusted cloud while maintaining both computational privacy against honest-but-curious providers and plausible deniability against coercive adversaries. We define the notion of a \emph{Deniable Computation Medium} (DCM) and a \emph{Deniable Computation Scheme} (DCS) as medium-independent abstractions, then instantiate them using RGB images with Fredkin-gate circuits. Multiple computation scenarios (one real, several decoys) are embedded at secret positions within cover images; the cloud applies identical operations to every pixel, processing all scenarios uniformly. Under coercion, the user reveals a decoy computation with verifiable results while the real computation remains hidden. We formalize multi-round coercion games with existence and intent distinguishing advantages, proving computational privacy with advantage Θ(1/(n1)!)\Theta(1/(n-1)!) and negligible existence-hiding advantage for the image instantiation. Our Python implementation, benchmarked across circuit sizes (5--289 gates) and image dimensions (1282128^2 to 5122512^2), demonstrates competitive performance with TFHE for Boolean circuits while providing deniability that FHE fundamentally cannot offer.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.01985,
  title  = {Plausible Deniability in Fully Homomorphic Computation},
  author = {Shahzad Ahmad and Stefan Rass and Zahra Seyedi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.01985},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:47:37.550Z