On the Existence of Weak One-Way Functions

TL;DR

This paper unconditionally proves the existence of weak one-way functions by constructing a specific intractable decision problem with controlled density, enabling efficient sampling of intractable instances that encode preimages.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to construct weak one-way functions based on intractable decision problems with known density bounds, without relying on unproven assumptions.

Findings

Constructed an explicit intractable decision problem with known density bounds.

Developed a threshold-based sampling method for intractable instances.

Demonstrated encoding of preimages via randomly generated intractable problems.

Abstract

This note is an attempt to unconditionally prove the existence of weak one way functions (OWF). Starting from a provably intractable decision problem $L_D$ (whose existence is nonconstructively assured from the well-known discrete time-hierarchy theorem from complexity theory), we construct another intractable decision problem $L\subseteq \{0,1\}^*$ that has its words scattered across $\{0,1\}^\ell$ at a relative frequency $p(\ell)$, for which upper and lower bounds can be worked out. The value $p(\ell)$ is computed from the density of the language within $\{0,1\}^\ell$ divided by the total word count $2^\ell$. It corresponds to the probability of retrieving a yes-instance of a decision problem upon a uniformly random draw from $\{0,1\}^\ell$. The trick to find a language with known bounds on $p(\ell)$ relies on switching from $L_D$ to $L_0:=L_D\cap L'$, where $L'$ is an easy-to-decide language with a known density across $\{0,1\}^*$. In defining $L'$ properly (and upon a suitable G\"odel numbering), the hardness of deciding $L_D\cap L'$ is inherited from $L_D$, while its density is controlled by that of $L'$. The lower and upper approximation of $p(\ell)$ then let us construct an explicit threshold function (as in random graph theory) that can be used to efficiently and intentionally sample yes- or no-instances of the decision problem (language) $L_0$ (however, without any auxiliary information that could ease the decision like a polynomial witness). In turn, this allows to construct a weak OWF that encodes a bit string $w\in\{0,1\}^*$ by efficiently (in polynomial time) emitting a sequence of randomly constructed intractable decision problems, whose answers correspond to the preimage $w$.