On single server private information retrieval in a coding theory perspective

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel framework for single server private information retrieval (PIR) schemes based on linear error-correcting codes, providing a unified perspective and analyzing existing schemes' weaknesses.

Contribution

It develops a generic code-based framework for PIR schemes, formalizes known schemes within this framework, and highlights their weaknesses from a coding theory perspective.

Findings

Unified code-based framework for PIR schemes

Formalization of existing PIR schemes within the framework

Identification of weaknesses in current PIR schemes

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new perspective of single server private information retrieval (PIR) schemes by using the notion of linear error-correcting codes. Many of the known single server schemes are based on taking linear combinations between database elements and the query elements. Using the theory of linear codes, we develop a generic framework that formalizes all such PIR schemes. Further, we describe some known PIR schemes with respect to this code-based framework, and present the weaknesses of the broken PIR schemes in a generic point of view.