The steps to homomorphically evaluate a circuit are described below.
tfhe::shortint
provides 3 key types:
ClientKey
ServerKey
PublicKey
The ClientKey
is the key that encrypts and decrypts messages (integer values up to 8 bits here). It is meant to be kept private and should never be shared. This key is created from parameter values that will dictate both the security and efficiency of computations. The parameters also set the maximum number of bits of message encrypted in a ciphertext.
The ServerKey
is the key that is used to actually do the FHE computations. Most importantly, it contains a bootstrapping key and a keyswitching key. This key is created from a ClientKey
that needs to be shared to the server, therefore it is not meant to be kept private. A user with a ServerKey
can compute on the encrypted data sent by the owner of the associated ClientKey
.
Computation/operation methods are tied to the ServerKey
type.
The PublicKey
is the key used to encrypt messages. It can be publicly shared to allow users to encrypt data such that only the ClientKey
holder will be able to decrypt. Encrypting with the PublicKey
does not alter the homomorphic capabilities associated to the ServerKey
.
Once the keys have been generated, the client key is used to encrypt data:
Once the keys have been generated, the client key is used to encrypt data:
With the server_key
, addition is now possible over encrypted values. The resulting plaintext is recovered after the decryption with the secret client key.