COSIC Seminar "Attacks and Remedies for Randomness in AI: Cryptanalysis..." (Yevhen Perehuda, RUB)

COSIC Seminar – Attacks and Remedies for Randomness in AI: Cryptanalysis of PHILOX and THREEFRY – Yevhen Perehuda (Ruhr University Bochum) In this work, we address the critical yet understudied question of the security of the most widely deployed pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) in AI applications. We show that these generators are vulnerable to practical and low-cost attacks. With this in mind, we conduct an extensive survey of randomness usage in current applications to understand the efficiency requirements imposed in practice. Finally, we present a cryptographically secure and well-understood alternative, which has a negligible effect on the overall AI/ML workloads. More generally, we recommend the use of cryptographically strong PRNGs in all contexts where randomness is required, as past experience has repeatedly shown that security requirements may arise unexpectedly even in applications that appear uncritical at first.