Software obfuscation is used in cryptography to transform source code to make it unintelligible without altering what it computes.

As a software security mechanism, it is essential that software obfuscation have a firm mathematical foundation.

The research described in this book, for which the author won the ACM Dissertation Award, establishes the feasibility of mathematically rigorous software obfuscation from well-studied hardness conjectures. The mathematical object that the author constructs, indistinguishability obfuscation, is considered a theoretical "master tool" in the context of cryptography: not only in helping to achieve long-desired cryptographic goals such as functional encryption, but also in expanding the scope of the field of cryptography itself. For example, indistinguishability obfuscation aids in goals related to software security that were previously entirely in the domain of software engineering.

Aayush Jain is an assistant professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA under the supervision of Amit Sahai. Before that, he received his undergraduate degree from IIT Delhi. Aayush is interested in cryptography and its fascinating connections with areas of theoretical computer science. His current interests include the design of advanced cryptographic primitives such as obfuscation and homomorphic and functional encryption schemes. He's excited about expanding the scope of modern cryptography through the investigation of new sources of cryptography-friendly hard problems.