International Association for Cryptologic Research

International Association
for Cryptologic Research

Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems 2025

TFHE Gets Real:

an Efficient and Flexible Homomorphic Floating-Point Arithmetic


Loris Bergerat
Zama, Paris, France; Université Caen Normandie, ENSICAEN, CNRS, Normandie Univ, GREYC UMR 6072, F-14000 Caen, France

Ilaria Chillotti

Damien Ligier

Jean-Baptiste Orfila
Zama, Paris, France

Samuel Tap
Zama, Paris, France


Keywords: Homomorphic Encryption, TFHE, Floating-Point


Abstract

Floating-point arithmetic plays a central role in computer science and is used in various domains where precision and computational scale are essential. One notable application is in machine learning, where Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) can play a crucial role in safeguarding user privacy. In this paper, we focus on TFHE and develop novel homomorphic operators designed to enable the construction of precise and adaptable homomorphic floating-point operations. Integrating floating-point arithmetic within the context of FHE is particularly challenging due to constraints such as small message space and the lack of information during computation. Despite these challenges, we were able to determine parameters for common precisions (e.g., 32-bit, 64-bit) and achieve remarkable computational speeds, with 32-bit floating-point additions completing in 2.5 seconds and multiplications in approximately 1 second in a multi-threaded environment. These metrics provide empirical evidence of the efficiency and practicality of our proposed methods, which significantly outperform previous efforts. Our results demonstrate a significant advancement in the practical application of FHE, making it more viable for real-world scenarios and bridging the gap between theoretical encryption techniques and practical usability.

Publication

IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, Volume 2025, Issue 2

Paper

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Artifact number
tches/2025/a16

Artifact published
July 18, 2025

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BibTeX How to cite

Loris Bergerat, Ilaria Chillotti, Damien Ligier, Jean-Baptiste Orfila, Samuel Tap. (2025). TFHE Gets Real: an Efficient and Flexible Homomorphic Floating-Point Arithmetic. IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, 2025(2), 126–162. https://doi.org/10.46586/tches.v2025.i2.126-162. Artifact at https://artifacts.iacr.org/tches/2025/a16.