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Im currently studying and I stumbled over the term "coercive adversary".

I'm not a native English speaker and the term seems to be exclusively used by security and privacy related topics.

Can someone give me a definition/explanation for "coercive adversary" and the difference to a "non-coercive adversary"?

My concrete example is here: https://oaklandsok.github.io/papers/reardon2013.pdf page 2, left pane, middle of the page.

"... we assume that computationally-bounded adversaries are only able to recover the original data object if they can also obtain the corresponding decryption key. A coercive adversary may be able to obtain this information while a non-coercive adversary may not."

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    Do you have a concrete reference, so that we can see the context? In the area of deniable encryption, a coercive adversary is somebody who can force the victim to perform a specific action like hand over a key (e.g., a law enforcement agency or a criminal threatening the victim physical violence). The encryption scheme must then withstand such adversary in the sense that the victim can, for example, disclose a fake key without the adversary noticing.
    – Ja1024
    Commented Sep 2 at 22:13
  • I added my example to the question. But I think your example already gave me the confirmation of what i suspected. :) thanks!
    – tl-photography.at
    Commented Sep 2 at 22:20
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    It is also in the paper: "We partition the credential revelation into non-coercive and coercive adversaries. A non-coercive adversary does not obtain the user’s passwords and the credentials that protect the data on the physical medium. A coercive adversary, in contrast, obtains this information." "coercive adversaries get passwords in addition to the physical medium" and the examples in table 1 and 2
    – schroeder ♦
    Commented Sep 2 at 22:24
  • crap, you're totally right. I didn't read further only started to try to understand the term. mercí :)
    – tl-photography.at
    Commented Sep 2 at 22:26
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    I’m voting to close this question because the answer is provided in the paper itself
    – schroeder ♦
    Commented Sep 2 at 22:26

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