Functional Signcryption: Notion, Construction, and Applications

Abstract

Abstract. Functional encryption (FE) enables sophisticated control over decryption rights in a multi-user scenario, while functional signature (FS) allows to enforce complex constraints on sign-ing capabilities. This paper introduces the concept of functional signcryption (FSC) that aims to provide the functionalities of both FE and FS in an unified cost-effective primitive. FSC provides a solution to the problem of achieving confidentiality and authenticity simultaneously in digital communication and storage systems involving multiple users with better efficiency compared to a sequential implementation of FE and FS. We begin by providing formal definition of FSC and formu-lating its security requirements. Next, we present a generic construction of this challenging primitive that supports arbitrary polynomial-size signing and decryption functions from known cryptographic building blocks, namely, indistinguishability obfuscation (IO) and statistically simulation-sound non-interactive zero-knowledge proof of knowledge (SSS-NIZKPoK). Finally, we exhibit a number of rep-resentative applications of FSC: (I) We develop the first construction of attribute-based signcryption (ABSC) supporting signing and decryption policies representable by general polynomial-size circuits from FSC. (II) We show how FSC can serve as a tool for building SSS-NIZKPoK system and IO, a result which in conjunction with our generic FSC construction can also be interpreted as establishing an equivalence between FSC and the other two fundamental cryptographic primitives.