Driven by the technology of mobile Internet of things and the wide demand of sharing economy, the development of smart locks is changing with each passing day. Current schemes rely on the open network architecture which has security vulnerabilities, privacy leaks, vulnerability to various attacks and other security risks. We propose an end-to-end succinct non-interactive offline authentication scheme based on blockchain technology(BC-SNOA). Using blockchain techniques such as anonymity, ellipticcurve cryptography, workload consensus, and privacy-preserving zero-knowledge proof, the BC-SNOA implements one-time pad to improve confidentiality, offline authentication to avoid network remote intrusions and the risk of network services interruptions. It is difficult to replicate and crack because of the in chip calculation of workloads and mathematical problems. Compared with current smart locks which extract biometric verification information and control by network services, the BC-SNOA scheme is likely to accomplish beneficial properties such as high verification performance and more secure, and also makes simple hardware implementations possible.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Yunhui Long, Tanmay Gangwani, Haris Mughees, Carl A. Gunter
Privacy preserving multi-party computation has many applications in areas such as medicine and online advertisements. In this work, we propose a framework for distributed, secure machine learning among untrusted individuals. The framework consists of two parts: a two-step training protocol based on homomorphic addition and a zero knowledge proof for data validity. By combining these two techniques, our framework provides privacy of per-user data, prevents against a malicious user contributing corrupted data to the shared pool, enables each user to self-compute the results of the algorithm without relying on external trusted third parties, and requires no private channels between groups of users. We show how different ML algorithms such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Naive Bayes, Decision Trees etc. fit our framework for distributed, secure computing.
Compact E-cash achieves an efficient system by withdrawing 2n coins within O(1) operations and storing the coins in O(n) bits. For preventing a double-spender from cheating again, it is necessary to trace his e-coins. So full-tracing in compact E-cash system means tracing double-spender and tracing his coins. However, the efficiency problem caused by coin-tracing without TTP (trusted third party) has not been solved. For solving this problem, we introduce a non-standard construction into zero-knowledge proof of payment protocol, which leaks coin information when double-spending but is proven to be perfect zero-knowledge to verifier when spending a coin only once. Therefore, it achieves tracing dishonest users' coins and preserving the anonymity of honest users. Comparing with the existing most efficient method of coin-tracing without TTP, we improve computational complexity from O(k) to O(1) with less storage space. In addition, to improve efficiency and practicality further, batch-spending (spending any number of coins in one operation) and compact-spending (spending all coins in one operation) had been proposed. Based on the non-standard zero-knowledge proof, our scheme provides more efficient batch/compact-spending. Moreover, we also make a comparison with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Lightning Network, which have attracted considerable attention.
Lei Wang, Haining Wang, Ying-fei CHAO, Shuhong Shi · 5 authors
This paper discussed the application of blockchain technology in power trading business, and focused on solving the information security problems which currently faced by power trading, including protecting the privacy of market entities, encrypting key data. This paper proposes the idea of controlling user access through CA nodes, using zero-knowledge proof mechanism to protect user privacy, and adopting pluggable way to set consensus mechanism. This paper proposes an innovative vision for building a power trading blockchain, providing advice for future power trading blockchains.
We study an unsteady nonlinear fluidâstructure interaction problem. We consider a Newtonian incompressible two-dimensional flow described by the NavierâStokes equations set in an unknown domain depending on the displacement of a structure, which itself satisfies a linear wave equation or a linear beam equation. The fluid and the structure systems are coupled via interface conditions prescribing the continuity of the velocities at the fluidâstructure interface and the action-reaction principle. Considering three different structure models, we prove existence of a unique local-in-time strong solution, for which there is no gap between the regularity of the initial data and the regularity of the solution enabling to obtain a blow up alternative. In the case of a damped beam this is an alternative proof (and a generalization to non zero initial displacement) of the result that can be found in [20]. In the case of the wave equation or a beam equation with inertia of rotation, this is, to our knowledge the first result of existence of strong solutions for which no viscosity is added. The key points consist in studying the coupled system without decoupling the fluid from the structure and to use the fluid dissipation to control, in appropriate function spaces, the structure velocity.
Open access
Navier-Stokes equation solutions
Stability and Controllability of Differential Equations
Recently, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have gained extensive attention from both academia and industry. AVs are a complex system composed of many subsystems, making them a typical target for attackers. Therefore, the firmware of the different subsystems needs to be updated to the latest version by the manufacturer to fix bugs and introduce new features, e.g., using security patches. In this paper, we propose a distributed firmware update scheme for the AVs' subsystems, leveraging blockchain and smart contract technology. A consortium blockchain made of different AVs manufacturers is used to ensure the authenticity and integrity of firmware updates. Instead of depending on centralized third parties to distribute the new updates, we enable AVs, namely distributors, to participate in the distribution process and we take advantage of their mobility to guarantee high availability and fast delivery of the updates. To incentivize AVs to distribute the updates, a reward system is established that maintains a credit reputation for each distributor account in the blockchain. A zero-knowledge proof protocol is used to exchange the update in return for a proof of distribution in a trust-less environment. Moreover, we use attribute-based encryption (ABE) scheme to ensure that only authorized AVs will be able to download and use a new update. Our analysis indicates that the additional cryptography primitives and exchanged transactions do not affect the operation of the AVs network. Also, our security analysis demonstrates that our scheme is efficient and secure against different attacks.
One major shortcoming of permissionless blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is that they are unsuitable for running Computationally Intensive smart Contracts (CICs). This prevents such blockchains from running Machine Learning algorithms, Zero-Knowledge proofs, etc. which may need non-trivial computation. In this paper, we present YODA, which is to the best of our knowledge the first solution for efficient computation of CICs in permissionless blockchains with guarantees for a threat model with both Byzantine and selfish nodes. YODA selects one or more execution sets (ES) via Sortition to execute a particular CIC off-chain. One key innovation is the MultI-Round Adaptive Consensus using Likelihood Estimation (MIRACLE) algorithm based on sequential hypothesis testing. M I RACLE allows the execution sets to be small thus making YODA efficient while ensuring correct CIC execution with high probability. It adapts the number of ES sets automatically depending on the concentration of Byzantine nodes in the system and is optimal in terms of the expected number of ES sets used in certain scenarios. Through a suite of economic incentives and technical mechanisms such as the novel Randomness Inserted Contract Execution (RICE) algorithm, we force selfish nodes to behave honestly. We also prove that the honest behavior of selfish nodes is an approximate Nash Equilibrium. We present the system design and details of YODA and prove the security properties of MIRACLE and RICE. Our prototype implementation built on top of Ethereum demonstrates the ability of YODA to run CICs with orders of magnitude higher gas per unit time as well as total gas requirements than Ethereum currently supports. It also demonstrates the low overheads of RICE.
As cities become more digitally governed, centralized infrastructures face growing risks across identity, safety, and data domains. This chapter reframes blockchain as a foundational trust protocol for urban resilience, emphasizing its core features: immutability, decentralization, transparency, and consensus, as tools to address systemic privacy and security challenges. It explores blockchain's role in securing digital identities, logging infrastructure events, and enabling auditable governance. Real-world deployments in land registries, voting, procurement, and incident response, especially in Asia and Europe are analyzed. Privacy-preserving techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized identity are also examined. The chapter highlights integration hurdles such as interoperability, regulatory gaps, and ethical tensions, while outlining emerging trends like Blockchain 4.0, quantum-safe cryptography, and DAO-led civic participation. It offers a roadmap for decentralized citizen-centric governance in smart cities.
In ID-based user authentications, a privacy problem can occur, since the service provider (SP) can accumulate the user's use history from the user ID. As a solution to that problem, group signatures are researched. One of important issues in the group signatures is the user revocation. Previously, an efficient revocable scheme with signing/verification of constant complexity was proposed. In this scheme, users are managed by a binary tree, and a list of revoked user information, called a revocation list (RL), is used for revocation. However, the scheme suffers from the large RL. Recently, an extended scheme has been proposed, where the RL size is reduced by compressing RL. On the other hand, there is a problem that some overhead occurs in the authentication as a price for reducing the size of RL. In this research, we propose an extended scheme where the authentication is sped up by reducing the number of zero-knowledge proofs. Furthermore, we implemented it on a PC and shows the effectiveness. The verification time is about 30% shorter than the previous scheme.
In recent years, Electronic Commerce (E-commerce) applications are attracting many users and merchants to conduct their daily business online which includes payment of bills, online banking, buying tickets and purchasing goods etc. E-commerce transaction security is a major concern for E-commerce websites along with its customers. The basic requirements for any E-commerce transaction are privacy, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. In this paper, a transaction processing system (TPS) for E-commerce by using a Blockchain technology, zero-knowledge proof and modified elliptic curve cryptography encryption is proposed. Also a denial of service attack detection model for the E-commerce system is proposed which take care of the DoS attack during E-commerce transactions.
In this paper, we create secure SSL protocol with zero-knowledge proof which proposed an intruder should not be able to substitute false certificates and masquerade as client or sever. We add Zero-Knowledge proof where certificate transfer directly into both parties. The new scheme was shown to be more secure against the known attacks for SSL. This protocol has characteristics which have identification and authentication of both parties when use to SSL handshake protocol.
Matteo Maffei, Giulio Malavolta, Manuel Reinert, Dominique Schröder
Cloud storage has rapidly become a cornerstone of many IT infrastructures, constituting a seamless solution for the backup, synchronization, and sharing of large amounts of data. Putting user data in the direct control of cloud service providers, however, raises security and privacy concerns related to the integrity of outsourced data, the accidental or intentional leakage of sensitive information, the profiling of user activities and so on. Furthermore, even if the cloud provider is trusted, users having access to outsourced files might be malicious and misbehave. These concerns are particularly serious in sensitive applications like personal health records and credit score systems. To tackle this problem, we present [Formula: see text], a definitional framework for Group Oblivious RAM, in which we formalize several security and privacy properties such as secrecy, integrity, anonymity, and obliviousness. [Formula: see text] allows per entry access control, as selected by the data owner. [Formula: see text] is the first framework to define such a wide range of security and privacy properties for outsourced storage. Regarding obliviousness, we tackle two different attacker models: our first definition protects against an honest-but-curious server while our second definition protects against such a server colluding with malicious clients. In the latter model, we prove a server-side computational lower bound of [Formula: see text] where n is the number of entries in the database, i.e., every operations requires to process a constant fraction of the database. Furthermore, we present two constructions: a pure cryptographic instantiation, which achieves an [Formula: see text] amortized communication and computation complexity and a construction based on a trusted proxy with logarithmic communication and server-side computational complexity. The second construction bypasses the previously established lower bound leveraging a trusted party. Both schemes achieve secrecy, integrity, and obliviousness with respect to a server colluding with malicious clients, but not anonymity due to the deployed access control mechanism. In the former model, we present a cryptographic system that achieves secrecy, integrity, obliviousness, and anonymity. In the process of designing an efficient construction, we developed three new, generally applicable cryptographic schemes, namely, batched zero-knowledge proof of shuffle correctness, the hash-and-proof paradigm, which even improves upon the former, and an accountability technique based on chameleon signatures, which we consider of independent interest. We implemented our constructions in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and ran a performance evaluation demonstrating the scalability and efficiency of our construction.
Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) attempts to find cryptographic protocols resistant to attacks using Shor polynomial time algorithm for numerical field problems or Grover search algorithm. A mostly overlooked but valuable line of solutions is provided by non-commutative algebraic structures, specifically canonical protocols that rely on one-way trapdoor functions (OWTF). Here we develop an algebraic framework who could be applied to different asymmetric protocols like D-H KE (Diffie-Hellman key exchange), Public Key Encryption, Digital Signature, ZKP (zero-knowledge proof) authentication, Oblivious Transfer, Multi-Party Computing, and so on. The trapdoor one-way functions selected are (a) Triple decomposition Problem (TDP) developed by Kurt, where a known element is factored into a product of three unknown factors and (b) a new version of conjugacy search that we refer from now on as Blind Conjugacy Search Problem (BCSP). Our platform structure is the general linear group GL(d,F_p) d-square non-singular matrices of prime field values. We give support to the fact that this framework is cryptographically secure against classical attacks like linear algebra attacks, length-based attacks, side-channel attacks against square (or duplicate) and multiply (or sum) algorithm, high sensitivity to pseudo random deterministic generators, etc. At same time it is immune against quantum attacks (using Grover and Shor), if the size parameters are carefully selected. Semantic security and IND-CCA2 compliance for this framework is discussed.
Rosario Gennaro, Michele Minelli, Anca Nitulescu, Michele OrrĂč
Zero-knowledge SNARKs (zk-SNARKs) are non-interactive proof systems with short and efficiently verifiable proofs. They elegantly resolve the juxtaposition of individual privacy and public trust, by providing an efficient way of demonstrating knowledge of secret information without actually revealing it. To this day, zk-SNARKs are being used for delegating computation, electronic cryptocurrencies, and anonymous credentials. However, all current SNARKs implementations rely on pre-quantum assumptions and, for this reason, are not expected to withstand cryptanalitic efforts over the next few decades. In this work, we introduce the first designated-verifier zk-SNARK based on lattice assumptions, which are believed to be post-quantum secure. We provide a generalization in the spirit of Gennaro et al. (Eurocrypt'13) to the SNARK of Danezis et al. (Asiacrypt'14) that is based on Square Span Programs (SSPs) and relies on weaker computational assumptions. We focus on designated-verifier proofs and propose a protocol in which a proof consists of just 5 LWE encodings. We provide a concrete choice of parameters as well as extensive benchmarks on a C implementation, showing that our construction is practically instantiable.
Oblivious linear-function evaluation (OLE) is a secure two-party protocol allowing a receiver to learn any linear combination of a pair of field elements held by a sender. OLE serves as a common building block for secure computation of arithmetic circuits, analogously to the role of oblivious transfer (OT) for boolean circuits. A useful extension of OLE is vector OLE (VOLE), allowing the receiver to learn any linear combination of two vectors held by the sender. In several applications of OLE, one can replace a large number of instances of OLE by a smaller number of instances of VOLE. This motivates the goal of amortizing the cost of generating long instances of VOLE. We suggest a new approach for fast generation of pseudo-random instances of VOLE via a deterministic local expansion of a pair of short correlated seeds and no interaction. This provides the first example of compressing a non-trivial and cryptographically useful correlation with good concrete efficiency. Our VOLE generators can be used to enhance the efficiency of a host of cryptographic applications. These include secure arithmetic computation and non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs with reusable preprocessing. Our VOLE generators are based on a novel combination of function secret sharing (FSS) for multi-point functions and linear codes in which decoding is intractable. Their security can be based on variants of the learning parity with noise (LPN) assumption over large fields that resist known attacks. We provide several constructions that offer tradeoffs between different efficiency measures and the underlying intractability assumptions.
We introduce FairSwap -- an efficient protocol for fair exchange of digital goods using smart contracts. A fair exchange protocol allows a sender S to sell a digital commodity x for a fixed price p to a receiver R. The protocol is said to be secure if R only pays if he receives the correct x. Our solution guarantees fairness by relying on smart contracts executed over decentralized cryptocurrencies, where the contract takes the role of an external judge that completes the exchange in case of disagreement. While in the past there have been several proposals for building fair exchange protocols over cryptocurrencies, our solution has two distinctive features that makes it particular attractive when users deal with large commodities. These advantages are: (1) minimizing the cost for running the smart contract on the blockchain, and (2) avoiding expensive cryptographic tools such as zero-knowledge proofs. In addition to our new protocols, we provide formal security definitions for smart contract based fair exchange, and prove security of our construction. Finally, we illustrate several applications of our basic protocol and evaluate practicality of our approach via a prototype implementation for fairly selling large files over the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
I wish to begin by thanking the people who nominated me for the Leonard medal and the Leonard Medal Committee of the Meteoritical Society for granting me this award. Thanks as well to Francois Robert for doing a fine job on the citation and his kind words. I have been a member of the Meteoritical Society and attended the meetings since I was a postdoctoral fellow at Chicago. The recognition by the society means a great deal to me and it is an honor to receive the Leonard Medal. I know most of the recipients over many decades and I am being included with a prestigious group. My research career in Meteoritics and Planetary Science began with my going to Chicago to work with Bob Clayton on nitrogen isotopes in the solar wind as detected by extraction from lunar samples. It was a lucky break for me that Bob had an opening for a post doc in the window of time when I was graduating and looking. Chicago was, and is, a center of research activity in meteorites and planetary science. My interest in the field dates to my last course at the University of Miami when I took a course titled âModern Geologyâ taught by Cesare Emiliani who was a student of Urey's. I had taken all the available physics and chemistry courses and wanted another science course. My interest in geology dated back to my childhood, when I belonged to the Gem and Mineral club at Washington University. This was a first-class organization wherein I learned a lot and attended monthly lectures with my dad and the whole family went on the many field trips they organized. Emiliani's course turned out to be the best course I took and he was an amazing teacher and mentor. It was in this broad ranging course that I learned of the application of both stable and radioactive isotopes to interpret processes in nature, ranging from the age of the Earth to paleoclimates, a field he helped found. It greatly impressed me that one could apply the fundamental physics and chemistry I had learned to quantitatively interpret differing geochemical records. I was struck by Urey's 1947 paper on the thermodynamics of isotopic substances and how one could use the information for. Emiliani brought me to his laboratory and showed me his mass spectrometer built at the University of Chicago before he came to Miami. A second significant impact on my scientific direction resulted from a course I took at Florida State from Gary Brass. He discussed the famous paper of Clayton et al. (1973) on the discovery of oxygen mass independent isotopic anomalies in meteoritic inclusions. I was very impressed with the fact that one could distinguish between nuclear processes and chemical by measurement of the multi-isotopes of oxygen and potentially identify individual grains that may have predated the solar system. As I neared completion of my doctoral work, which was finished at Brookhaven National Laboratory, I wrote to Bob Clayton about the possibility of postdoctoral work with him. I told him that I had experience in measuring oxygen and sulfur isotopes, as well as accelerator use for my PhD dissertation. He had an opening and I was able to join the Chicago group, which I had heard about from Emiliani when he discussed his own classmatesâ research (Wasserburg, Craig, Epstein, and Miller) and his work with Urey. My timing for coming to Chicago for meteoritic research could not have been better. Bob Clayton, Larry Grossman, Ed Anders, and Frank Richter were all engaged in meteoritic research; all of whom became Leonard medalists. It provided the opportunity to sit in on graduate courses by S. Chandrasekhar and Dave Schramm as well as geophysical, physical chemical, and astrophysical seminars by the world's best. 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We are pleased to publish the second issue of the Global Journal on Quality and Safety in Healthcare (JQSH). In this issue, we would like to discuss the similarities and differences between research and quality improvement (QI) projects in health care. Imagine you are working in a hospital or a department within a hospital and you want to improve an aspect of health-care quality and safety by focusing on the issue of medication errors. Given that situation, you decide to implement a âzero harmâ rule because of medication errors. The question is will this be a QI or a research project? In another example, you are a resident working in an oncology department and you noticed that most patients receiving certain chemotherapeutic agents had neuropathy complications, so you decided to collaborate with the physical therapist on a project to compare patients who received chemotherapy drugs and exercise with those who did not exercise. Again, the question is will this be a research project or a QI project? Regardless of the answer, it is important to implement the project systematically. If your project is focused on QI, then you should consult the QI specialists in your hospital who can help you to use the appropriate QI methodology, which includes Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles. If your project qualifies as research, then you should consult a research methodologist and biostatistician regarding study design, sample size, and others and work with the institutional review board (IRB) to provide guidance and templates.Many health professionals do not know how a research project differs from a QI project and when they complement each other.[1â3] Our traditional thinking is that quality and safety improvement in health care as well as the effectiveness of an intervention can only be studied in the form of a traditional scientific research project, as it has its own well-established rigorous approach. We may be ignorant or unaware of how to use the QI scientific approach to study the performance of a health-care system.[4,5] The problem lies within our frame of thinking because we are prioritizing the proof of effectiveness over bringing about and sustaining improvement. We use the results of pre-assessment and post-assessment research as the gold standard for evidence-based policy and practice, whereas in reality, sustaining the improvement is continuous and more dynamic.[1,6]Research projects are question-driven and focus on providing proof of effectiveness. The main purpose of research is to generate new generalizable knowledge about a particular subject to a study population, where the study results often end up published in academic journals. In this case, researchers must follow a strict study protocol approved by the IRB, including obtaining the consent from study participants before starting the project and report any deviation from the protocol to the IRB, if needed.[7â9] However, QI projects are data-driven and focus on showing sustained improvement to a specific process and system or outcomes within a health-care organization using, if possible, the research evidence generated as the basis for developing the improvement interventions.[10] A QI project does not aim to generate new knowledge as a research project does, rather, it generates several learning lessons as to what actually works and does not work and why. A QI project produces empirical evidence to benefit other organizations within a similar context and setting, which are interested in replicating the change to improve a process or system using the rapid PDSA cycle approach.[11] Through cycles of testing, we learn what is going to improve and why, without the need to generalize the results to another context, as research projects usually aim to do. Also in QI projects, the measurement framework is not about pre and post. It is about continually measuring the metric of interest that you want to improve and coming up with not just one intervention but multiple interventions based on learning from prior PDSA cycles. At the end, you reach the point of realizing sustained improvement through a series of interventions that were informed by testing in the actual system that you want to improve. The PDSA cycle is repeated, and new changes are made to continue to improve a process and, ultimately, the outcome. The essential measurements included in a QI project are process measures, outcomes measures, and balancing measures, which are used to show that the improvement occurs over time. Data from QI activities are usually aggregated and presented in run/control charts, histograms, and line graphs, whereas data from research are analyzed using statistical tests such as t-test, chi-square test, and regression analysis, and then aggregated and presented in appropriate tables and/or graphs.Typically, QI results are shared within the organization and might be implemented in other departments. The lessons learned from QI activities can be published; however, it must be clear to the readers that the project was for QI, not traditional research. Although a QI project does not require IRB approval, some organizations have QI committees that approve and coordinate QI project activities, and some organizations require articles to be approved before submitting for publication.In summary, the sustained improvement realized in a QI project can be complemented and validated with a thorough research-based assessment of effectiveness.[12] We should not consider the proof of effectiveness the same as the proof of sustained improvement, but they both are very important. I would like to emphasize that both research and QI projects use scientific and systematic approaches, albeit different, but both methods are scientific and rigorous in their own ways. The aims, methods, and outcomes in research and QI projects are quite different. Hence, understanding the differences and similarities between research and QI projects will help to determine the right approach when designing and implementing the right project for the right purpose using the right method. Table 1 is a snapshot comparison between QI and research with more focus on the project's aim and method aspects.In research projects, we can be guided by asking the following: Do we have a clear question to be investigated and answered?What do we hope to accomplish by answering the question?What is currently known about the topic?What are the risks and benefits for patients involved with the study of this topic?What type of study design will be used (observational vs. experimental)?How will the data be analyzed and presented (statistical tests, P-values, etc.)?In QI projects, we can ask the following: What is the magnitude of the quality problem based on available data?What types of quality tools have been used to measure and assess the problem?What is the measurement plan to be used during implementation of the project?What types of changes/interventions will be tested during the PDSA cycles?Has the proposed change/intervention been used in other health-care settings or reported in the literature?Will the results of this project directly improve patient-care outcomes or processes?Is the organization's management supportive of the project and willing to dedicate employee's time and supplies to do the project?What is the sustainability plan for the results?
Open access
Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
Oct 1, 2018·2018 IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing, Advanced & Trusted Computing, Scalable Computing & Communications, Cloud & Big Data Computing, Internet of People and Smart City Innovation (SmartWorld/SCALCOM/UIC/ATC/CBDCom/IOP/SCI)
Jing Long, Dafang Zhang, Wei Liang, KuanâChing Li
Protection of IPs through watermarking techniques is prevalent to prevent IP infringement. In previous researches, authentication of watermark in IPs easily disclosures sensitive information of real embedded watermarks, where the evidence of identifying IP ownership may be attacked by illegal verifiers. Despite several watermark detection techniques can address the disclosure of sensitive information in detection procedure, the efficiency for such a detection remains relatively low. Besides, it may yield to large communication overhead on multiple authentication rounds. Motivated by the needs of robustness and efficiency, it is proposed in this work a leakage-resilient protocol to authenticate ownership of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) bitfile design using zero-knowledge proof. The prover can convince the verifier that he knows a secret in the suspected bitfile design via only one interaction. Real locations of watermarks are concealed through location anonymity. With the received authentication package from the prover, the verifier cannot obtain other useful information about watermarks. From experiments, we show that the proposed authentication technique achieves high efficiency and robustness on watermark detection.
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
In 1996, Stern proposed a three-pass zero-knowledge identification (ID) scheme where the cheating probability, i.e., the success probability of cheating prover, is 2/3. Since then, variants and generalization of Stern's ID have been proposed. However, within two-bit challenge space, all of them are having the cheating probability of more than half or reaching half only in an asymptotic manner with more than three passes in one round. In this paper, we propose the first code-based zero-knowledge three-pass ID scheme with the cheating probability of exactly half even with only two-bit challenge space. Our proposed ID scheme can reduce the necessary number of rounds in order to achieve the targeted security against impersonation. Since rewinding technique cannot be used against a quantum adversary in the security proof, we prove the security using the lossy paradigm and rely on the decisional version of syndrome decoding problem so that we do not have to rewind the adversary.
A key communication technology in smart cities and smart buildings for automation is RFID. Proving the simultaneous presence of a group of RFID-tagged objects is a practical need in many application areas within this domain. Some examples of this include vehicle fleets, smart parking, safety in public places (smart cities), security and access control (smart buildings), and asset location (supply chain system, health care industry). Security, privacy, and efficiency are central issues when designing such a grouping-proof protocol. This work is motivated by Sundaresan et al.'s grouping-proof protocol, which applies zero-knowledge techniques. In this paper, we propose a light, improved version of an offline serial-dependency grouping-proof protocol. Compared to existing grouping-proof protocols, our scheme improves on efficiency, scalability, security, and communication cost. It resists well-known attacks on grouping-proofs including tag/reader anonymity, tracking, forward security, replay, forgery, and message integrity.