Controlled access to confidential information and resources is a critical element in security systems. Role-based access control (RBAC) has gained widespread usage in modern enterprise systems. Extensions have been proposed to RBAC for incorporating spatial constraints into such systems. Several solutions have been proposed for such models and many researchers are now focusing on enforcing system policies. In this paper we propose a security framework for RBAC systems with spatial constraints based on identity-based encryption. In our framework, we use identity-based encryption with zero knowledge proof (ZKP) to provide authentication and information security. We also show how Near Field Communication (NFC) can be used to establish the integrity of a user's proof of location. Simulation results in Java validate our model. Furthermore, security analysis has been done to show how our framework protects against well-known attacks.
The increasing trend of embedding positioning capabilities (e.g., GPS) in mobile devices facilitates the widespread use of Location Based Services. For such applications to succeed, privacy and confidentiality are key issues. Over all privacy will have to be managed through a combination of technology, legislation, corporate policy, and social norms. There are many data privacy schemes including Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) those can be used for location privacy. ZKP is also useful for removing the bottleneck problem introduced by use of trusted third party. In the earlier work, authors proposed the concept of middleware architecture in which, request and response are not routed through middleware for every transaction. This has reduced the dependency on middleware. This paper presents correspondence between the authentication techniques used in above said architecture and zero knowledge proof technique. Use of the concept of zero knowledge proof for authentication and authorization in the domain of location based services is also explored.
Mark Vinkovits, Erion Elmasllari, Claudio Pastrone
Ubiquitous systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) are on the rise. However, there are issues from businesses and users which hinder the wide-spread application of such systems. In the FP7 EU project ebbits, which deals with integrating IoT into business systems, we collected real-world requirements from participants. From these we designed a complete anonymous network solution including addressing, discovery, authentication and reputation management. Our authentication system relies on Non Interactive Zero Knowledge Proofs augmented for fine granulated access right decisions and accounting. Anonymous reputation is created using reputation tickets, which are obtained through public votings. A reputation ticket is an unforgeable evidence of trustworthiness held by the provider and presented to a consumer on request. Discovery also has to specially be designed for anonymous environments else they leak information about the identity. We provide an attribute based discovery mechanism built with Bloom-filters. Our concept protects privacy but still enables discovery based on partial matches.
Noninteractive zero-knowledge (NIZK) proof systems are fundamental primitives used in many cryptographic constructions, including public-key encryption secure against chosen ciphertext attack, digital signatures, and various other cryptographic protocols. We introduce new techniques for constructing NIZK proofs based on groups with a bilinear map. Compared to previous constructions of NIZK proofs, our techniques yield dramatic reduction in the length of the common reference string (proportional to security parameter) and the size of the proofs (proportional to security parameter times the circuit size). Our novel techniques allow us to answer several long-standing open questions in the theory of noninteractive proofs. We construct the first perfect NIZK argument system for all NP. We construct the first universally composable NIZK argument for all NP in the presence of an adaptive adversary. We construct a non-interactive zap for all NP, which is the first that is based on a standard cryptographic security assumption.
Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA) is a special signature scheme that enables remote authentication of a user while preserving privacy under the user's control. Thus, in this paper, based on existing schemes and mechanisms, we firstly construct a DAA signature scheme which is proven secure without random oracles. By making certain reasonable assumptions and employing the techniques of non-interactive zero-knowledge(NIZK) proof system and Two-Party Computation(2PC) scheme, we prove that our scheme satisfies anonymous and untraceable, and compares with existing DAA schemes in the aspects of security and efficiency.
The migration of web applications to Cloud computing platform has raised concerns about the privacy of sensitive data belonging to the consumers of cloud services. The traditional form of security tokens like username/password used to access cloud services are prone to phishing attacks and hence do not provide complete security. In this work we propose to extend the Microsoft's CardSpace identity management tool, to include more robust security tokens using the zero knowledge proof concept. These security tokens are in the form of SAML token supported by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and hence can prove interoperable with the existing security platforms.
Radio frequency identification has enabled exciting new prospects in wireless ID services, particularly for personnel. Unfortunately, the earliest applications relied upon acquiescent mechanisms that accepted and returned data with no intermediary processing. The advent of smart cards made possible an on-chip revolution in the use of contact identification devices. What I explore here is the extension of these embedded systems to their non-contact counterparts (namely RFID). The processing layer is of utmost importance to us in the study of privacy controls, as it opens the discussion on how personnel ID in general may evolve from storage devices that may be intercepted and duplicated into cryptographically sound logic devices that can resist common attacks and directly participate in the decisions concerning disclosure. This brings us to one of the most vital aspects of the research, the zero-knowledge proof. Frequently RFID is applied as a convenient means of answering questions about discrete state (from a comfortable distance). Wherever possible, we wish to answer those questions without compromising user privacy in the process. The integration of RFID and embedded systems allows us to perform proofs based on internal comparisons and calculations rather than irrevocable release of the data. This is the security of the embedded systems used widely in electronic commerce with the convenience of near-field communications. It holds the promise of a better all-around user experience, with better protections, more control, and easier methods of performing common objectives.
In many applications, the password is sent as cleartext to the server to be authenticated thus providing the eavesdropper with opportunity to steal valuable data. This paper presents a simple protocol based on zero knowledge proof by which the user can prove to the authentication server that he has the password without having to send the password to the server as either cleartext or in encrypted format. Thus the user can authenticate himself without having to actually reveal the password to the server. Also, another version of this protocol has been proposed which makes use of public key cryptography thus adding one more level of security to the protocol and enabling mutual authentication between the client & server.
Chida and Yamamoto propose a batch proof algorithm to enhance the performance of multiple instances of zero knowledge proof of partial knowledge. When multiple instances of zero knowledge proof of partial knowledge need to be proved simultaneously, their proof algorithm employs a batching mechanism to reduce the cost in computation and communication. Unfortunately, their batch proof algorithm is not sound and vulnerable to an attack, which completely breaks soundness of the proof. More precisely, an adversary can design the multiple partial knowledge statements in a special way such that no matter how he is challenged he can always pass the verification as a prover in the batch proof scheme while he does not have the knowledge he claims. The attack is presented and is formally illustrated to always succeed.
Privacy-preserving set operations are useful for many data mining algorithms as building tools. Protocols for privacy-preserving set operations have considered semi-honest and malicious adversarial models in cryptographic settings, whereby an adversary is assumed to follow or arbitrarily deviate from the protocol. Semi-honest model provides weak security requiring small amount of computation, on the other hand, malicious model provides strong security requiring expensive computations like homomorphic encryption. However, efficient computation of such set operations are desirable for practical implementations. In this paper, we build efficient and private set operations avoiding the use of expensive tools like homomorphic encryption, zero knowledge proof, and oblivious transfer. Our protocol is constructed in game-theoretic model. In other words, instead of being semi-honest or malicious, the parties are viewed as rational and are assumed (only) to act in their self-interest. We show that our protocol satisfies computational Nash equilibrium.
Abstract : Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) are protocols that enable a prover to convince a verifier of the truth of a statement without leaking any other information. The main properties of ZKP include completeness, soundness and zero-knowledge. These features are correlated with each other, and together with the lighter computational requirements, makes zero-knowledge protocols very attractive in authentication service in airborne networks. Although useful, the non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs based on standard cryptographic assumptions used to be inefficient and not useful in practice. The use of pairing-based ZKP on elliptic curves can potentially enhance the security strength of the system. Besides these advantages, pairing-based ZKPs can also integrate smoothly with other pairing-based cryptographic schemes (e.g., identity-based encryption, pairing-based signatures, key agreement, and proxy re-encryption) making the combined schemes quite efficient.
Cloud computing dynamically provides high quality cloudbased secure services and applications over the internet. The efficient sharing of secure cloud storage services (ESC) scheme which allows the upper-level user to share the secure cloud storage services with multiple lower-level users. In hierarchical identity-based architecture, the sender needs to encrypt a file only once and store only one copy of the corresponding ciphertext in a cloud. The lower-level user needs to decrypt a file which will increase the computational overhead, because the lower-level user does not perform any partial decipherment. In this paper, we propose a Trapdoor commitment scheme that enables a lower-level user to send a short trapdoor to the cloud service provider before retrieving files. This scheme allows the CSP to participate in the partial decipherment, so as to reduce computational overhead on the users without leaking any information about the plaintext. If a lower-level user wants to retrieve a file with limited bandwidth, CPU and memory, the trapdoor which will largely helps to reduce computational power.
Provable data possession (PDP) is a technique for ensuring the integrity of data in storage outsourcing. In this paper, we address the construction of an efficient PDP scheme for distributed cloud storage to support the scalability of service and data migration, in which we consider the existence of multiple cloud service providers to cooperatively store and maintain the clients' data. We present a cooperative PDP (CPDP) scheme based on homomorphic verifiable response and hash index hierarchy. We prove the security of our scheme based on multiprover zero-knowledge proof system, which can satisfy completeness, knowledge soundness, and zero-knowledge properties. In addition, we articulate performance optimization mechanisms for our scheme, and in particular present an efficient method for selecting optimal parameter values to minimize the computation costs of clients and storage service providers. Our experiments show that our solution introduces lower computation and communication overheads in comparison with noncooperative approaches.
The disadvantage of previous multi-coupon schemes is the lack of efficient protocol in which users can decide the maximal number of redemption according to their demands.And another deficiency is that they cannot remain secure in the concurrent case.This article remedied these obstacles by providing two improved systems with concurrent security.The first scheme was obtained by extending the underlying scheme of Blanton with the proof of two committed values and the Sigma-compiler for two round concurrent zero-knowledge argument.The second scheme(i.e.,the strengthened version of the first one) achieved more efficient security reduction by incorporating the straight-line extraction paradigm and removed random oracles by using the non-interactive zero-knowledge argument from homomorphic encryption.Compared with the other strongly unsplittable schemes,the first scheme has better communicational efficiency and the second one does not rely on the random oracle model.
利用Cha-Cheon 的基于身份的签名方案提出了一个可证安全的基于身份的可验证加密签名(verifiablyencrypted signature,简称VES)方案,并利用该方案和基于身份的代理可验证加密签名(proxy verifiably encryptedsignature,简称PVES)方案提出了一个新颖的多元合同签署协议.信息交换过程中,原始签名者或代理签名者分别利用VES 或PVES 实现承诺消息的交换与认证,并未使用复杂的零知识证明系统,从而有效避免了大量运算.当争议发生时,可信第三方从VES 或PVES 中恢复出有效的合同签名,以保证签署者的公平性.安全性分析结果表明,协议满足不可否认性、时效性以及公平性.;Utilizing the Cha-Cheon’s identity-based signature scheme, a provably secure identity-based verifiably encrypted signature (VES) scheme is proposed. Utilizing the proposed scheme and identity-based proxy verifiably encrypted signature (PVES) scheme, a novel multiplex contract signing protocol is also proposed. The original signer or proxy signer uses VES or PVES to realize the interaction and certification of the commitment message in the information exchange process. The proposed scheme does not need the zero-knowledge proof and excessive computation. An optimized trusted third party who participates in the protocol extracts the formal signature from the VES or PVES only when problem occurs. The performance analysis results show that the scheme satisfies non-repudiation, timeliness and fairness.
Abstract. In this study, a novel pairing based strong designated verifier signature scheme based on non-interactive zero knowledge proofs is proposed. The security of the proposal is presented by sequences of games without random oracles; furthermore, this scheme has a security proof for the property of privacy of the signer’s identity in comparison with the scheme proposed by Zhang et al. in 2007. In addition, this proposal compared to the scheme presented by Huang et al. in 2011 supports non-delegatability. The non-delegatability of our proposal is achieved since we do not use the common secret key shared between the signer and the designated verifier in our construction. Furthermore, if a signer delegates her signing capability which is derived from her secret key on a specific message to a third party, then, the third party cannot generate a valid designated verifier signature due to the relaxed special soundness of the non-interactive zero knowledge proof. To the best of our knowledge, this construction is the first attempt to generate a designated verifier signature scheme with non-delegatability in the standard model, while satisfying of non-delegatability property is loose.
Blockchain, a continuously growing tamper resistant data structure, was developed as the technology underlying the Bitcoin crypto-currency and it is now being applied to a wide range of problems as a form of ‘Distributed Ledger’. The promise of this technology has been recognised by governments and the financial industry. It also has application to enhance privacy of personal information, to secure the Internet of things and to change electronic identity. This study explains what a Blockchain is and how it works. It describes some actual and the potential applications of this technology together with some of the risks associated with its use.
This paper focuses on the robustness of concurrent non-malleable zero-knowledge.Existing concurrent non-malleable zero-knowledge protocols either apply non-black-box techniques,or employ black-box but incorporate a zero-knowledge sub-protocol.Hence when concurrently composed with other protocols,security of these protocols is not preserved or hard to argue.Following the well-known Feige-Shamir style,this paper presents a new construction for concurrent non-malleable zero-knowledge argument system,which is easily composed.This protocol takes the robust non-malleable commitment scheme introduced by Lin and Pass in STOC 2009 and specially designed witness indistinguishable proofs as basic components to achieve non-malleability and robustness.Moreover,this paper applies the oblivious simulation strategy to simulate the view of the adversary,and the proof technique introduced by Lin et al.in Crypto 2010 to analyze the indistinguishability of simulation.Since witness indistinguishability is closed under concurrent composition,the commitment sub-protocol is robust and the is oblivious,when concurrently composed with other protocols,this protocol is easier to work with and analyze.Based on the one-way function assumption,the round complexity of this protocol is super-logarithmic.
We introduce the concept of identity-based encryption (IBE) with master key-dependent chosenplaintext (mKDM-sID-CPA) security. These are IBE schemes that remain secure even after the adversary sees encryptions, under some initially selected identities, of functions of the master secret key(s). We then propose a generic construction of chosen-ciphertext secure key-dependent encryption (KDM-CCA) schemes in the public key setting starting from mKDM-sID-CPA secure IBE schemes. This is reminiscent to the celebrated work by Canetti, Halevi and Katz (Eurocrypt 2004) on the traditional key-oblivious setting. Previously only one generic construction of KDM-CCA secure public key schemes was known, due to Camenisch, Chandran and Shoup (Eurocrypt 2009), and it required non-interactive zero knowledge proofs (NIZKs). Our transformation shows that NIZKs are not intrinsic to KDM-CCA public key encryption. Additionally, we are able to instantiate our new concept under the Rank assumption on pairing groups and for affine functions of the secret keys. The scheme builds on previous work by Boneh, Halevi, Hamburg and Ostrovsky (Crypto 2008). Our concrete schemes are only able to provide security against a bounded number of encryption queries, which is enough in some practical scenarios. As a corollary we obtain a KDM-CCA secure public key encryption scheme, in the standard model, whose security reduction to a static assumption is independent of the number of challenge queries. As an independent contribution, we give new and better reductions between the Rank problem (previously named as Matrix DDH problem) and the Decisional Linear and the Decisional 3-Party Diffie-Hellman problems.