Anonymous Protocol Research Articles

A Fair Exchange & Customer Anonymity Protocol Using A Trusted Third Party for Electronic Commerce Transactions & Payments

A Fair Exchange & Customer Anonymity Protocol Using A Trusted Third Party for Electronic Commerce Transactions & Payments

EPA: An efficient and privacy-aware revocation mechanism for vehicular ad hoc networks

Security is vital for the reliable operation of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). One of the critical security issues is the revocation of misbehaving vehicles. While essential, revocation checking can leak private information. In particular, repositories receiving the certificate status queries could infer the identity of the vehicles posing the query and the target of the query. An important loss of privacy results from this ability to tie the checking vehicle with the query’s target, due to their likely willingness to communicate. In this paper, we propose an Efficient and Privacy-Aware revocation Mechanism (EPA) based on the use of Merkle Hash Trees (MHT) and a Crowds-based anonymous protocol, which replaces the time-consuming certificate revocation lists checking process. EPA provides explicit, concise, authenticated and unforgeable information about the revocation status of each certificate while preserving the users’ privacy. Moreover, EPA reduces the security overhead for certificate status checking, and enhances the availability and usability of the revocation data. By conducting a detailed performance evaluation, EPA is demonstrated to be reliable, efficient, and scalable.

Property-Based Anonymous Attestation in Trusted Cloud Computing

In the remote attestation on Trusted Computer (TC) computing mode TCCP, the trusted computer TC has an excessive burden, and anonymity and platform configuration information security of computing nodes cannot be guaranteed. To overcome these defects, based on the research on and analysis of current schemes, we propose an anonymous proof protocol based on property certificate. The platform configuration information is converted by the matrix algorithm into the property certificate, and the remote attestation is implemented by trusted ring signature scheme based on Strong RSA Assumption. By the trusted ring signature scheme based on property certificate, we achieve the anonymity of computing nodes and prevent the leakage of platform configuration information. By simulation, we obtain the computational efficiency of the scheme. We also expand the protocol and obtain the anonymous attestation based on ECC. By scenario comparison, we obtain the trusted ring signature scheme based on RSA, which has advantages with the growth of the ring numbers.

An anonymous e-rental protocol based on ID-based cryptography and NFC

Most e-rental services require customers to register sensitive information, which gives malicious service providers a good opportunity to launch social engineering attacks, or to use data mining techniques collecting and analyzing customers' information or rental preferences. Therefore, we propose an anonymous e-rental protocol based on ID-based cryptography and near field communication technology, with particular focus on vehicle rentals. Our contributions include: (1) Anonymity. Users' real identity is hidden from the rental service providers. (2) Unlinkability. Rental service providers cannot find the relation between two rental records. (3) Traceability. As full anonymity is not always desirable, traceability allows disclosure of a malicious user's identity, whereas other users' privacy remains unviolated. Rental service providers can request TTP to reveal users' identity with a legal warrant. (4) Flexibility. Users choose their preferred service providers and vehicles. (5) Anonymous payment. Rental service providers cannot associate users' identity with the financial transactions.

The design and implementation of the A3 application-aware anonymity platform

This paper presents the design and implementation of Application-Aware Anonymity (A3), an extensible platform for rapidly prototyping and evaluating anonymity protocols on the Internet. A3 supports the development of highly tunable anonymous protocols that enable applications to tailor their anonymity properties and performance characteristics according to specific communication requirements.To support flexible path construction, A3 uses a declarative language to compactly specify path selection and instantiation policies. We demonstrate that our declarative language is sufficiently expressive to encode novel multi-metric performance constraints as well as existing relay selection algorithms employed by Tor and other anonymity systems, using only a few lines of concise code. We experimentally evaluate A3 using a combination of trace-driven simulations and a deployment on PlanetLab, as well as a case-study of A3-enabled voice-over-IP communication. Our experimental results demonstrate that A3 can flexibly and efficiently support a wide range of path selection and instantiation strategies at low performance overhead.

A New Group Key Agreement Protocol with Anonymity

Popularity of group-oriented applications motivates research on security protection for group communications. A number of group key agreement protocols have been proposed for this objective, but most current group key agreement protocols do not consider privacy protection. Group key agreement protocols for networks should also handle dynamic group membership events such as user join and leave events. The Join and Leave Protocols provide backward and forward secrecy respectively. In this paper, we proposed a new anonymous group key agreement protocol based on ID-based encryption cryptosystems. The proposed protocol not only benefits from the desirable features of ID-based cryptosystem, but also provides privacy protection for users. The proposed protocol achieves the following security attribute: anonymity, unlinkability, group key secrecy, group forward secrecy, group backward secrecy, perfect forward secrecy for the group session key and entity authentication.

Anonymous Shared Certificate Entity Authentication Protocol

Currently most existing entity authentication protocols can not guarantee anonymity against compromised verifier in semi-honest model. To solve the question, this paper puts forward a shared certif...

Design, implementation, and performance analysis of a secure payment protocol in a payment gateway centric model

Many mobile payment systems have emerged in the last few years which allow payments for services and goods from mobile devices. However, most of them have been based on a scenario where all the entities are directly connected to each other (formally called the full connectivity scenario) and do not consider those situations where the client cannot directly communicate with the merchant. We present the design and the implementation of an anonymous secure payment protocol based on the payment gateway centric scenario for mobile environments where the client cannot communicate directly with the merchant to process the payment request. Our proposed payment protocol uses symmetric-key operations because of their low computational requirements. We present a performance evaluation of the proposed payment protocol in a real environment. Performance results obtained with the implemented protocol demonstrate that our protocol achieves a small execution time (11.68 s) for a payment transaction using a mobile phone and a restricted scenario which causes only a slight increase in the number of the steps necessary to complete a payment transaction as a result of the lack of direct communication between the client and the merchant.

Anonymously accessing JXTA community services through split message forwarding

As peer-to-peer (P2P) systems have gained popularity and evolved to encompass different scenarios beyond simple file-sharing, such as ubiquitous and cognitive computing, awareness on the need for inclusion of security mechanisms into its design, has also raised. JXTA is an open P2P protocols specification that, for these reasons, has slowly incorporated security improvements such as message privacy and resource authentication, up to its latest version to this date, 2.7. However, under some contexts, even more advanced security requirements should be met. Anonymity, for which privacy is necessary but not a sufficient requirement, is a good example. Unfortunately, even though several approaches to message anonymization exist within the context of P2P networks, there is no perfect solution. In this work, we study the feasibility of anonymous access to JXTA community services using a split message-based approach. On that regard, we adapt a recently proposed anonymous protocol to JXTA’s idiosyncrasies and assess its actual performance under typical JXTA network configurations.

Lessons learned in pilot testing specialty consultations to benefit individuals with lower limb loss.

Telerehabilitation technologies enable the delivery of rehabilitation services from providers to people with disabilities as well as specialty care consultations. This article discusses the barriers experienced when planning and pilot testing a telerehabilitation multi-site specialty consultation for specialists in their medical centers, and the lessons learned. The barriers included integration and participation, coordination across organizational units, and privacy and information security. Lessons learned included the need for collaboration across multiple departments, telerehabilitation equipment back-ups, and anonymous and private communication protocols. Despite delays resulting from coordination at multiple levels of a national organization, we developed a program plan and successfully implemented a pilot test of the southeast region program. Specialty consultation using telerehabilitation delivery methods requires identifying provider preferences for technological features. Lessons learned could inform development of outpatient telerehabilitation for patients with amputations and studies of patients and providers involved in telerehabilitation.

A Novel Fair Anonymous Contract Signing Protocol for E-Commerce Applications

With the economy developing and popular Internet, the general concept of contract signing has changed. In the past, people usually sign a contract at the same time and same place face to face, but actually each party involved in contract may live in different part of earth, they want to sign something for business or some other things in economic, efficient, secure and fairway. A fair contract signing protocol allows two potentially mis-trusted parities to exchange their commitments (i.e., digital signatures) to an agreed contract over the Internet in a fair way, so that either each of them obtains the other’s signature, or neither party does. Based on the LUCAS signature scheme, a new digital anonymous contract signing protocol is proposed in this paper. Like the existing LUCAS-based solutions for the same problem, our protocol is fair, anonymous and optimistic. Furthermore, the proposed protocol satisfied a new property, i.e., it is abuse-free. That is, if the protocol is executed unsuccessfully, either of the two parties can not show the validity of intermediate results to others.

Certificate-based Anonymous Authentication Protocol for Vehicular Ad-hoc Network

Certificate-based Cryptography (CBC) combines the advantages of ID-based cryptography (implicit certification) and traditional PKI approach (no key escrow). Based on CBC, an anonymous authentication protocol featured with conditional privacy preservation and non-repudiation is proposed for vehicular ad-hoc network. First, a certificate-based signature scheme with only one pairing computation and only one element signature is proposed. Then, an anonymous authentication protocol is constructed by applying the proposed signature scheme and a novel concept called the account index which helps to realize On-Board Units anonymity, non-reputation, and conditional privacy preservation. A secure session key is established in the protocol which provides perfect forward secrecy.

Performance modelling of anonymity protocols

Anonymous network communication protocols provide privacy for Internet-based communication. In this paper, we focus on the performance and scalability of anonymity protocols. In particular, we develop performance models for two anonymity protocols from the prior literature (Buses and Taxis), as well as our own newly proposed protocol (Motorcycles). Using a combination of experimental implementation, simulation, and analysis, we show that: (1) the message latency of the Buses protocol is O(N2), scaling quadratically with the number of participants; (2) the message latency of the Taxis protocol is O(N), scaling linearly with the number of participants; (3) the message latency of the Motorcycles protocol is O(log2N), scaling logarithmically with the number of participants. Motorcycles can provide scalable anonymous network communication, without compromising the strength of anonymity provided by Buses or Taxis.

Preserving Privacy in Horizontally Partitioned Databases Using Hierarchical Model

It is necessary to preserve information about the individuals in many organizations. So this paper is introduced to implement a distributed anonymization protocol to store data about the users on horizontally partitioned databases by providing secure query protocol to share data according to the specified query from the virtual databases. It concentrates on architecture querying heterogeneous distributed and also private databases.

Exploring Extant and Emerging Issues in Anonymous Networks: A Taxonomy and Survey of Protocols and Metrics

The desire to preserve privacy in cyberspace drives research in the area of anonymous networks. Any entity operating in cyberspace is susceptible to debilitating cyber attacks. As part of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the United States acknowledges that the speed and anonymity of cyber attacks makes distinguishing among the actions of terrorists, criminals, and nation states difficult. Indeed, today's Internet is an incredibly effective, uncontrolled weapon for eavesdropping and spying. Therefore, anonymity and privacy are increasingly important issues. A plethora of existing or proposed anonymous networks achieve diverse levels of anonymity against a variety of adversarial attacks. However, no known taxonomy provides a comprehensive classification of the varied set of wired, wireless, and hybrid anonymous communications networks. We develop a novel cubic taxonomy to facilitate the systematic definition and classification of anonymity in anonymous communications networks. Three key anonymity components: anonymity property, adversary capability, and network type are thoroughly explored. More importantly, an in-depth description of a new tree-based taxonomy for the state-of-the-art in wireless anonymous protocols is offered. For completeness, a tree-based taxonomy of wired and hybrid anonymous protocols are also provided. Lastly, several evolving anonymity metrics which quantify anonymity preservation, degradation, and elimination in existing and future anonymous networks are examined. Hence, this paper explores extant and emerging issues in anonymous networks via an intuitive taxonomy and surveys anonymous protocols and quantifiable metrics essential for any entity determined to assure anonymity and preserve privacy in cyberspace against an adversary.

A Novel Anonymous Communication Protocol Based on Layering

A Novel Anonymous Communication Protocol Based on Layering

Anonymous Authentication for Smart Grid Communications

The smart grid is a network of computers and power infrastructures that monitor and manage energy usage and uses intelligent transmission and distribution networks to deliver electricity for improving the electric system’s reliability and efficiency. With grid controls, energy transmission management could be enhanced and resilience to control-system failures would be increased. Processing chips and storage units have been embedded into traditional electricity meters, so that they are capable of performing smart functions, called smart meters. Then, smart meters communicate with electrical appliances at home as well as the generation and management facilities at the power companies. Although deploying the smart grid has numerous social and technical benefits, several security and privacy concerns arise. Attackers might compromise smart meters, eavesdrop the communication, or hack into the power company’s database, to access power consumption data of the victim, from which they learn about the victim’s daily activities. Recently, various security and privacy vulnerabilities and threats have been studied in the research literature, however, most of the problems remain yet to be addressed. Therefore, it is crucial to design secure smart grid communication protocols that could prevent all possible security vulnerabilities. In this paper, we propose an anonymous authentication protocol for securing communication among various smart meters of the smart grid. The proposed protocol can achieve key agreement between smart meters and fully protect user privacy with low computation overhead. In addition, the analysis shows that the proposed protocol can satisfy the desirable security requirements and resist several notorious attacks.

A warning on how to implement anonymous credential protocols into the information card framework

Unlinkability is a privacy feature supported by those multi-party security protocols allowing anonymous users’ credential exchanges among different organizations. Proper signature schemes, based on discrete logarithms, must be used in order to guarantee the above requirements as well as selective disclosure of information. In this paper, we highlight that whenever a concrete architecture based on the above protocols is implemented, some aspects concerning how to manage the association between bases of discrete logarithms and attributes used in attribute certificates should be carefully considered, in order to guarantee that unlinkability really holds. We show that the problem is concrete by testing that the state-of-the-art implementation suffers from the above problem. A general solution is also proposed.

A Secure Anonymous Identity-based Key Agreement Protocol for Distributed Computer Networks

Recently, Hsu and Chuang proposed an efficient user identification scheme with key preserving user anonymity for distributed computer networks. Their protocol addressed an identity disclosure attack on the Yang et al. and Mangipudi-Katti schemes. Unfortunately, Hsu and Chuang’s new scheme posed vulnerability that the service provider could compute the private key of the user and imitate the user to send the service request to other service provider. In this paper, we analyzed Hsu-Chuang scheme and presented the vulnerability. We further secured their protocol by proposing a novel protocol that overcomes the above limitation while achieving the same security features. Besides, we made a demonstration of the correctness of our new scheme and analyzed the security properties. After compared Hsu-Chuang scheme and the new scheme, we also illustrated an example to illustrate the application of our improved protocol.

Thanking and reciprocating under the New Zealand organ donation system

Organ donation and transplantation has been extensively addressed in the biomedical and bioethics literature in relation to debates around organ allocation and procurement strategies, and concerns about consent, coercion and commodification. This article addresses the topic sociologically, drawing on data from face-to-face in-depth interviews undertaken between 2008 and 2010 with organ and tissue recipients, anonymous altruistic donors and donor family members to discuss questions of reciprocity and intercorporeality that arise in the course of tissue exchange. In particular, the article examines the place of anonymity protocol for organ donors and transplantation recipients in New Zealand and their responses to conventions and scripts surrounding this rule. The article concludes by calling for discussion to re-examine anonymity protocol and rituals around organ donation and transplantation, citing lessons from gamete donation policies and recent law in New Zealand as productive for thinking through matters of personhood and identity relating to organ transfer.