Blind Signature Research Articles

A traceability method of biofuel production and utilization based on blockchain

Biofuel is one of the hot research directions in energy field. However, the data of the production and utilization of biofuels has not been widely valued. Blockchain is a decentralized data management technology, which can provide traceable data storage for the production and utilization of biofuels. As the number of blockchain applications of biofuels grows, security, efficiency and privacy have become the main concerns of the users. In order to address the security, efficiency and privacy challenges in biofuels system, we propose an efficient blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography. First, in order to resist quantum computer attacks in biofuels system, we present a post-quantum cryptographic scheme based on multivariate signatures. Second, in order to improve the privacy protection in biofuels system, we propose a blind signature based on the post-quantum cryptographic scheme. Third, in order to improve the efficiency in biofuels system, we propose an efficient payment model. The blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography is evaluated and the results show that the biofuels system is efficient. Besides, the new biofuels system is secure against both traditional computer attacks and quantum computer attacks.

PARS: Privacy-Aware Reward System for Mobile Crowdsensing Systems.

Crowdsensing systems have been developed for wide-area sensing tasks because humancarried smartphones are prevailing and becoming capable. To encourage more people to participate in sensing tasks, various incentive mechanisms were proposed. However, participating in sensing tasks and getting rewards can inherently risk the users’ privacy and discourage their participation. In particular, the rewarding process can expose the participants’ sensor data and possibly link sensitive data to their identities. In this work, we propose a privacy-preserving reward system in crowdsensing using the blind signature. The proposed scheme protects the participants’ privacy by decoupling contributions and rewarding claims. Our experiment results show that the proposed mechanism is feasible and efficient.

POST-QUANTUM BLIND SIGNATURE PROTOCOL ON NON-COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRAS

A method for constructing a blind signature scheme based on a hidden discrete logarithm problem defined in finite non-commutative associative algebras is proposed. Blind signature protocols are constructed using four-dimensional and six-dimensional algebras defined over a ground finite field GF(p) and containing a global two-sided unit as an algebraic support. The basic properties of the used algebra, which determine the choice of protocol parameters, are described.

Secure Blockchain Decentralized Voting for Verified Users

The paper focuses onintroducing a decentralized e-voting scheme that uses blockchain to achieve security and anonymity. A blockchain network based on Ethereum was applied, to provide a decentralized and distributed database based on the Peer-to-Peer architecture. During the implementation, smart contractswere used. Thanks to this, it is possible to code the terms of the contract required to perform the transaction. The proof-of-conceptimplementation uses the blind signature protocol and encryption with the RSA algorithm. Presented in this paper scheme for blockchain decentralized voting is fully implemented and potential issues are analyzed and discussed.

V-LDAA: A New Lattice-Based Direct Anonymous Attestation Scheme for VANETs System

Privacy protection and message authentication issues in VANETs have received great attention in academia. Many authentication schemes in VANETs have been proposed, but most of them are based on classical difficult problems such as factorization in RSA setting or Elliptic Curve setting and are therefore not quantum resistant. If a quantum computer becomes available in the next few decades, the security of these schemes will be at stake. This paper presents a vehicular lattice-based direct anonymous attestation (V-LDAA) scheme adopting an optimized signature scheme based on automorphism stability which achieves postquantum security. A distributed pseudonym update and vehicle revocation mechanism based on the lattice is introduced in this paper, which means vehicles can update their pseudonyms and revoke the identity certificate by themselves without the need for pseudonym resolutions or CRLs checking. Compared with the existing lattice-based attestation schemes in VANETs, computation costs during signing and verification operations in V-LDAA are no longer related to the number of users, which makes it suitable for large-scale VANETs. Security analysis shows that V-LDAA resists TPM theft attacks and provides users with user-controlled anonymity, user-controlled unlinkability, and unforgeability against quantum adversaries. Experimental results show that V-LDAA reduces the blind signature size by 18%. The speed of blind signing is increased by 30%, and blind verification operation is accelerated 3 times compared with the existing lattice-based direct anonymous attestation (LDAA) scheme.

A Quantum Multi-agent Blind Signature Scheme

With the development of information society, people are increasingly concerned about the security problems caused by information leakage, and digital signatures play an irreplaceable and important role in the protection of information security, which replace traditional manual signatures and seals in the network environment and have important roles such as anti-forgery, anti-tampering, anti-replay, identifiable identity and confidentiality [1]. However, with the in-depth study of quantum mechanics, it has been found that the confidentiality mechanism of classical digital signatures is under serious threat. Since quantum computing is a parallel operation with exponentially increasing operational capability, a series of complex mathematically difficult problems can be rapidly overcome. Based on the above, this paper proposes a multiple agent blind signature scheme, which adopts the key technologies such as the Unitary transformation and Hadamard gate operation, and adds multiple agent signature to quantum signature to improve the efficiency of the protocol, and adds blind signature to improve the security of the protocol. At the same time, the scheme uses quantum key distribution to ensure its unconditional security, which is applicable in systems such as electronic voting and electronic payment, and has certain anti-attack capability [2].

Digital Signature Algorithm for M-Payment Applications Using Arithmetic Encoding and Factorization Algorithm

Mobile communication systems employ an encoding-encryption model to ensure secure data transmission over the network. This model encodes the data and encrypts it before transmitting it to the receiver's end. A non-trivial operation is performed to generate a strong secret key through which the data is encrypted. To support the security level of this model, arithmetic encoding is performed upon the data before encryption. The encrypted data is hashed using a lightweight hashing algorithm to generate a small and fixed length hash digest to overcome the overheads before it is communicated to the other end. To authorize the message being sent by the sender to the receiver, signature plays an important role. To avoid forging using proxy signature, blind signature, etc., a hybrid scheme is proposed in this article. The mobile communication system is enhanced by introducing the hybrid encode-encrypt-hashing mechanism which stands secure against the plain text attacks, mathematical attacks, and increases confidentiality of the data, security of the key, and thereby enhances the security of the system. In this paper, the design is applied over the mobile payment system which is considered as one of the appreciable mobile services. It proves that the designed security model can ensure swift transactions in a secure way.

A New Distributed, Decentralized Privacy-Preserving ID Registration System

Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, is used in various fields, including many types of critical infrastructure, such as smart grids. Recently, studies have dealt with privacy preservation in smart grids. One such study presented a privacy-preserving aggregation system that provides integrity and anonymity using blockchain technology in a smart grid. In earlier work, a Bloom filter was used for rapid authentication on the blockchain, and a key management center was used for user key management. However, due to its high dependence on the key management center, it was not able to provide a completely distributed environment, and there was a linkability problem. In addition, there was a limitation in that key revocation and update functions through the Bloom filter could not be provided. In this article, we propose a decentralized privacy-preserving ID scheme that provides a fully distributed environment to address the limitations of existing research. The proposed scheme provides unlinkability to protect the anonymity of users using a blind signature. It also provides update or revocation functionalities of the pseudonym by the counting Bloom filter or the revoked-pseudonym Bloom filter. In addition, fully distributed operation is guaranteed through the certification authority responsible for user key management. Our scheme is applicable not only to blockchain-based decentralized privacy-preserving systems such as billing systems in a smart grid or smart cities, but also to any critical infrastructure, such as banks, hospitals, and systems including e-bulletins, e-surveys, e-voting, and so on.

A Novel IoV Block-Streaming Service Awareness and Trusted Verification Scheme in 6G

6 G and mobile Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) technology require a secure, open, and transparent system. Blockchain has the characteristics of decentralization, non-tampering, and traceability, which can improve the robustness, data privacy, and security transparency of the overall system. Therefore, blockchain will be the most promising technology to ensure the security and privacy of 6 G and vehicle networks. In this article, we propose a novel IoV block-streaming service awareness and trusted verification in 6 G. The edge node uploads the microservices and calling diagram of microservices to the blockchain network. The blockchain network serves as an intermediate verification platform for the edge node and the IoV equipment to record the evidence of interaction between the two ends. Moreover, combined with identity-based blind signature technology, we have designed a security scheme in which IoV devices anonymously request services from edge nodes, which can realize the mutual authentication of IoV devices and edge servers while keeping the user's real identity information confidential. In addition, an edge caching mechanism based on user requests and service awareness is designed to pre-compile services at edge nodes, improve the cache hit rate of service requests from vehicle users on the edge server, and achieve efficient processing of resource requests from users.

Anonymous Data Reporting Strategy with Dynamic Incentive Mechanism for Participatory Sensing

Participatory sensing is often used in environmental or personal data monitoring, wherein a number of participants collect data using their mobile intelligent devices for earning the incentives. However, a lot of additional information is submitted along with the data, such as the participant’s location, IP and incentives. This multimodal information implicitly links to the participant’s identity and exposes the participant’s privacy. In order to solve the issue of these multimodal information associating with participants’ identities, this paper proposes a protocol to ensure anonymous data reporting while providing a dynamic incentive mechanism simultaneously. The proposed protocol first establishes a submission schedule by anonymously selecting a slot in a vector by each member where every member and system entities are oblivious of other members’ slots and then uses this schedule to submit the all members’ data in an encoded vector through bulk transfer and multiplayer dining cryptographers networks (DC-nets) . Hence, the link between the data and the member’s identity is broken. The incentive mechanism uses blind signature to anonymously mark the price and complete the micropayments transfer. Finally, the theoretical analysis of the protocol proves the anonymity, integrity, and efficiency of this protocol. We implemented and tested the protocol on Android phones. The experiment results show that the protocol is efficient for low latency tolerable applications, which is the cases with most participatory sensing applications, and they also show the advantage of our optimization over similar anonymous data reporting protocols.

A semi-quantum blind signature protocol based on five-particle GHZ state

A semi-quantum blind signature protocol based on five-particle GHZ state

A Digital Currency Architecture for Privacy and Owner-Custodianship

In recent years, electronic retail payment mechanisms, especially e-commerce and card payments at the point of sale, have increasingly replaced cash in many developed countries. As a result, societies are losing a critical public retail payment option, and retail consumers are losing important rights associated with using cash. To address this concern, we propose an approach to digital currency that would allow people without banking relationships to transact electronically and privately, including both e-commerce purchases and point-of-sale purchases that are required to be cashless. Our proposal introduces a government-backed, privately-operated digital currency infrastructure to ensure that every transaction is registered by a bank or money services business, and it relies upon non-custodial wallets backed by privacy-enhancing technology, such as blind signatures or zero-knowledge proofs, to ensure that transaction counterparties are not revealed. Our approach to digital currency can also facilitate more efficient and transparent clearing, settlement, and management of systemic risk. We argue that our system can restore and preserve the salient features of cash, including privacy, owner-custodianship, fungibility, and accessibility, while also preserving fractional reserve banking and the existing two-tiered banking system. We also show that it is possible to introduce regulation of digital currency transactions involving non-custodial wallets that unconditionally protect the privacy of end-users.

A New Code-Based Blind Signature Scheme

Abstract Blind signature is an important cryptographic primitive with widespread applications in secure e-commerce, for example to guarantee participants’ anonymity. Existing blind signature schemes are mostly based on number-theoretic hard problems, which have been shown to be solvable with quantum computers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began in 2017 to specify a new standard for digital signatures by selecting one or more additional signature algorithms, designed to be secure against attacks carried out using quantum computers. However, none of the third-round candidate algorithms are code-based, despite the potential of code-based signature algorithms in resisting quantum computing attacks. In this paper, we construct a new code-based blind signature (CBBS) scheme as an alternative to traditional number-theoretic based schemes. Specifically, we first extend Santoso and Yamaguchi’s three pass identification scheme to a concatenated version (abbreviated as the CSY scheme). Then, we construct our CBBS scheme from the CSY scheme. The security of our CBBS scheme relies on hardness of the syndrome decoding problem in coding theory, which has been shown to be NP-complete and secure against quantum attacks. Unlike Blazy et al.’s CBBS scheme which is based on a zero-knowledge protocol with cheating probability $2/3$, our CBBS scheme is based on a zero-knowledge protocol with cheating probability $1/2$. The lower cheating probability would reduce the interaction rounds under the same security level and thus leads to a higher efficiency. For example, to achieve security level $2^{-82}$, the signature size in our CBBS scheme is $1.63$ MB compared to $3.1$ MB in Blazy et al.’s scheme.

PMRSS: Privacy-Preserving Medical Record Searching Scheme for Intelligent Diagnosis in IoT Healthcare

In medical field, previous patients’ cases are extremely private as well as intensely valuable to current disease diagnosis. Therefore, how to make full use of precious cases while not leaking out patients’ privacy is a leading and promising work especially in future privacy-preserving intelligent medical period. In this article, we investigate how to securely invoke patients’ records from past case-database while protecting the privacy of both current diagnosed patient and the case-database and construct a privacy-preserving medical record searching scheme based on ElGamal Blind Signature. In our scheme, by blinded the healthy data of the patient and the database of the iDoctor, respectively, the patient can securely make self-helped medical diagnosis by invoking past case-database and securely comparing the blinded abstracts of current data and previous records. Moreover, the patient can obtain target searching information intelligently at the same time he knows whether the abstracts match or not instead of obtaining it after matching. It greatly increases the timeliness of information acquisition and meets high-speed information sharing requirements, especially in 5G era. What's more, our proposed scheme achieves bilateral security, that is, whether the abstracts match or not, both of the privacy of the case-database and the private information of the current patient are well protected. Besides, it resists different levels of violent ergodic attacks by adjusting the number of zeros in a bit string according to different security requirements.

A Quantum Multi-Agent Blind Signature Scheme with Unordered Signatures

With the development of information society, network security problems are becoming more and more serious, and digital signature as an authentication method is widely used in many fields such as information security and e-commerce, mainly to solve security problems such as forgery, repudiation, impersonation and tampering [1]. The latest quantum technology can overcome a series of difficult problems of classical digital signatures in a very short time. In this paper, we propose a quantum multiproxy blind signature scheme, in which the original signer is unable to sign the document himself, and delegates multiple proxy signers to sign and verify the document, and the signature order of the proxy signers is not restricted. The scheme adopts techniques such as Unitary transformation and Hadamard gate, and uses quantum key distribution protocol to ensure its security, which improves the efficiency of signature, ensures the security of signature, and has certain anti-attack capability.

Publicly auditable conditional blind signatures

This work formalizes Publicly Auditable Conditional Blind Signatures (PACBS), a new cryptographic primitive that allows the verifiable issuance of blind signatures, the validity of which is contingent upon a predicate and decided by a designated verifier. In particular, when a user requests the signing of a message, blinded to protect her privacy, the signer embeds data in the signature that makes it valid if and only if a condition holds. A verifier, identified by a private key, can check the signature and learn the value of the predicate. Auditability mechanisms in the form of non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs are provided, so that a cheating signer cannot issue arbitrary signatures and a cheating verifier cannot ignore the embedded condition. The security properties of this new primitive are defined using cryptographic games. A proof-of-concept construction, based on the Okamoto–Schnorr blind signatures infused with a plaintext equivalence test is presented and its security is analyzed.

Comment on Security and Improvement of Partial Blind Signature Scheme and Revocable Certificateless Signature Scheme

Partial blind signature scheme (BLD-SS) can protect the specific content of the signed message by adding factor to blind the signed message and can also prevent the misuse of the signature by adding common information negotiated in advance. Revocable certificateless signature scheme (RCSS) can prevent the user’s privacy from leaking by adding time key in the signature process and signature verification process. BLD-SS and RCSS both have wide applications in electronic-voting, electronic-cash system and other fields. In this paper, it presents a security analysis on a partial blind signature scheme and a revocable signature scheme proposed recently. It points out that the BLD-SS does not satisfy the unforgeability. A malicious user can forge a partial blind signature on any message and any common information without known from PKG (Private Key Generation). It also shows that the RCSS does not satisfy the unforgeability. A malicious enemy can forge a signature on any message and on any user. The PKG also cannot update the time key immediately when a user’s key is leaked or his identity is expired. In order to overcome these problems, it proposes some simple improvement methods which are almost the same efficiency with the original signature scheme.

A novel quantum blind signature protocol based on five-particle entangled state

Inspired by the local indistinguishable of orthogonal product states, in our scheme, the classical message can be blinded by eight orthogonal product states which can avoid preparing higher-dimensional entangled states. And also inspired by the concept of quantum teleportation, our protocol can recover the original message via the five-particle entangled state sequence instead of transmitting the original message directly in the quantum channel. In this way, long distance communication can be realized between two communication participants and the probability of eavesdropping in the transmission channel is reduced. In addition, in the ideal quantum channel condition without noise, the security of the proposed scheme under some common eavesdropping attacks is validated.

On unlinkability and denial of service attacks resilience of whistleblower platforms

This work explores how to enhance pseudonymous whistleblower submission systems, specifically by supporting protocol level unlinkability, while also making the system resilient against (distributed) denial of service attacks. To that end, we propose a blind signature based protocol which facilitates assignment of trust to anonymous posters in a manner which depends on the quality of prior posts, yet unlinkable to said posts or corresponding poster. This (multi-level) trust is leveraged to prioritize the posts, thus mitigating the effect that spam posts may have on the party reviewing the posts. We design and carry out simulations to explore the resilience of the whistleblower submission system against denial of service attacks while applying the proposed approach. Our experiments affirm that for a range of realistic scenarios the proposed approach provides reasonable mitigation.

An improved E-payment protocol based on quantum blind signature without entanglement

E-payment plays an important role in modern daily life, so the security problem of E-payment has been widely concerned by researchers. In a recent paper [Int. J. Theor. Phys. 57, 2657 (2018)], the authors presented a trusted third-party E-payment protocol based on quantum blind signature without entanglement. In this paper, we show that there is a serious security flaw in their E-payment protocol. That is, the partial keys will be disclosed by performing a simple attack strategy. Furthermore, we propose an improved E-payment protocol and analyze its security.