Certificate Verification Research Articles

Credential fraud is a widespread practice that undermines investment and confidence in higher education systems and bears significant economic and social costs. Legacy credential verification systems are typically time-consuming, costly, and bureaucratic, and struggle against certain classes of credential fraud. In this article, we propose a comprehensive blockchain-based credential verification solution, Cerberus, which is considerably more efficient, easy, and intuitive to use, and effectively mitigates widespread manifestations of credential fraud. Cerberus also improves significantly upon other blockchain-based solutions in the research literature: it adheres closely to the existing credential verification ecosystem and addresses real-world fraud scenarios. Moreover, Cerberus uses on-chain smart contracts for credential revocation, and it does not entail students or employers to manage digital identities or cryptographic credentials to use the system. We prototype our solution and describe our attempt to design an online verification service with a rich feature set, including data privacy, transcript verification, and selective disclosure of data. We hope this effort contributes positively to alleviating the problem of fake credentials.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) network is composed of devices that contain sensitive data, which makes them vulnerable to various security threats. Digital Certificates can be used to reinforce the security of the IIoT network, however, their management remains a major issue. Hence, in this paper, we rely on trust management to deal with the whole certificate management process in IIoT networks, from revocation to verification. For this purpose, we organize the IIoT network into a clustering architecture where each cluster head hosts an agent, called CH-UR agent, that renews/revokes the certificates of its cluster member nodes. We apply signaling game theory to build a Certificate Revocation Game modeling the interactions between a member IIoT node and the CH-UR agent. Thus, upon the belief on the member node, updated by using the Bayesian rules, the best response strategy for the CH-UR agent can be obtained. Further, we propose a new efficient certificate verification scheme based on short-lived certificates (SLC) and suitable for IIoT network requirements. The performance evaluation of our framework proves, firstly, the accuracy and convergence speed of our revocation mechanism to detect untrusted devices and on-off attacks. Secondly, the effectiveness of our clustering architecture to reduce the resource consumption resulting from the management of SLCs to 60% even with the increase of network density. Thirdly, the effectiveness of the proposed certificate verification scheme to reduce the time needed to obtain the revocation information as well as the resulting storage and communication overhead to achieve this purpose.

A strengthened eCK secure identity based authenticated key agreement protocol based on the standard CDH assumption

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), there are many resource constrained communication nodes, distributed geographical locations, and low delay requirements. The authentication system is required to be distributed. However, the information interaction between traditional distributed authentication entities (AEs) is not transparent, and the use of blockchain is only to save certificate status records on the chain. There is a lack of trusted security management mechanisms between AEs, so there is a risk of collusion attacks and behavior record forgery and tamper attacks between AEs. Therefore, this paper mainly addresses the management problems of opaque interaction and insufficient security verification of distributed authentication entities in the VANETs scenario. In this paper, based on the security features of blockchain technology, such as public audit and tamper proof block structure, and distributed trust consensus, we propose a hierarchical and trust certificate service chain based on reputation value called HCSC. We have a set of safe and reliable management mechanisms between distributed authentication entities such as the Bitcoin system. First, we integrate the traditional hierarchical authentication system and the blockchain network into a new hierarchical certificate service chain. Then, we propose a reputation evaluation model based on the logistic regression model by quantifying the behavior records of the AEs. In addition, a new hierarchical reputation consensus based on delegated proof of stake (DPoS) and proof of work (PoW) is given. Then, a fast verification based on block height and security verification for the efficiency and security of certificate verification is proposed. Finally, the security analysis is given, and a prototype implementation of HCSC is developed based on Fabric. The experimental simulation and security analysis reveal that the HCSC is very efficient and suitable for the above issues.

Blockchain technology has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential to revolutionize various industries. In the educational domain, a blockchain-based framework has emerged as a promising solution with several benefits. This paper explores the concept of a blockchain-based framework for the educational domain and highlights its benefits. The framework focuses on areas such as credential verification, academic records and transcripts, anti-fraud measures, micro-credentialing, secure assessments, and efficient data sharing. By leveraging blockchain technology, educational institutions can enhance transparency, security, and efficiency in these areas. Credential verification becomes more reliable and tamper-proof as digital credentials are stored on the blockchain. Academic records and transcripts can be securely shared between institutions, simplifying the transfer process and reducing administrative burdens. Blockchain's immutability and cryptographic security features help combat issues like fake degrees or certificates, ensuring the authenticity of educational qualifications. The framework also enables the issuance and management of micro-credentials, reflecting specific skills or knowledge. By recording these credentials on the blockchain, individuals can have a comprehensive and verifiable record of their lifelong learning achievements. In the assessment process, blockchain technology enhances security and integrity by preventing data manipulation or cheating. The framework provides a decentralized and transparent platform for storing question banks, exam results, and assessments. Furthermore, blockchain-based frameworks facilitate secure and efficient sharing of educational resources, research findings, and collaborations. Smart contracts automate processes such as copyright permissions, royalty distributions, and collaborative project agreements, ensuring transparency and fairness. While the benefits of a blockchain-based framework in education are promising, challenges regarding technical implementation, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and privacy must be addressed. Further research and development are needed to explore these aspects and enable widespread adoption of blockchain solutions in the educational domain

Abstract: Over the years there has been a great need for quick and easy ways to verify your score/certificate to reduce certificate level or forgery and relieve stress as well as save time on certificate verification which today is done manually what for Your employer or whoever applies need to come or send a delegate to the school to verify a specific certificate, some employers have never done this and it has resulted in the acceptance of a fake The system can be implemented as a standalone website (recommended) or integrated into an existing official institution website. The aim of this study is to design an online certificate examination system based on the university's performance examination procedure.

Hybrid Blockchain-based Academic Credential Verification System (B-ACVS)

The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) is a major policy initiative of the EU and European Blockchain Partnership, to leverage blockchain to create cross-border services for public administrations, businesses, citizens, and their ecosystems, to verify information and increase trust in services. The EBSI aims to provide a secure and interoperable system infrastructure, utilizing new digital technologies such as digital wallets, verifiable credentials, and decentralized identifiers. These technologies are expected to change the way government services are organized between citizens and service providers. This article presents empirical findings from a cross-border pilot that was the first case to utilize this new blockchain infrastructure, and which tested the institutional, technical, and user-specific requirements for wider adoption. The pilot tested and assessed the verification of education credentials through the EBSI blockchain in a cross-border setting between a Belgian and an Italian university. The research was based on action research with the ICT units of the participating universities, wallet solution providers, the Belgian government, and EBSI officials. The findings highlight the following as key challenges for the wider adoption of the EBSI and verification credential use case: (1) onboarding of the EBSI ecosystem governance, (2) issuance of EBSI-compliant digital wallets and data schemes for transcript validation, (3) interoperability issues concerning digital identity systems.

Cloud computing gives customers instant access to a network of remote servers, networks, and data centres. Cloud computing makes data analysis helpful to society and individuals. Sharing data with many people causes efficiency, integrity, and privacy issues. Ring signatures may enable secure and anonymous data transfer. It anonymizes data verification for cloud-based analytics. Identity-based (ID) ring signatures are becoming popular alternatives to public key infrastructure (PKI)-based public-key encryption. PKI bottlenecks are certificate verification time and cost. ID-based ring signatures speed up certificate verification. We observed that encrypting ID-based ring signatures with a variation of SHA-384 and adding forward security considerably improves their security. Padding divides the input text into 512-byte blocks and adds the length as a 48-bit value to the hash in newer SHA versions. Signatures made before a user's secret key was compromised are legitimate. If a user's secret key is compromised, it's impossible to compel all data owners to re-verify their data, hence a large-scale data sharing system must contain this feature. We implement, secure, and prove our method's use. SHA-384 is safer for cloud-based anonymous data sharing.

The rapid advances in Blockchain technology have impacted various areas, including financial, healthcare, and supply chain systems. Due to its unique characteristics, such as decentralization, trustworthiness, and security, this technology has recently been used in education, particularly in the verification of academic certificates. A certificate from an academic institution is a crucial document that could give someone access to new prospects. It frequently serves as a great starting point for choosing candidates during the recruitment process. Due to the lack of an effective anti-forging mechanism, academic certificates are vulnerable to fraud, forgery, and imitation. To combat this trend, educational institutions have implemented methods that often entail a third party verifying the legitimacy of academic certificates. A review of reference studies was conducted for this purpose. Many databases and papers that focused on blockchain in academic certificate verification and made important contributions rather than just making general statements about the topic were chosen. This paper investigates the benefits and challenges of blockchain technology in academic certificate verification. In the results obtained, it has been suggested that while blockchain technology in academic degree verification is still a new field, it holds a lot of promise for the academic certificate verification process as a whole. Finally, to avoid fake documents, this review paper focuses on papers related to the Academic Certificate Authenticity System (ACAS) using blockchain technology.

The issuing and verification of higher education certificates, including all higher education documents, still functions in a costly and inappropriately bureaucratic manner. Blockchain technology provides a more secure and consistent way to revolutionize the widely used generalized mechanisms and system concepts. In this paper, the most necessary requirements are examined regarding a blockchain-based higher education system, based on the most well-known research papers. Moreover, the opportunities of working on an education system by maintaining a decentralized structure organization are recommended as well. This paper recommends the most suitable blockchain scaling solution for the architecture of an education system which uses the most state-of-the-art EVM (Ethereum virtual machine) compatible approach to implement the higher education system with all the predefined requirements. It is proven that the explained smart contract-based higher education system, which uses zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine), consists of all necessary functionalities and satisfies all predefined requirements. In fact, the recommended system, by using a modular blockchain structure, implements all the functionality and capability of the examined related works in one system, namely GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which is compatible and more secure.

A Survey on Blockchain for Verification of Academic Certificates in Higher Educational Institutes

Advancements in digital technologies have made the storage, sharing, and verification of educational credentials extremely important for entities such as students, universities, institutions, and companies. Digital credentials play an important role in students’ lives as a lifelong learning passport. The educational field is experiencing numerous issues such as academic record forgery, record misuse, credential data tampering, time-consuming verification procedures, and issues related to ownership and control. Modern-day technology, Blockchain, is an appropriate alternative to resolve these issues and increase trust among entities. In this research, we intend to propose a Blockchain-based educational digital credential issuance, and verification model that addresses these issues in the education system using Ethereum Blockchain and smart contracts. The method we propose offers a way to demonstrate the correctness of specific credential attributes without revealing other attributes, thereby leading to ownership, minimal disclosure, and control. We offer an interface for storing massively encrypted academic records in a decentralized file system like Interplanetary File System (IPFS). Furthermore, Ethereum provides tamper-resistant chains to maintain the integrity of digital credentials. Finally, in comparison with the time it requires to issue credentials, our model safely accelerates the verification process by about 8%.

Resumo Neste artigo, realiza-se um estudo do desempenho de candidatos do Partido Liberal em pleitos para a Câmara dos Deputados ocorridos na Província do Paraná entre os anos de 1869 e 1876. Primeiro, cumpre demonstrar que a passagem desse partido para a oposição, em 1868, não promoveu a completa desorganização de sua base eleitoral. No começo dos anos 1870, o Partido Liberal paranaense manteve um desempenho estável em eleições para a Câmara. Segundo, destaca-se que, em meados da década, dois candidatos liberais conseguiram suplantar os postulantes do Partido Conservador em uma disputa para tal instituição. Terceiro, é evidenciado que a derrota de candidatos conservadores a deputado geral pelo Paraná motivou a intervenção, em 1877, da Comissão de Verificação de Poderes da Câmara. Essa comissão foi a responsável pela depuração dos liberais paranaenses, impedindo-os de exercer seus mandatos.

Healthcare credentialing plays a vital role in ensuring the competence and integrity of healthcare professionals. However, the current credentials verification process suffers from time-consuming procedures due to the large number of intermediaries, limited information access, data fragmentation and the persistent risk of fraudulent credentials, leading to delayed hiring, increased administrative burden, and loss of trust and reputation in the healthcare system. In this paper, we utilize blockchain technology to enhance the credentialing process by streamlining the verification steps, improving data security, and providing stakeholders with confidence through secure storage of credentials. In addition, we utilize advanced security techniques, such as proxy re-encryption and cryptographic algorithms, to ensure the protection of sensitive data, facilitate secure communication, and prevent unauthorized access. We develop smart contracts which eliminate the need for intermediaries, automate the verification process, and enhance transparency and data integrity. We present system architecture, sequence diagrams, entity relationship diagrams, and the underlying algorithms of our blockchain-based solution. We discuss how our proposed solution attains the objectives outlined in the paper. We conduct cost evaluation and security analysis to validate the effectiveness of our solution. Additionally, we compare our proposed system with existing blockchain-based solutions, highlighting its novelty. The code of our smart contracts is made publicly available on GitHub.

Academic certificates are integral to an individual's education and career prospects, yet conventional paper-based certificates pose challenges with their transport and vulnerability to forgery. In response to this predicament, institutions have taken measures to release e-certificates, though ensuring authenticity remains a pressing concern. Blockchain technology, recognised for its attributes of security, transparency, and decentralisation, presents a resolution to this problem and has garnered attention from various sectors. While blockchain-based academic certificate management systems have been proposed, current systems exhibit some security and privacy limitations. To address these issues, this research proposes a new Decentralised Control Verification Privacy-Centered (DCVPC) protocol based on Hyperledger Fabric blockchain for preserving the privacy of academic certificates. The proposed protocol aims to protect academic certificates' privacy by granting complete authority over all network nodes, creating channels for universities to have their private environment, and limiting access to the ledger. The protocol is highly secure, resistant to attacks, and allows improved interoperability and automation of the certificate verification process. A proof-of-concept was developed to demonstrate the protocol's functionality and performance. The proposed protocol presents a promising solution for enhancing security, transparency, and privacy of academic certificates. It guarantees that the certificate's rightful owner is correctly identified, and the issuer is widely recognised. This research makes a valuable contribution to the area of blockchain-based academic certificate management systems by introducing a new protocol that addresses the present security and privacy limitations.

Since 2016, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been performing a competition to standardize post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Although Falcon has been selected in the competition as one of the standard PQC algorithms because of its advantages in short key and signature sizes, its performance overhead is larger than that of other lattice-based cryptosystems. This study presents multiple methodologies to accelerate the performance of Falcon using graphics processing units (GPUs) for server-side use. Direct GPU porting significantly degrades performance because the Falcon reference codes require recursive functions in its sampling process. Thus, an iterative sampling approach for efficient parallel processing is presented. In this study, the Falcon software applied a fine-grained execution model and reported the optimal number of threads in a thread block. Moreover, the polynomial multiplication performance was optimized by parallelizing the number-theoretic transform (NTT)-based polynomial multiplication and the fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based multiplication. Furthermore, dummy-based parallel execution methods have been introduced to handle the thread divergence effects. The presented Falcon software on RTX 3090 NVIDA GPU based on the proposed methods with Falcon-512 and Falcon-1024 parameters outperform at 35.14, 28.84, and 34.64 times and 33.31, 27.45, and 34.40 times, respectively, better than the central processing unit (CPU) reference implementation using Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2) instructions on a Ryzen 9 5900X running at 3.7 GHz in key generation, signing, and verification, respectively. Therefore, the proposed Falcon software can be used in servers managing multiple concurrent clients for efficient certificate verification and be used as an outsourced key generation and signature generation server for Signature as a Service (SaS).

Academic certificate authentication is crucial in safeguarding the rights and opportunities of individuals who have earned academic credentials. This authentication helps prevent fraud and forgery, ensuring that only those who have genuinely earned certificates can use them for education and career opportunities. With the increased use of online education and digital credentials in the digital age, the importance of academic certificate authentication has significantly grown. However, traditional techniques for authentication, such as QR code, barcode, and watermarking, have limitations regarding security and privacy. Therefore, proposing a privacy-centred protocol to enhance the security and authentication of academic certificates is vital to improve the trust and credibility of digital academic certificates, ensuring that individuals' rights and opportunities are protected. In this context, we adopted the Challenge Handshake Authentication (CHA) protocol to propose the Certificate Verification Privacy Control Protocol (CVPC). We implemented it using Python and Flask with a Postgres database and an MVT structure for the application. The results of the implementation demonstrate that the proposed protocol effectively preserves privacy during the academic certificate issuance and verification process. Additionally, we developed a proof of concept to evaluate the proposed protocol, demonstrating its functionality and performance. The PoC provided insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed protocol and highlighted its potential to prevent forgery and unauthorised access to academic certificates. Overall, the proposed protocol has the potential to significantly enhance the security and authenticity of academic certificates, improving the overall trust and credibility of the academic credentialing system.

In the past few years, there has been significant progress made in the area of blockchain. The use of blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the educational system by providing individuals with innovative and cost-effective ways to learn, as well as by altering the way teachers and students work together. Additionally, blockchain technology can be utilized for the issuing of unchangeable digital certificates, and it can enhance the present limitations of the existing certificate verification systems by making them quicker, more reliable, and independent of the central authority. The application of blockchain in the context of education has generated significant scientific interest in this field. Nonetheless, research endeavors on the adoption of blockchain in the verification of academic credentials are still in the development phase. In order to shed more light on the field, in this paper we focus on extensively reviewing the body of knowledge on blockchain-based systems for academic certificate verification. Hence, the purpose of this survey is to compile all relevant research into a systematic literature review, highlighting the key contributions from various researchers throughout the years with a focus on the past, present, and future. In this work, we have identified 34 relevant studies out of 1744 papers that were published between 2018 and 2022 by employing the PRISMA framework. We distinguished six major themes covered by the research articles analyzed and also identified research gaps that need to be addressed and explored by the research community. Based on the findings of this review, we provide some recommendations for future research directions and practical applications that can assist researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field.

The ongoing push for the 4th industrial revolution is setting the stage to digitise, persist and verify identity along with credentials. Academic and skills credentials are currently verified manually and have much scope for automation using cryptographic techniques but requires standardisation to facilitate future systems interoperability. The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Verifiable Credentials (VC) standards presents the possibility to achieve this credential verification automation. To accomplish this, an understanding of various DLTs and requirements for a viable skills tracking system is important. Therefore, this research aims to access the selected DLTs against the assessment criterion presented and an analysis has been completed to determine which DLT is suitable for the proposed system. The DLTs are assessed in terms of their ability to support the rapid prototyping of such a system and provide recommendations to guide a future development path from the perspective of standards compliance. We conclude that few DLTs possess the maturity to provide proper requirements coverage due to the emergent nature of the DLT space. Additionally, this paper presents the high-level requirements to achieve a minimally viable solution that can demonstrate such digital credential verification in the academic and skills tracking context.