Cryptographic Proofs Research Articles

Enhancing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Security: A Zero-Knowledge Proof Approach with Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge for Authentication and Location Proof.

UAVs are increasingly being used in various domains, from personal and commercial applications to military operations. Ensuring the security and trustworthiness of UAV communications is crucial, and blockchain technology has been explored as a solution. However, privacy remains a challenge, especially in public blockchains. In this work, we propose a novel approach utilizing zero-knowledge proof techniques, specifically zk-SNARKs, which are non-interactive cryptographic proofs. This approach allows UAVs to prove their authenticity or location without disclosing sensitive information. We generated zk-SNARK proofs using the Zokrates tool on a Raspberry Pi, simulating a drone environment, and analyzed power consumption and CPU utilization. The results are promising, especially in the case of larger drones with higher battery capacities. Ethereum was chosen as the public blockchain platform, with smart contracts developed in Solidity and tested on the Sepolia testnet using Remix IDE. This novel proposed approach paves the way for a new path of research in the UAV area.

Hopping Proofs of Expectation-Based Properties: Applications to Skiplists and Security Proofs

We propose, implement, and evaluate a hopping proof approach for proving expectation-based properties of probabilistic programs. Our approach combines EHL, a syntax-directed proof system for reducing proof goals of a program to proof goals of simpler programs, with a "hopping" proof rule for reducing proof goals of an original program to proof goal of a different program which is suitably related (by means of pRHL, a relational program logic for probabilistic program) to the original program. We prove that EHL is sound for a core language with procedure calls and adversarial computations, and complete for the adversary-free fragment of the language. We also provide an implementation of EHL into EasyCrypt, a proof assistant tailored for reasoning about relational properties of probabilistic programs. We provide a tight integration of EHL with other program logics supported by EasyCrypt, and in particular probabilistic Relational Hoare Logic (pRHL). Using this tight integration, we give mechanized proofs of expected complexity of in-place implementations of randomized quickselect and skip lists. We also sketch applications of our approach to cryptographic proofs and discuss the broader impact of EHL in the EasyCrypt proof assistant.

Identity resilience in the digital health ecosystem: A key recovery-enabled framework

In response to the evolving landscape of digital technology in healthcare, this study addresses the multifaceted challenges pertaining to identity and data privacy. The core of our key recovery-enabled framework revolves around the establishment of a robust identity verification system, leveraging the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) standard for verifiable credentials(VC) and a test blockchain network. The approach leverages cryptographic proofs embedded within credentials issued by various entities to securely validate the legitimacy of identities. To ensure standardized identity establishment, the roles and responsibilities of entities align with the UK digital identity and attribute trust framework, resulting in a cohesive verification process. Embracing self-sovereign identity (SSI), encrypted credentials are stored within the owner’s device, empowering individuals with data control while prioritizing privacy and security. Furthermore, the work introduces an algorithm that places paramount importance on owner-centricity, trustworthiness, and privacy-aware handling of SSI credentials, subjected to threat modeling through the Owasp Dragon tool. A key recovery algorithm, a key component of our Recovery-Enabled Framework, empowers users to regain credentials using a trustee-based recovery system with a memorized PIN, eliminating the need for third-party reliance. Furthermore, a trust score, a crucial component of the framework, assesses the conformity of verified credentials with stated standards, boosting trust in established identities. Leveraging the modularity of Hyperledger Fabric, the work utilizes smart contracts to impose context-aware attribute-based policies, ensuring controlled access, traceability, and auditability, consequently strengthening security. Through comprehensive development, refinement, and rigorous testing, the prototype emerges as a potent tool for enhancing security within the Digital Health Ecosystem. It equips organizations with the means to navigate this digital landscape while inspiring trust among stakeholders, significantly contributing to the resilience of identity in the digital health ecosystem.

Ensuring Data Integrity And Security In Diverse Cloud Environments To Prevent Duplicacy.

Data deduplication is a valuable technique for compressing and minimizing data duplication during data transfers, especially in cloud environments. By eliminating redundant data, it optimizes transmission capacity and reduces memory usage. To ensure the integrity of sensitive data, encryption is applied throughout the deduplication process. The SHA algorithm is commonly used for storing text data during deduplication. It generates security bits by padding the text and computes a hash consisting of hexadecimal, string, and integer data. Hash-based deduplication involves hashing the entire file and treating the hash values of text data as unique identifiers. This allows clients to identify duplicate data within the cloud. The Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm is widely utilized in blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Its primary function is to verify transactions through a process called mining. Miners engage in competition to solve complex mathematical problems, and the first one to find a solution is granted the right to add a new block to the blockchain. PoW relies on cryptographic hashing, such as the SHA-256 hashing function, to validate and secure transactions. On the other hand, the Proof of Retrievability (PoR) algorithm finds application in cloud computing systems. It serves as a consensus mechanism, ensuring that cloud storage providers store and retrieve data accurately. PoR enables cloud providers to demonstrate to consumers that their files can be fully recovered. This algorithm incorporates cryptographic proofs that validate the integrity and availability of the stored data. In cloud storage, deduplication is often implemented using the Memory mapping technique (MPT). This allows multiple data owners to store the same data in a single copy, enhancing storage efficiency. To maintain data security, encryption is applied both before and during the deduplication process, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected. In summary, data deduplication is a powerful method for compressing data, minimizing duplication, and optimizing transmission capacity. With encryption techniques and hash-based identification, it provides secure and efficient deduplication in cloud environments, while memory deduplication and MPT support further enhance performance and storage efficiency.

Interactive cryptographic proofs of quantumness using mid-circuit measurements

Interactive cryptographic proofs of quantumness using mid-circuit measurements

SSProve: A Foundational Framework for Modular Cryptographic Proofs in Coq

State-separating proofs (SSP) is a recent methodology for structuring game-based cryptographic proofs in a modular way, by using algebraic laws to exploit the modular structure of composed protocols. While promising, this methodology was previously not fully formalized and came with little tool support. We address this by introducing SSProve, the first general verification framework for machine-checked state-separating proofs. SSProve combines high-level modular proofs about composed protocols, as proposed in SSP, with a probabilistic relational program logic for formalizing the lower-level details, which together enable constructing machine-checked cryptographic proofs in the Coq proof assistant. Moreover, SSProve is itself fully formalized in Coq, including the algebraic laws of SSP, the soundness of the program logic, and the connection between these two verification styles. To illustrate SSProve, we use it to mechanize the simple security proofs of ElGamal and pseudo-random-function–based encryption. We also validate the SSProve approach by conducting two more substantial case studies: First, we mechanize an SSP security proof of the key encapsulation mechanism–data encryption mechanism (KEM-DEM) public key encryption scheme, which led to the discovery of an error in the original paper proof that has since been fixed. Second, we use SSProve to formally prove security of the sigma-protocol zero-knowledge construction, and we moreover construct a commitment scheme from a sigma-protocol to compare with a similar development in CryptHOL. We instantiate the security proof for sigma-protocols to give concrete security bounds for Schnorr’s sigma-protocol.

Hieraledger: Towards malicious gateways in appendable-block blockchain constructions for IoT

Appendable-block blockchain was established in an effort to standardize a blockchain architecture for heterogeneous Internet of Things devices. In current constructions, the main disadvantage lies in the full trust of gateways, which can launch coordinated and individual eclipse attacks against IoT sensing devices without being caught. This paper introduces Hieraledger, a novel commitment protocol for exposing malicious gateways in appendable-block blockchain constructions. To minimize the likelihood of eclipse attacks, each sensing device selects more than one gateway based on a novel reputation scoring model and the self-valuation of its privacy. To expose malicious gateways, our protocol employs fail-stop signatures thwarting signature forging, cryptographic hash functions, and a novel Merkle appendable tree. For each sensing device, we generate a resource-aware repudiable cryptographic proof of origin evidence. For gateway nodes, we generate a chain of commitment-based non-repudiable cryptographic proofs of delivery evidence. To demonstrate the security and robustness of our scheme, we analyze it under a solid theoretical security model. Based on our findings, our protocol enables sensing devices to seek arbitration and expose malicious gateways to the network. The present study is a further addition to the growing body of research into privacy preserving blockchain solutions for the Internet of Things

A Core Calculus for Equational Proofs of Cryptographic Protocols

Many proofs of interactive cryptographic protocols (e.g., as in Universal Composability) operate by proving the protocol at hand to be observationally equivalent to an idealized specification. While pervasive, formal tool support for observational equivalence of cryptographic protocols is still a nascent area of research. Current mechanization efforts tend to either focus on diff-equivalence, which establishes observational equivalence between protocols with identical control structures, or require an explicit witness for the observational equivalence in the form of a bisimulation relation. Our goal is to simplify proofs for cryptographic protocols by introducing a core calculus, IPDL, for cryptographic observational equivalences. Via IPDL, we aim to address a number of theoretical issues for cryptographic proofs in a simple manner, including probabilistic behaviors, distributed message-passing, and resource-bounded adversaries and simulators. We demonstrate IPDL on a number of case studies, including a distributed coin toss protocol, Oblivious Transfer, and the GMW multi-party computation protocol. All proofs of case studies are mechanized via an embedding of IPDL into the Coq proof assistant.

An Efficient Zero-Knowledge Dual Membership Proof Supporting Pos-and-Neg Membership Decision

In this paper, we address the problem of secure decision of membership. We present a Zero-Knowledge Dual Membership Proof (ZKDMP) protocol, which can support positive and negative (Pos-and-Neg) membership decisions simultaneously. To do it, two secure aggregation functions are used to compact an arbitrarily-sized subset into an element in a cryptographic space. By using these aggregation functions, a subset can achieve a secure representation, and the representation size of the subsets is reduced to the theoretical lower limit. Moreover, the zeros-based and poles-based secure representation of the subset are used to decide Pos-and-Neg membership, respectively. We further verify the feasibility of combining these two secure representations of the subset, so this result is used to construct our dual membership decision cryptosystem. Specifically, our ZKDMP protocol is proposed for dual membership decisions, which can realize a cryptographic proof of strict Pos-and-Neg membership simultaneously. Furthermore, the zero-knowledge property of our construction ensures that the information of the tested element will not be leaked during the implementation of the protocol. In addition, we provide detailed security proof of our ZKDMP protocol, including positive completeness, negative completeness, soundness and zero-knowledge.

Ubiquitous Secure Communication in a Future Internet Architecture

In a world with increasing simplicity to store, transfer, and analyze large volumes of data, preserving data confidentiality and integrity of Internet traffic by default becomes more and more important. Unfortunately, a large gap exists between low-security opportunistic encryption and trust-on-first-use (TOFU) protocols, and high-security communication, such as TLS using server certificates or DNSSEC. Our goal is to reduce this gap and provide a base layer for authentication and secrecy that is strictly better than TOFU security. We achieve this by integrating the authentication method PILA into the future Internet architecture SCION. This combines PILA’s address-based authentication, which leverages irrefutable cryptographic proof of misbehavior, and the flexibility of SCION’s control-plane PKI and its per-AS independent addressing scheme. In this work, two concrete issues of PILA are addressed: (1) the reliance on the hierarchical RPKI which introduces a single global trust root, i.e., a single point of failure regarding the security of PILA, and (2) the necessity of an out-of-band communication to prevent downgrade attacks, which can incur a latency overhead and might be used as a resource exhaustion attack vector. We describe how PILA in combination with SCION mitigates these issues and analyze the security of the system. Finally, we discuss several interesting use cases including the SSH, TLS, and DNS protocols.

DSPR: Secure decentralized storage with proof-of-replication for edge devices

The evolving edge and IoT devices collect and process massive data and need tremendous storage space for those data. It is more efficient and reliable to establish a distributed storage system for their storage need. However, the conventional erasure codes used in distributed storage are designed for reliable data centers. Edge and IoT devices are highly vulnerable and unreliable. The conventional distributed storage systems cannot prevent malicious attackers and require very high redundancy in wild environments. This paper presents DSPR, a new decentralized distributed storage system with proof of replication for edge and IoT devices. By providing the cryptographic proofs of stored data, the system can actively find the data corruption and recover the data before it is unrecoverable in vulnerable environments. Therefore, we can apply high efficient coding schemes with low storage redundancy. Our LDPC coding achieves about 6x encoding and 20x recovering speedup than Intel ISA-L. With an IoT device Xavier AGX, the system can prove over 180GB of data per day to securely store the data, which is about 4x faster than public auditing schemes with an even stronger threat model that every device in the network can be malicious.

Key Protected Deputy Signature Scheme against the Deputy Signing Key Exposure

Key exposure is very harmful to a cryptographic system. To decrease the loss from the deputy signing key vulnerability in identity-based proxy signature systems, we propose the method of key protected deputy signature (IBKPDS) using the method of parallel key insulation. The proposed IBKPDS is based on identities and is shown to be secure with the cryptographic proof. In the proof, there is no random oracle. In an IBKPPS crypto-system, a user stores his short-lived deputy signing key by himself and saves two long-lived keys in two heavily guarded boxes respectively. The derived IBKPDS cryptographic system is heavily key-separated. A thief who wants to obtain crucial information can not corrupt the IBKPDS when he get only one long-lived key. In addition, the user can change the short-lived deputy signing keys frequently at low risk.

A Practitioner’s View on Distributed Storage Systems: Overview, Challenges and Potential Solutions

Introduction The technology now called “blockchain” was originally conceived in Bitcoin as a decentralized e-commerce alternative to “financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments” (Satoshi Nakmoto, 2008). Blockchain was meant to usher in a “trust-less” model, where mechanisms (such as cryptographic proof) could enable all parties in a

Implementation Of Zakat Payment Platform For Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin spearheaded the rise of cryptocurrencies since it was first launched in 2009. The concept of bitcoin as digital currency was first published publicly in the 2008 well-known whitepaper by pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. The whitepaper outlined a self-serving peer-to-peer transaction network concept based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party such as financial institutions. Since then, thousands of cryptocurrencies have been launched mostly through token offerings as an alternative approach of raising funds for blockchain, technology projects, and start-ups. People are holding cryptocurrencies mostly as digital asset investments. Some individuals made huge profits from buying cryptocurrencies at their initial offerings and sold later when the prices increased. Some crypto millionaires were born from such trades. However, many people lost their investment as well due to many factors. Some were due to bad investment decisions, and some fall into scams and investment programs run by dishonest peoplewith promises of highly lucrative returns. As trading and owning cryptocurrencies are becoming common, governments and policymakers around the world are coming up with proper and comprehensive regulations for cryptocurrencies. In the context of Malaysia, in which zakat collections and distributions are of state matters, this paper discusses the implementation of zakat payment platform for cryptocurrencies at zakat institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to the academic development, blockchain technology, and zakat management.

Outsourcing Proofs of Retrievability

Proofs of Retrievability (POR) are cryptographic proofs that enable a cloud provider to prove that a user can retrieve his file in its entirety. POR need to be frequently executed by the user to ensure that their files stored in the cloud can be fully retrieved at any point in time. To conduct and verify POR, users need to be equipped with devices that have network access, and that can tolerate the (non-negligible) computational overhead incurred by the verification process. This clearly hinders the large-scale adoption of POR by cloud users, since many users increasingly rely on portable devices that have limited computational capacity, or might not always have network access. In this paper, we introduce the notion of outsourced proofs of retrievability (OPOR), in which users can task an external auditor to perform and verify POR with the cloud provider. We argue that the OPOR setting is subject to security risks that have not been covered by existing POR security models. To remedy that, we propose a formal framework and a security model for OPOR. We then propose a generic procedure for transforming a public POR into an OPOR and we show the security of the resulting OPOR in our proposed security model. We demonstrate the transformation on two different instantiations of public POR schemes due to Shacham and Waters (Asiacrypt'08)-one based on BLS signatures and one using RSA signatures. A shortcoming of this transformation is that the generated OPOR inherits the high computational overhead from the underlying public key cryptography. Consequently, we propose afterwards an OPOR that is build from a private POR by Shacham and Waters. We implement a prototype based on our solutions, and evaluate their performance in a realistic cloud setting. Our evaluation results show that our proposals minimize user effort, and incur negligible overhead on the auditor.

Verifiable state machines

This article describes recent progress in realizing verifiable state machines, a primitive that enables untrusted services to provide cryptographic proofs that they operate correctly. Applications of this primitive range from proving the correct operation of distributed and concurrent cloud services to reducing blockchain transaction costs by leveraging inexpensive off-chain computation without trust.

Authentication protocol based on searchable encryption and multi-party computation with applicability for earth sciences

The current paper will take the first stab in developing a high implementation of Multi-Party Protocol (MPC) using a searchable encryption scheme with steganographic structure hidden in multiple types of files. We formalize our results in a MpCSES (Multi-party Computation with Searchable Encryption Scheme), a tool-assisted framework for building a high-confidence cryptographic proof of our scheme. The case study that we have chosen to explain.

A Permissioned Distributed Ledger for the US Beef Cattle Supply Chain

Distributed ledgers using blockchain have gained traction in the supply chain industry due to their unique features of immutability and transparency. They have given people the abilities to solve business problems which were impossible using traditional systems. The US beef cattle industry lacks adequate traceability as most of the farm owners consider such data confidential; possibly harming their businesses if exposed. This article attempts to solve this problem by proposing a smart contract-based supply chain framework using a permissioned blockchain network. This system supports anonymity for the users to protect identities and lets every user store their data locally, while ensuring that the changes are recorded in the chain with cryptographic proofs (hashes). The proposed framework also has methods for the users to perform business transactions and transfer animal-related data to new owners as required. In addition to that, smart contracts have been added to conduct anonymous surveys for data aggregation. The technical contribution of this article is in the system design on how users, data, and communications are handled to maintain data ownership and user privacy while ensuring immutability and confidentiality at different levels of data aggregation. This article also contains an evaluation of the system using integration tests where the outcomes meet the expected design requirements. The framework can be applied to the US beef cattle industry as well as other supply chains with minimal modifications.

Online Payment Using Blockchain

Increasing list of records is with blockchain where each record is linked with the help of cryptography. Every block in the chain contains timestamp, transaction details and hash of a previous block, hash is cryptographic hash. This is a secured system, which we plan to replace the current online payment system. A current online payment gateway is prone to hackers where the attacker can tamper into the network, thus creating money loss. And not only this but also the transaction has to go through multiple payment systems which consumes time, also creating a risk of transaction getting failed. So, our system would be using blockchain that allows online transactions which would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution and in a secured way. This system allows online transactions between two parties based on cryptographic proof without relying and trusting for a third party. To record transactions, we use proof of work algorithm which makes computationally impractical for an attacker to change. Digital signatures provide part of the solution for ensuring the security and integrity of the data that is recorded onto a blockchain.

Consumer Demand for Blockchain-Enabled Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading in the United Kingdom: An Online Survey Experiment

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading could help address grid management challenges in a decentralizing electricity system, as well as provide other social and environmental benefits. Many existing and proposed trading schemes are enabled by blockchain, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) relying on cryptographic proof of ownership rather than human intermediaries to establish energy transactions. This study used an online survey experiment (n = 2064) to investigate how consumer demand for blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer energy trading schemes in the United Kingdom varies depending on how the consumer proposition is designed and communicated. The analysis provides some evidence of a preference for schemes offering to meet a higher proportion of participants’ energy needs and for those operating at the city/region (as compared to national or neighbourhood) level. People were more likely to say they would participate when the scheme was framed as being run by their local council, followed by an energy supplier, community energy organization, and social media company. Anonymity was the most valued DLT characteristic and mentioning blockchain’s association with Bitcoin led to a substantial decrease in intended uptake. We highlight a range of important questions and implications suggested by these findings for the introduction and operation of P2P trading schemes.