Attribute-Based Ring Signatures

Ring signature was proposed to keep signer\u27s anonymity when it signs messages on behalf of a ``ring of possible signers. In this paper, we propose a novel notion of ring signature which is called attribute-based ring signature. In this kind of signature, it allows the signer to sign message with its attributes from attribute center. All users that possess of these attributes form a ring. The identity of signer is kept anonymous in this ring. Furthermore, anyone out of this ring could not forge the signature on behalf of the ring. Two constructions of attribute-based ring signature are also presented in this paper. The first scheme is proved to be secure in the random oracle model, with large universal attributes. We also present another scheme in order to avoid the random oracle model. It does not rely on non-standard hardness assumption or random oracle model. Both schemes in this paper are based on standard computational Diffie-Hellman assumption

Stronger security notions for decentralized traceable attribute-based signatures and more efficient constructions

We revisit the notion of Decentralized Traceable Attribute-Based Signatures (DTABS) introduced by El Kaafarani et al. (CT-RSA 2014) and improve the state-of-the-art in three dimensions: Firstly, we provide a new stronger security model which circumvents some shortcomings in existing models. Our model minimizes the trust placed in attribute authorities and hence provides, among other things, a stronger definition for non-frameability. In addition, our model captures the notion of tracing soundness which is important for many applications of the primitive. Secondly, we provide a generic construction that is secure w.r.t. our strong security model and show two example instantiations in the standard model which are more efficient than existing constructions (secure under weaker security definitions). Finally, we dispense with the need for the expensive zero-knowledge proofs required for proving tracing correctness by the tracing authority. As a result, tracing a signature in our constructions is significantly more efficient than existing constructions, both in terms of the size of the tracing proof and the computational cost required to generate and verify it. For instance, verifying tracing correctness in our constructions requires only 4 pairings compared to 34 pairings in the most efficient existing construction

Attribute-Based Signatures for Circuits from Bilinear Map

In attribute-based signatures, each signer receives a signing key from the authority, which is associated with the signer\u27s attribute, and using the signing key, the signer can issue a signature on any message under a predicate, if his attribute satisfies the predicate. One of the ultimate goals in this area is to support a wide class of predicates, such as the class of \emph{arbitrary circuits}, with \emph{practical efficiency} from \emph{a simple assumption}, since these three aspects determine the usefulness of the scheme. We present an attribute-based signature scheme which allows us to use an arbitrary circuit as the predicate with practical efficiency from the symmetric external Diffie-Hellman assumption. We achieve this by combining the efficiency of Groth-Sahai proofs, which allow us to prove algebraic equations efficiently, and the expressiveness of Groth-Ostrovsky-Sahai proofs, which allow us to prove any NP relation via circuit satisfiability

Attribute-Based Signatures for Unbounded Languages from Standard Assumptions

Attribute-based signature (ABS) schemes are advanced signature schemes that simultaneously provide fine-grained authentication while protecting privacy of the signer. Previously known expressive ABS schemes support either the class of deterministic finite automata and circuits from standard assumptions or Turing machines from the existence of indistinguishability obfuscations. In this paper, we propose the first ABS scheme for a very general policy class, all deterministic Turin machines, from a standard assumption, namely, the Symmetric External Diffie-Hellman (SXDH) assumption. We also propose the first ABS scheme that allows nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) to be used as policies. Although the expressiveness of NFAs are more restricted than Turing machines, this is the first scheme that supports nondeterministic computations as policies. Our main idea lies in abstracting ABS constructions and presenting the concept of history of computations; this allows a signer to prove possession of a policy that accepts the string associated to a message in zero-knowledge while also hiding the policy, regardless of the computational model being used. With this abstraction in hand, we are able to construct ABS for Turing machines and NFAs using a surprisingly weak NIZK proof system. Essentially we only require a NIZK proof system for proving that a (normal) signature is valid. Such a NIZK proof system together with a base signature scheme are, in turn, possible from bilinear groups under the SXDH assumption, and hence so are our ABS schemes

A DISTRIBUTED APPROACH TO PRIVACY ON THE CLOUD

The increasing adoption of Cloud-based data processing and storage poses a number of privacy issues. Users wish to preserve full control over their sensitive data and cannot accept it to be fully accessible to an external storage provider. Previous research in this area was mostly addressed at techniques to protect data stored on untrusted database servers; however, I argue that the Cloud architecture presents a number of specific problems and issues. This dissertation contains a detailed analysis of open issues. To handle them, I present a novel approach where confidential data is stored in a highly distributed partitioned database, partly located on the Cloud and partly on the clients. In my approach, data can be either private or shared; the latter is shared in a secure manner by means of simple grant-and-revoke permissions. I have developed a proof-of-concept implementation using an in\u2011memory RDBMS with row-level data encryption in order to achieve fine-grained data access control. This type of approach is rarely adopted in conventional outsourced RDBMSs because it requires several complex steps. Benchmarks of my proof-of-concept implementation show that my approach overcomes most of the problems

Attribute-Based Signatures

We introduce Attribute-Based Signatures (ABS), a versatile primitive that allows a party to sign a message with fine-grained control over identifying information. In ABS, a signer, who possesses a set of attributes from the authority, can sign a message with a predicate that is satisfied by his attributes. The signature reveals no more than the fact that a single user with some set of attributes satisfying the predicate has attested to the message. In particular, the signature hides the attributes used to satisfy the predicate and any identifying information about the signer (that could link multiple signatures as being from the same signer). Furthermore, users cannot collude to pool their attributes together. We give a general framework for constructing ABS schemes, then show several practical instantia-tions based on groups with bilinear pairing operations, under standard assumptions. We describe several practical problems that motivated this work, and how ABS can be used to solve them

Efficient Attribute-Based Signatures for Non-Monotone Predicates in the Standard Model

This paper presents a fully secure (adaptive-predicate unforgeable and private) attribute-based signature (ABS) scheme in the standard model. The security of the proposed ABS scheme is proven under standard assumptions, the decisional linear (DLIN) assumption and the existence of collision resistant (CR) hash functions. The admissible predicates of the proposed ABS scheme are more general than those of the existing ABS schemes, i.e., the proposed ABS scheme is the first to support general non-monotone predicates, which can be expressed using NOT gates as well as AND, OR, and Threshold gates, while the existing ABS schemes only support monotone predicates. The proposed ABS scheme is comparably as efficient as (several times worse than) one of the most efficient ABS schemes, which is proven to be secure in the generic group model

Efficient Attribute-Based Signatures for Unbounded Arithmetic Branching Programs

This paper presents the first attribute-based signature (ABS) scheme in which the correspondence between signers and signatures is captured in an arithmetic model of computation. Specifically, we design a fully secure, i.e., adaptively unforgeable and perfectly signer-private ABS scheme for signing policies realizable by arithmetic branching programs (ABP), which are a quite expressive model of arithmetic computations. On a more positive note, the proposed scheme places no bound on the size and input length of the supported signing policy ABP’s, and at the same time, supports the use of an input attribute for an arbitrary number of times inside a signing policy ABP, i.e., the so called unbounded multi-use of attributes. The size of our public parameters is constant with respect to the sizes of the signing attribute vectors and signing policies available in the system. The construction is built in (asymmetric) bilinear groups of prime order, and its unforgeability is derived in the standard model under (asymmetric version of) the well-studied decisional linear (DLIN) assumption coupled with the existence of standard collision resistant hash functions. Due to the use of the arithmetic model as opposed to the boolean one, our ABS scheme not only excels significantly over the existing state-of-the-art constructions in terms of concrete efficiency, but also achieves improved applicability in various practical scenarios. Our principal technical contributions are (a) extending the techniques of Okamoto and Takashima [PKC 2011, PKC 2013], which were originally developed in the context of boolean span programs, to the arithmetic setting; and (b) innovating new ideas to allow unbounded multi-use of attributes inside ABP’s, which themselves are of unbounded size and input length