A CCA2 Secure Variant of the McEliece Cryptosystem

The McEliece public-key encryption scheme has become an interesting alternative to cryptosystems based on number-theoretical problems. Differently from RSA and ElGa- mal, McEliece PKC is not known to be broken by a quantum computer. Moreover, even tough McEliece PKC has a relatively big key size, encryption and decryption operations are rather efficient. In spite of all the recent results in coding theory based cryptosystems, to the date, there are no constructions secure against chosen ciphertext attacks in the standard model - the de facto security notion for public-key cryptosystems. In this work, we show the first construction of a McEliece based public-key cryptosystem secure against chosen ciphertext attacks in the standard model. Our construction is inspired by a recently proposed technique by Rosen and Segev

Concurrently Non-Malleable Zero Knowledge in the Authenticated Public-Key Model

We consider a type of zero-knowledge protocols that are of interest for their practical applications within networks like the Internet: efficient zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge that remain secure against concurrent man-in-the-middle attacks. In an effort to reduce the setup assumptions required for efficient zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge that remain secure against concurrent man-in-the-middle attacks, we consider a model, which we call the Authenticated Public-Key (APK) model. The APK model seems to significantly reduce the setup assumptions made by the CRS model (as no trusted party or honest execution of a centralized algorithm are required), and can be seen as a slightly stronger variation of the Bare Public-Key (BPK) model from \cite{CGGM,MR}, and a weaker variation of the registered public-key model used in \cite{BCNP}. We then define and study man-in-the-middle attacks in the APK model. Our main result is a constant-round concurrent non-malleable zero-knowledge argument of knowledge for any polynomial-time relation (associated to a language in $\mathcal{NP}$), under the (minimal) assumption of the existence of a one-way function family. Furthermore,We show time-efficient instantiations of our protocol based on known number-theoretic assumptions. We also note a negative result with respect to further reducing the setup assumptions of our protocol to those in the (unauthenticated) BPK model, by showing that concurrently non-malleable zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge in the BPK model are only possible for trivial languages

Proxy Signature Scheme with Effective Revocation Using Bilinear Pairings

We present a proxy signature scheme using bilinear pairings that provides effective proxy revocation. The scheme uses a binding-blinding technique to avoid secure channel requirements in the key issuance stage. With this technique, the signer receives a partial private key from a trusted authority and unblinds it to get his private key, in turn, overcomes the key escrow problem which is a constraint in most of the pairing-based proxy signature schemes. The scheme fulfills the necessary security requirements of proxy signature and resists other possible threats

Pairing-based identification schemes

We propose four different identification schemes that make use of bilinear pairings, and prove their security under certain computational assumptions. Each of the schemes is more efficient and/or more secure than any known pairing-based identification scheme

Almost Tight Multi-User Security under Adaptive Corruptions from LWE in the Standard Model

In this work, we construct the first digital signature (SIG) and public-key encryption (PKE) schemes with almost tight multi-user security under adaptive corruptions based on the learning-with-errors (LWE) assumption in the standard model. Our PKE scheme achieves almost tight IND-CCA security and our SIG scheme achieves almost tight strong EUF-CMA security, both in the multi-user setting with adaptive corruptions. The security loss is quadratic in the security parameter, and independent of the number of users, signatures or ciphertexts. Previously, such schemes were only known to exist under number-theoretic assumptions or in classical random oracle model, thus vulnerable to quantum adversaries. To obtain our schemes from LWE, we propose new frameworks for constructing SIG and PKE with a core technical tool named probabilistic quasi-adaptive hash proof system (pr-QA-HPS). As a new variant of HPS, our pr-QA-HPS provides probabilistic public and private evaluation modes that may toss coins. This is in stark contrast to the traditional HPS [Cramer and Shoup, Eurocrypt 2002] and existing variants like approximate HPS [Katz and Vaikuntanathan, Asiacrypt 2009], whose public and private evaluations are deterministic in their inputs. Moreover, we formalize a new property called evaluation indistinguishability by requiring statistical indistinguishability of the two probabilistic evaluation modes, even in the presence of the secret key. The evaluation indistinguishability, as well as other nice properties resulting from the probabilistic features of pr-QA-HPS, are crucial for the multi-user security proof of our frameworks under adaptive corruptions. As for instantiations, we construct pr-QA-HPS from the LWE assumption and prove its properties with almost tight reductions, which admit almost tightly secure LWE-based SIG and PKE schemes under our frameworks. Along the way, we also provide new almost-tight reductions from LWE to multi-secret LWE, which may be of independent interest

The Random Oracle Methodology, Revisited

We take a critical look at the relationship between the security of cryptographic schemes in the Random Oracle Model, and the security of the schemes that result from implementing the random oracle by so called "cryptographic hash functions". The main result of this paper is a negative one: There exist signature and encryption schemes that are secure in the Random Oracle Model, but for which any implementation of the random oracle results in insecure schemes. In the process of devising the above schemes, we consider possible definitions for the notion of a "good implementation" of a random oracle, pointing out limitations and challenges.Comment: 31 page

Anonymous Single-Sign-On for n designated services with traceability

Anonymous Single-Sign-On authentication schemes have been proposed to allow users to access a service protected by a verifier without revealing their identity which has become more important due to the introduction of strong privacy regulations. In this paper we describe a new approach whereby anonymous authentication to different verifiers is achieved via authorisation tags and pseudonyms. The particular innovation of our scheme is authentication can only occur between a user and its designated verifier for a service, and the verification cannot be performed by any other verifier. The benefit of this authentication approach is that it prevents information leakage of a user's service access information, even if the verifiers for these services collude which each other. Our scheme also supports a trusted third party who is authorised to de-anonymise the user and reveal her whole services access information if required. Furthermore, our scheme is lightweight because it does not rely on attribute or policy-based signature schemes to enable access to multiple services. The scheme's security model is given together with a security proof, an implementation and a performance evaluation.Comment: 3