16,813 research outputs found
A New PVSS Scheme with a Simple Encryption Function
A Publicly Verifiable Secret Sharing (PVSS) scheme allows anyone to verify
the validity of the shares computed and distributed by a dealer. The idea of
PVSS was introduced by Stadler in [18] where he presented a PVSS scheme based
on Discrete Logarithm. Later, several PVSS schemes were proposed. In [2],
Behnad and Eghlidos present an interesting PVSS scheme with explicit membership
and disputation processes. In this paper, we present a new PVSS having the
advantage of being simpler while offering the same features.Comment: In Proceedings SCSS 2012, arXiv:1307.8029. This PVSS scheme was
proposed to be used to provide a distributed Timestamping schem
Computer-aided proofs for multiparty computation with active security
Secure multi-party computation (MPC) is a general cryptographic technique
that allows distrusting parties to compute a function of their individual
inputs, while only revealing the output of the function. It has found
applications in areas such as auctioning, email filtering, and secure
teleconference. Given its importance, it is crucial that the protocols are
specified and implemented correctly. In the programming language community it
has become good practice to use computer proof assistants to verify correctness
proofs. In the field of cryptography, EasyCrypt is the state of the art proof
assistant. It provides an embedded language for probabilistic programming,
together with a specialized logic, embedded into an ambient general purpose
higher-order logic. It allows us to conveniently express cryptographic
properties. EasyCrypt has been used successfully on many applications,
including public-key encryption, signatures, garbled circuits and differential
privacy. Here we show for the first time that it can also be used to prove
security of MPC against a malicious adversary. We formalize additive and
replicated secret sharing schemes and apply them to Maurer's MPC protocol for
secure addition and multiplication. Our method extends to general polynomial
functions. We follow the insights from EasyCrypt that security proofs can be
often be reduced to proofs about program equivalence, a topic that is well
understood in the verification of programming languages. In particular, we show
that in the passive case the non-interference-based definition is equivalent to
a standard game-based security definition. For the active case we provide a new
NI definition, which we call input independence
Ideal Tightly Couple (t,m,n) Secret Sharing
As a fundamental cryptographic tool, (t,n)-threshold secret sharing
((t,n)-SS) divides a secret among n shareholders and requires at least t,
(t<=n), of them to reconstruct the secret. Ideal (t,n)-SSs are most desirable
in security and efficiency among basic (t,n)-SSs. However, an adversary, even
without any valid share, may mount Illegal Participant (IP) attack or
t/2-Private Channel Cracking (t/2-PCC) attack to obtain the secret in most
(t,n)-SSs.To secure ideal (t,n)-SSs against the 2 attacks, 1) the paper
introduces the notion of Ideal Tightly cOupled (t,m,n) Secret Sharing (or
(t,m,n)-ITOSS ) to thwart IP attack without Verifiable SS; (t,m,n)-ITOSS binds
all m, (m>=t), participants into a tightly coupled group and requires all
participants to be legal shareholders before recovering the secret. 2) As an
example, the paper presents a polynomial-based (t,m,n)-ITOSS scheme, in which
the proposed k-round Random Number Selection (RNS) guarantees that adversaries
have to crack at least symmetrical private channels among participants before
obtaining the secret. Therefore, k-round RNS enhances the robustness of
(t,m,n)-ITOSS against t/2-PCC attack to the utmost. 3) The paper finally
presents a generalized method of converting an ideal (t,n)-SS into a
(t,m,n)-ITOSS, which helps an ideal (t,n)-SS substantially improve the
robustness against the above 2 attacks
Finding Safety in Numbers with Secure Allegation Escrows
For fear of retribution, the victim of a crime may be willing to report it
only if other victims of the same perpetrator also step forward. Common
examples include 1) identifying oneself as the victim of sexual harassment,
especially by a person in a position of authority or 2) accusing an influential
politician, an authoritarian government, or ones own employer of corruption. To
handle such situations, legal literature has proposed the concept of an
allegation escrow: a neutral third-party that collects allegations anonymously,
matches them against each other, and de-anonymizes allegers only after
de-anonymity thresholds (in terms of number of co-allegers), pre-specified by
the allegers, are reached.
An allegation escrow can be realized as a single trusted third party;
however, this party must be trusted to keep the identity of the alleger and
content of the allegation private. To address this problem, this paper
introduces Secure Allegation Escrows (SAE, pronounced "say"). A SAE is a group
of parties with independent interests and motives, acting jointly as an escrow
for collecting allegations from individuals, matching the allegations, and
de-anonymizing the allegations when designated thresholds are reached. By
design, SAEs provide a very strong property: No less than a majority of parties
constituting a SAE can de-anonymize or disclose the content of an allegation
without a sufficient number of matching allegations (even in collusion with any
number of other allegers). Once a sufficient number of matching allegations
exist, the join escrow discloses the allegation with the allegers' identities.
We describe how SAEs can be constructed using a novel authentication protocol
and a novel allegation matching and bucketing algorithm, provide formal proofs
of the security of our constructions, and evaluate a prototype implementation,
demonstrating feasibility in practice.Comment: To appear in NDSS 2020. New version includes improvements to writing
and proof. The protocol is unchange
- …