A group signature scheme allows a group member to sign messages anonymously on behalf of the group. However, in the case of a dispute, the identity of a signature’s originator can be revealed (only) by a designated entity. The interactive counterparts of group signatures are identity escrow schemes or group identification scheme with revocable anonymity. This work introduces a new provably secure group signature and a companion identity escrow scheme that are significantly more efficient than the state of the art. In its interactive, identity escrow form, our scheme is proven secure and coalition-resistant under the strong RSA and the decisional Diffie-Hellman assumptions. The security of the noninteractive variant, i.e., the group signature scheme, relies additionally on the Fiat-Shamir heuristic (also known as the random oracle model).

Abstract. We introduce the notion of a dynamic accumulator. Anaccumulator scheme allows one to hash a large set of inputs into one short value, such that there is a short proof that a given input was incorporated into this value. A dynamic accumulator allows one to dynamically add and delete a value, such that the cost of an add or delete is independent of the number of accumulated values. We provide a construction of a dynamic accumulator and an efficient zero-knowledge proof of knowledge of an accumulated value. We prove their security under the strong RSA assumption. We then show that our construction of dynamic accumulators enables efficient revocation of anonymous credentials, and membership revocation for recent group signature and identity escrow schemes.

This paper provides theoretical foundations for the group signature primitive. We introduce strong, formal definitions for the core requirements of anonymity and traceability. We then show that these imply the large set of sometimes ambiguous existing informal requirements in the literature, thereby unifying and simplifying the requirements for this primitive. Finally we prove the existence of a construct meeting our definitions based only on the assumption that trapdoor permutations exist.

This paper describes the direct anonymous attestation scheme (DAA). This scheme was adopted by the Trusted Computing Group as the method for remote authentication of a hardware module, called trusted platform module (TPM), while preserving the privacy of the user of the platform that contains the module. Direct anonymous attestation can be seen as a group signature without the feature that a signature can be opened, i.e., the anonymity is not revocable. Moreover, DAA allows for pseudonyms, i.e., for each signature a user (in agreement with the recipient of the signature) can decide whether or not the signature should be linkable to another signature. DAA furthermore allows for detection of "known" keys: if the DAA secret keys are extracted from a TPM and published, a verifier can detect that a signature was produced using these secret keys. The scheme is provably secure in the random oracle model under the strong RSA and the decisional Di#e-Hellman assumption.

Abstract. This paper addresses the problem of designing practical protocols for proving properties about encrypted data. To this end, it presents a variant of the new public key encryption of Cramer and Shoup based on Paillier’s decision composite residuosity assumption, along with efficient protocols for verifiable encryption and decryption of discrete logarithms (and more generally, of representations with respect to multiple bases). This is the first verifiable encryption system that provides chosen ciphertext security and avoids inefficient cut-and-choose proofs. The presented protocols have numerous applications, including key escrow, optimistic fair exchange, publicly verifiable secret and signature sharing, universally composable commitments, group signatures, and confirmer signatures. 1

Recently, a first step toward establishing foundations for group signatures was taken [5], with a treatment of the case where the group is static. However the bulk of existing practical schemes and applications are for dynamic groups, and these involve important new elements and security issues. This paper treats this case, providing foundations for dynamic group signatures, in the form of a model, strong formal denitions of security, and a construction proven secure under general assumptions. We believe this is an important and useful step because it helps bridge the gap between [5] and the previous practical work, and delivers a basis on which existing practical schemes may in future be evaluated or proven secure.

Several public key cryptosystems with additional homomorphic properties have been proposed so far. They allow to perform computation with encrypted data without the knowledge of any secret information. In many applications, the ability to perform decryption, i.e. the knowledge of the secret key, gives a huge power. A classical way to reduce the trust in such a secret owner, and consequently to increase the security, is to share the secret between many entities in such a way that cooperation between them is necessary to decrypt. In this paper, we propose a distributed version of the Paillier cryptosystem presented at Eurocrypt ’99. This shared scheme can for example be used in an electronic voting scheme or in a lottery where a random number related to the winning ticket has to be jointly chosen by all participants.

Abstract. A group signature scheme allows any group member to sign on behalf of the group in an anonymous and unlinkable fashion. In the event of a dispute, a designated trusted entity can reveal the identity of the signer. Group signatures are claimed to have many useful applications such as voting and electronic cash. A number of group signature schemes have been proposed to-date. However, in order for the whole group signature concept to become practical and credible, the problem of secure and efficient group member revocation must be addressed. In this paper, we construct a new revocation method for group signatures based on the signature scheme by Ateniese et al. [ACJT]. This new method represents an advance in the state-of-the-art since the only revocation schemes proposed thus far are either: 1) based on implicit revocation and the use of fixed time periods, or 2) require the signature size to be linear in the number of revoked members. Our method, in contrast, does not rely on time periods, offers constant-length signatures and constant work for the signer.

Abstract. We generalize and improve the security and efficiency ofthe verifiable encryption scheme ofAsokan et al., such that it can rely on more general assumptions, and can be proven secure without assuming random oracles. We extend our basic protocol to a new primitive called verifiable group encryption. We show how our protocols can be applied to construct group signatures, identity escrow, and signature sharing schemes from a wide range of signature, identification, and encryption schemes already in use. In particular, we achieve perfect separability for all these applications, i.e., all participants can choose their signature and encryption schemes and the keys thereofindependent ofeach other, even without having these applications in mind. 1

We present, implement and apply a new privacy primitive that we call "Traceable Signatures." To this end we develop the underlying mathematical and protocol tools, present the concepts and the underlying security model, and then realize the scheme and its security proof. Traceable signatures support an extended set of fairness mechanisms (mechanisms for anonymity management and revocation) when compared with the traditional group signature mechanism. We demonstrate that this extended function is needed for proper operation and adequate level of privacy in various settings and applications. For example, the new notion allows (distributed) tracing of all signatures by a single (misbehaving) party without opening signatures and revealing identities of any other user in the system. In contrast, if such tracing is implemented by a state of the art group signature system, such wide opening of all signatures of a single user is a (centralized) operation that requires the opening of all anonymous signatures and revealing the users associated with them, an act that violates the privacy of all users.