Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ring Signatures with User-Controlled Linkability

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computer Security – ESORICS 2022 (ESORICS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13555))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Anonymous authentication primitives, e.g., group or ring signatures, allow one to realize privacy-preserving data collection applications, as they strike a balance between authenticity of data being collected and privacy of data providers. At PKC 2021, Diaz and Lehmann defined group signatures with User-Controlled Linkability (UCL) and provided an instantiation based on BBS+ signatures. In a nutshell, a signer of a UCL group signature scheme can link any of her signatures: linking evidence can be produced at signature time, or after signatures have been output, by providing an explicit linking proof.

In this paper, we introduce Ring Signatures with User-Controlled Linkability (RS-UCL). Compared to group signatures with user-controlled linkability, RS-UCL require no group manager and can be instantiated in a completely decentralized manner. We also introduce a variation, User Controlled and Autonomous Linkability (RS-UCAL), which gives the user full control of the linkability of their signatures.

We provide a formal model for both RS-UCL and RS-UCAL and introduce a compiler that can upgrade any ring signature scheme to RS-UCAL. The compiler leverages a new primitive we call Anonymous Key Randomizable Signatures (AKRS)—a signature scheme where the verification key can be randomized—that can be of independent interest. We also provide different instantiations of AKRS based on Schnorr signatures and on lattices. Finally, we show that an AKRS scheme can additionally be used to construct an RS-UCL scheme.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Attema, T., Cramer, R., Fehr, S.: Compressing proofs of k-out-of-n partial knowledge. In: Malkin, T., Peikert, C. (eds.) CRYPTO 2021. LNCS, vol. 12828, pp. 65–91. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84259-8_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Abe, M., Chow, S.S.M., Haralambiev, K., Ohkubo, M.: Double-trapdoor anonymous tags for traceable signatures. Int. J. Inf. Secur. 12(1), 19–31 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Brickell, E.F., Camenisch, J., Chen, L.: Direct anonymous attestation. In: ACM CCS (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bootle, J., Cerulli, A., Chaidos, P., Ghadafi, E., Groth, J., Petit, C.: Short accountable ring signatures based on DDH. In: Pernul, G., Ryan, P.Y.A., Weippl, E. (eds.) ESORICS 2015. LNCS, vol. 9326, pp. 243–265. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24174-6_13

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Bootle, J., Cerulli, A., Chaidos, P., Ghadafi, E., Groth, J.: Foundations of fully dynamic group signatures. In: ACNS (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bernhard, D., Fuchsbauer, G., Ghadafi, E., Smart, N.P., Warinschi, B.: Anonymous attestation with user-controlled linkability. Int. J. Inf. Secur. 12(3), 219–249 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Backes, M., Hanzlik, L., Kluczniak, K., Schneider, J.: Signatures with flexible public key: introducing equivalence classes for public keys. In: Peyrin, T., Galbraith, S. (eds.) ASIACRYPT 2018. LNCS, vol. 11273, pp. 405–434. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03329-3_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Bellare, M., Micciancio, D., Warinschi, B.: Foundations of group signatures: formal definitions, simplified requirements, and a construction based on general assumptions. In: Biham, E. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 2003. LNCS, vol. 2656, pp. 614–629. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-39200-9_38

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Bellare, M., Shi, H., Zhang, C.: Foundations of group signatures: the case of dynamic groups. In: Menezes, A. (ed.) CT-RSA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3376, pp. 136–153. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30574-3_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Camenisch, J., Drijvers, M., Lehmann, A.: Anonymous attestation using the strong Diffie Hellman assumption revisited. In: Franz, M., Papadimitratos, P. (eds.) Trust 2016. LNCS, vol. 9824, pp. 1–20. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45572-3_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Camenisch, J., Drijvers, M., Lehmann, A.: Universally composable direct anonymous attestation. In: Cheng, C.-M., Chung, K.-M., Persiano, G., Yang, B.-Y. (eds.) PKC 2016. LNCS, vol. 9615, pp. 234–264. Springer, Heidelberg (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49387-8_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Camenisch, J., Stadler, M.: Efficient group signature schemes for large groups. In: Kaliski, B.S. (ed.) CRYPTO 1997. LNCS, vol. 1294, pp. 410–424. Springer, Heidelberg (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0052252

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Chaum, D., van Heyst, E.: Group signatures. In: Davies, D.W. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 1991. LNCS, vol. 547, pp. 257–265. Springer, Heidelberg (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46416-6_22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Ducas, L., Durmus, A., Lepoint, T., Lyubashevsky, V.: Lattice signatures and bimodal gaussians. In: Canetti, R., Garay, J.A. (eds.) CRYPTO 2013. LNCS, vol. 8042, pp. 40–56. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40041-4_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Diaz, J., Lehmann, A.: Group signatures with user-controlled and sequential linkability. In: Garay, J.A. (ed.) PKC 2021. LNCS, vol. 12710, pp. 360–388. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75245-3_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Fraser, A., Garms, L., Lehmann, A.: Selectively linkable group signatures—stronger security and preserved verifiability. In: Conti, M., Stevens, M., Krenn, S. (eds.) CANS 2021. LNCS, vol. 13099, pp. 200–221. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92548-2_11

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Groth, J., Kohlweiss, M.: One-out-of-many proofs: or how to leak a secret and spend a coin. In: Oswald, E., Fischlin, M. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2015. LNCS, vol. 9057, pp. 253–280. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46803-6_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Garms, L., Lehmann, A.: Group signatures with selective linkability. In: PKC (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Håstad, J., Impagliazzo, R., Levin, L.A., Luby, M.: A pseudorandom generator from any one-way function. SIAM J. Comput. 28(4), 1364–1396 (1999)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Hwang, J.Y., Lee, S., Chung, B.-H., Cho, H. S., Nyang, D.: Short group signatures with controllable linkability. In: Workshop on Lightweight Security & Privacy: (LightSec) (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Hwang, J.Y., Lee, S., Chung, B.-H., Cho, H.S., Nyang, D.H.: Group signatures with controllable linkability for dynamic membership. Inf. Sci. 222, 761–778 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  22. Kiayias, A., Tsiounis, Y., Yung, M.: Traceable signatures. In: Cachin, C., Camenisch, J.L. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3027, pp. 571–589. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24676-3_34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Libert, B., Joye, M.: Group signatures with message-dependent opening in the standard model. In: Benaloh, J. (ed.) CT-RSA 2014. LNCS, vol. 8366, pp. 286–306. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04852-9_15

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Libert, B., Mouhartem, F., Nguyen, K.: A lattice-based group signature scheme with message-dependent opening. In: Manulis, M., Sadeghi, A.-R., Schneider, S. (eds.) ACNS 2016. LNCS, vol. 9696, pp. 137–155. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39555-5_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Libert, B., Peters, T., Qian, C.: Logarithmic-size ring signatures with tight security from the DDH assumption. In: Lopez, J., Zhou, J., Soriano, M. (eds.) ESORICS 2018. LNCS, vol. 11099, pp. 288–308. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98989-1_15

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Lai, R.W.F., Ronge, V., Ruffing, T., Schröder, D., Thyagarajan, S.A.K., Wang, J.: Omniring: scaling private payments without trusted setup. In: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 31–48 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Liu, J.K., Wei, V.K., Wong, D.S.: Linkable spontaneous anonymous group signature for ad hoc groups. In: Wang, H., Pieprzyk, J., Varadharajan, V. (eds.) ACISP 2004. LNCS, vol. 3108, pp. 325–335. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27800-9_28

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Lyubashevsky, V.: Lattice signatures without trapdoors. In: Pointcheval, D., Johansson, T. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2012. LNCS, vol. 7237, pp. 738–755. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29011-4_43

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Ohara, K., Sakai, Y., Emura, K., Hanaoka, G.: A group signature scheme with unbounded message-dependent opening. In: ASIA-CCS (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Park, S., Sealfon, A.: It wasn’t me! In: Boldyreva, A., Micciancio, D. (eds.) CRYPTO 2019. LNCS, vol. 11694, pp. 159–190. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26954-8_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Rivest, R.L., Shamir, A., Tauman, Y.: How to leak a secret. In: Boyd, C. (ed.) ASIACRYPT 2001. LNCS, vol. 2248, pp. 552–565. Springer, Heidelberg (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45682-1_32

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Sun, S.-F., Au, M.H., Liu, J.K., Yuen, T.H.: RingCT 2.0: a compact accumulator-based (linkable ring signature) protocol for blockchain cryptocurrency Monero. In: Foley, S.N., Gollmann, D., Snekkenes, E. (eds.) ESORICS 2017. LNCS, vol. 10493, pp. 456–474. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66399-9_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  33. Sakai, Y., Emura, K., Hanaoka, G., Kawai, Y., Matsuda, T., Omote, K.: Group signatures with message-dependent opening. In: Abdalla, M., Lange, T. (eds.) Pairing 2012. LNCS, vol. 7708, pp. 270–294. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36334-4_18

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  34. Slamanig, D., Spreitzer, R., Unterluggauer, T.: Adding controllable linkability to pairing-based group signatures for free. In: Chow, S.S.M., Camenisch, J., Hui, L.C.K., Yiu, S.M. (eds.) ISC 2014. LNCS, vol. 8783, pp. 388–400. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13257-0_23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Yuen, T.H., Esgin, M.F., Liu, J.K., Au, M.H., Ding, Z.: DualRing: generic construction of ring signatures with efficient instantiations. In: Malkin, T., Peikert, C. (eds.) CRYPTO 2021. LNCS, vol. 12825, pp. 251–281. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84242-0_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Yuen, T.H., et al.: RingCT 3.0 for blockchain confidential transaction: shorter size and stronger security. In: Bonneau, J., Heninger, N. (eds.) FC 2020. LNCS, vol. 12059, pp. 464–483. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51280-4_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  37. Zhang, T., Wu, H., Chow, S.S.M.: Structure-preserving certificateless encryption and its application. In: Matsui, M. (ed.) CT-RSA 2019. LNCS, vol. 11405, pp. 1–22. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12612-4_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

his work has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under projects PICOCRYPT (grant agreement No. 101001283), and TERMINET (grant agreement No. 957406), by the Spanish Government under projects SCUM (ref. RTI2018-102043-B-I00), and RED2018-102321-T, by the Madrid Regional Government under project BLOQUES (ref. S2018/TCS-4339). This work is also supported by a grant from Nomadic Labs and the Tezos foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMDEA Software Institute, Madrid, Spain

    Dario Fiore, Lydia Garms & Dimitris Kolonelos

  2. Keyless Technologies Limited, London, UK

    Lydia Garms

  3. Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Dimitris Kolonelos

  4. NEC Laboratories Europe, Heidelberg, Germany

    Claudio Soriente

  5. Zondax AG, Zug, Switzerland

    Ida Tucker

Authors
  1. Dario Fiore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lydia Garms
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dimitris Kolonelos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Claudio Soriente
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ida Tucker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lydia Garms .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Vijayalakshmi Atluri

  2. Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

    Roberto Di Pietro

  3. Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Christian D. Jensen

  4. Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Weizhi Meng

Appendices

A Full Definitions for our AKRS Model

We here provide the full experiment for our AKRS existential unforgeability under chosen message attacks requirement.

figure al

B Full Definitions for our Ring Signature Models

We here provide the full definitions for ring signatures with user controlled (autonomous) linking that were omitted from the main body of the paper.

Signature Unforgeability for RS-UCAL. We next provide the full experiment for the signature unforgeability requirement in the RS-UCAL model.

figure am

Non-Frameability. We now provide the full experiments for both the signature non-frameability and link non-frameability requirements in the RS-UC L model.

figure ao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Fiore, D., Garms, L., Kolonelos, D., Soriente, C., Tucker, I. (2022). Ring Signatures with User-Controlled Linkability. In: Atluri, V., Di Pietro, R., Jensen, C.D., Meng, W. (eds) Computer Security – ESORICS 2022. ESORICS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13555. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17146-8_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17146-8_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-17145-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-17146-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation