Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Short Linkable Ring Signatures for E-Voting, E-Cash and Attestation

  • Conference paper
Information Security Practice and Experience (ISPEC 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 3439))

Abstract

A ring signature scheme can be viewed as a group signature scheme with no anonymity revocation and with simple group setup. A linkable ring signature (LRS) scheme additionally allows anyone to determine if two ring signatures have been signed by the same group member. Recently, Dodis et al. [18] gave a short (constant-sized) ring signature scheme. We extend it to the first short LRS scheme, and reduce its security to a new hardness assumption, the Link Decisional RSA (LD-RSA) Assumption. We also extend [18]’s other schemes to a generic LRS scheme and a generic linkable group signature scheme. We discuss three applications of our schemes. Kiayias and Yung [22] constructed the first e-voting scheme which simultaneously achieves efficient tallying, public verifiability, and write-in capability for a typical voter distribution under which only a small portion writes in. We construct an e-voting scheme based on our short LRS scheme which achieves the same even for all worst-case voter distribution. Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA) [6] is essentially a ring signature scheme with certain linking properties that can be naturally implemented using LRS schemes. The construction of an offline anonymous e-cash scheme using LRS schemes is also discussed.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
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 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

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ateniese, G., Camenisch, J., Joye, M., Tsudik, G.: A practical and provably secure coalition-resistant group signature scheme. In: Bellare, M. (ed.) CRYPTO 2000. LNCS, vol. 1880, pp. 255–270. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. 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) (to appear)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Boneh, D., Boyen, X., Shacham, H.: Short group signatures. In: Cachin, C., Camenisch, J.L. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3027. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Brands, S.: Untraceable off-line cash in wallets with observers. In: Stinson, D.R. (ed.) CRYPTO 1993. LNCS, vol. 773, pp. 302–318. Springer, Heidelberg (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bresson, E., Stern, J., Szydlo, M.: Threshold ring signatures and applications to ad-hoc groups. In: Yung, M. (ed.) CRYPTO 2002. LNCS, vol. 2442, pp. 465–480. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Brickell, E., Camenisch, J., Chen, L.: Direct anonymous attestation. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2004/205 (2004), http://eprint.iacr.org/

  7. Camenisch, J., Lysyanskaya, A.: Efficient non-transferable anonymous multishow credential system with optional anonymity revocation. In: Pfitzmann, B. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 2001. LNCS, vol. 2045, pp. 93–118. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Camenisch, J., Lysyanskaya, A.: A signature scheme with efficient protocols. In: Cimato, S., Galdi, C., Persiano, G. (eds.) SCN 2002. LNCS, vol. 2576, pp. 268–289. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Camenisch, J., Lysyanskaya, A.: Signature schemes and anonymous credentials from bilinear maps (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Camenisch, J., Piveteau, J.-M., Stadler, M.: An efficient fair payment system. In: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM conference on Computer and communications security, pp. 88–94. ACM Press, New York (1996)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Camenisch, J., Stadler, M.: Efficient group signature schemes for large groups. In: Kaliski Jr., B.S. (ed.) CRYPTO 1997. LNCS, vol. 1294, pp. 410–424. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chaum, D.: Untraceable electronic mail, return addresses, and digital pseudonyms. Commun. ACM 24(2), 84–90 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Chaum, D.: Blind signatures for untraceable payments. In: Crypto 1982, pp. 199–203. Plenum Press, New York (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Chaum, D., Fiat, A., Naor, M.: Untraceable electronic cash. In: Goldwasser, S. (ed.) CRYPTO 1988. LNCS, vol. 403, pp. 319–327. Springer, Heidelberg (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Chaum, D., van Heyst, E.: Group signatures. In: Davies, D.W. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 1991. LNCS, vol. 547, pp. 257–265. Springer, Heidelberg (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cohen, J.D., Fischer, M.J.: A robust and verifiable cryptographyically secure election scheme. In: FOCS 1985, pp. 372–382 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cramer, R., Damgard, I., Schoenmakers, B.: Proof of partial knowledge and simplified design of witness hiding protocols. In: Desmedt, Y.G. (ed.) CRYPTO 1994. LNCS, vol. 839, pp. 174–187. Springer, Heidelberg (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Dodis, Y., Kiayias, A., Nicolosi, A., Shoup, V.: Anonymous identification in ad hoc groups. In: Cachin, C., Camenisch, J.L. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3027, pp. 609–626. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Feige, U., Shamir, A.: Zero knowledge proofs of knowledge in two rounds. In: Brassard, G. (ed.) CRYPTO 1989. LNCS, vol. 435, pp. 526–544. Springer, Heidelberg (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Goldreich, O., Micali, S., Wigderson, A.: Proof that yields nothing but their validity or all languages in NP have zero-knowledge proof system. Journal of the ACM 38(3), 691–729 (1991)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Trusted Computing Group. Trusted computing platform alliance (tcpa) main specification, version 1.1a. republished as trusted computing group (tcg) main specifcation, version 1.1b (2001), http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org

  22. Kiayias, A., Yung, M.: The vector-ballot e-voting approach. In: Juels, A. (ed.) FC 2004. LNCS, vol. 3110, pp. 72–89. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Liu, J.K., Wei, V.K., Wong, D.S.: Linkable spontaneous anonymous group signature for ad hoc groups (extended abstract). In: Wang, H., Pieprzyk, J., Varadharajan, V. (eds.) ACISP 2004. LNCS, vol. 3108, pp. 325–335. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Lysyanskaya, A., Ramzan, Z.: Group blind digital signatures: A scalable solution to electronic cash. In: Hirschfeld, R. (ed.) FC 1998. LNCS, vol. 1465, pp. 184–197. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Maitland, G., Boyd, C.: Fair electronic cash based on a group signature scheme. In: Qing, S., Okamoto, T., Zhou, J. (eds.) ICICS 2001. LNCS, vol. 2229. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Nakanishi, T., Fujiwara, T., Watanabe, H.: A linkable group signature and its application to secret voting. In: 4th Int’l Symp. on Communicatin Theory and Appl. (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Nakanishi, T., Fujiwara, T., Watanabe, H.: A linkable group signature and its application to secret voting. Trans. of Information Processing Society of Japan 40(7), 3085–3096 (1999)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  28. Nguyen, L., Safavi-Naini, R.: Efficient and provably secure trapdoor-free goup signature schems from bilinear pairings. In: Lee, P.J. (ed.) ASIACRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3329, pp. 372–386. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. 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)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Teranishi, I., Furukawa, J., Sako, K.: k-times anonymous authentication. In: Lee, P.J. (ed.) ASIACRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3329, pp. 308–322. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Traoré, J.: Group signatures and their relevance to privacy-protecting off-line electronic cash systems. In: Pieprzyk, J.P., Safavi-Naini, R., Seberry, J. (eds.) ACISP 1999. LNCS, vol. 1587, pp. 228–243. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Tsang, P.P., Wei, V.K.: Short linkable ring signatures for e-voting, e-cash and attestation. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2004/281 (2004), http://eprint.iacr.org/

  33. Tsang, P.P., Wei, V.K., Au, M.H., Chan, T.K., Liu, J.K., Wong, D.S.: Separable linkable threshold ring signatures. In: Canteaut, A., Viswanathan, K. (eds.) INDOCRYPT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3348, pp. 384–398. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  34. Wei, V.K.: Tracing-by-linking group signatures. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2004/370 (2004), http://eprint.iacr.org/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Patrick P. Tsang & Victor K. Wei

Authors
  1. Patrick P. Tsang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Victor K. Wei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore

    Robert H. Deng

  2. Institute for Infocomm Research, 119613, Singapore

    Feng Bao

  3. School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University,  

    HweeHwa Pang

  4. Cryptography and Security Department Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore

    Jianying Zhou

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Tsang, P.P., Wei, V.K. (2005). Short Linkable Ring Signatures for E-Voting, E-Cash and Attestation. In: Deng, R.H., Bao, F., Pang, H., Zhou, J. (eds) Information Security Practice and Experience. ISPEC 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3439. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31979-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31979-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25584-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31979-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation