Linkable and traceable anonymous authentication with fine-grained access control

doi:10.1007/s11704-023-3225-3

Front. Comput. Sci.

2025, Vol. 19

Issue (2) : 192801 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-023-3225-3

Information Security

Linkable and traceable anonymous authentication with fine-grained access control

Peng LI¹, Junzuo LAI¹(

), Dehua ZHOU¹, Lianguan HUANG^1,², Meng SUN¹, Wei WU^1,³, Ye YANG^1,⁴

¹. College of Information Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
². Huawei Technology Company Limited, Nanjing 210012, China
³. Huawei Technology Company Limited, Suzhou 215127, China
⁴. ByteDance Electronic Technology Company Limited, Shenzhen 518054, China

Download: PDF(11846 KB) HTML
Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks

Abstract

To prevent misuse of privacy, numerous anonymous authentication schemes with linkability and/or traceability have been proposed to ensure different types of accountabilities. Previous schemes cannot simultaneously achieve public linking and tracing while holding access control, therefore, a new tool named linkable and traceable anonymous authentication with fine-grained access control (LTAA-FGAC) is offered, which is designed to satisfy: (i) access control, i.e., only authorized users who meet a designated authentication policy are approved to authenticate messages; (ii) public linkability, i.e., anyone can tell whether two authentications with respect to a common identifier are created by an identical user; (iii) public traceability, i.e., everyone has the ability to deduce a double-authentication user’s identity from two linked authentications without the help of other parties. We formally define the basic security requirements for the new tool, and also give a generic construction so as to satisfy these requirements. Then, we present a formal security proof and an implementation of our proposed LTAA-FGAC scheme.

Keywords anonymous authentication access control public linkability public traceability

Corresponding Author(s): Junzuo LAI

About author: Li Liu and Yanqing Liu contributed equally to this work.

Issue Date: 24 April 2024

Cite this article:

Peng LI,Junzuo LAI,Dehua ZHOU, et al. Linkable and traceable anonymous authentication with fine-grained access control[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2025, 19(2): 192801.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcs/EN/10.1007/s11704-023-3225-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcs/EN/Y2025/V19/I2/192801

Scheme	Access control	Anonymity	Linkability	Traceability	Public linkability and traceability
[6], [7], [18], [17]	$×$	$√$	$√$	$×$	$×$
[2–4], [11]	$×$	$√$	$×$	$√$	$×$
[5], [19–22]	$×$	$√$	$√$	$√$	$×$
[8], [9], [23]	$×$	$√$	$√$	$√$	$√$
[12], [13], [24], [25–27]	$√$	$√$	$×$	$×$	$×$
[14], [28], [29]	$√$	$√$	$√$	$×$	$×$
[15], [30,33,37], [31,32,34–36]	$√$	$√$	$×$	$√$	$×$
Ours	$√$	$√$	$√$	$√$	$√$

Tab.1 Comparison between our LTAA-FGAC and other schemes.

Fig.1 Running time of algorithms

Fig.2 Length of attribute key, zk-proof and Tuple

1	J K, Liu D S Wong . On the security models of (threshold) ring signature schemes. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology. 2005, 204−217
2	J, Camenisch M Stadler . Efficient group signature schemes for large groups. In: Proceedings of the 17th Annual International Cryptology Conference. 1997, 410−424
3	S, Kumawat S Paul . A new constant-size accountable ring signature scheme without random oracles. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology. 2018, 157−179
4	B, Libert M Yung . Efficient traceable signatures in the standard model. Theoretical Computer Science, 2011, 412(12−14): 1220−1242
5	J Y, Hwang L, Chen H S, Cho D Nyang . Short dynamic group signature scheme supporting controllable linkability. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 2015, 10( 6): 1109–1124
6	X, Boyen T Haines . Forward-secure linkable ring signatures. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy. 2018, 245−264
7	Lu Y, Tang Q, Wang G. ZebraLancer: private and anonymous crowdsourcing system atop open blockchain. In: Proceedings of the 38th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems. 2018, 853−865
8	E, Fujisaki K Suzuki . Traceable ring signature. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public-Key Cryptography. 2007, 181−200
9	M H, Au W, Susilo S M Yiu . Event-oriented k-times revocable-iff-linked group signatures. In: Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy. 2006, 223−234
10	V K Wei . Tracing-by-linking group signatures. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Security. 2005, 149−163
11	Nguyen L, Safavi-Naini R. Dynamic k-times anonymous authentication. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security. 2005, 318−333
12	H K, Maji M, Prabhakaran M Rosulek . Attribute-based signatures. In: Proceedings of Cryptographers’ Track at the RSA Conference 2011. 2011, 376−392
13	J, Blömer J, Bobolz D, Diemert F Eidens . Updatable anonymous credentials and applications to incentive systems. In: Proceedings of 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security. 2019, 1671−1685
14	Kaafarani A, El E Ghadafi . Attribute-based signatures with user-controlled linkability without random oracles. In: Proceedings of the 16th IMA International Conference on Cryptography and Coding. 2017, 161−184
15	K, Gu K, Wang L Yang . Traceable attribute-based signature. Journal of Information Security and Applications, 2019, 49: 102400
16	C, Hébant D Pointcheval . Traceable constant-size multi-authority credentials. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Security and Cryptography for Networks. 2022, 411−434
17	D, Fiore L, Garms D, Kolonelos C, Soriente I Tucker . Ring signatures with user-controlled linkability. In: Proceedings of the 27th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security. 2022, 405−426
18	L, Garms A Lehmann . Group signatures with selective linkability. In: Proceedings of the 22nd IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography. 2019, 190−220
19	D, Slamanig R, Spreitzer T Unterluggauer . Adding controllable linkability to pairing-based group signatures for free. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Information Security. 2014, 388−400
20	S, Krenn K, Samelin C Striecks . Practical group-signatures with privacy-friendly openings. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security. 2019, 10
21	H, Zheng Q, Wu B, Qin L, Zhong S, He J Liu . Linkable group signature for auditing anonymous communication. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy. 2018, 304−321
22	X, Zhang J K, Liu R, Steinfeld V, Kuchta J Yu . Revocable and linkable ring signature. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology. 2020, 3−27
23	M H, Au J K, Liu W, Susilo T H Yuen . Secure ID-based linkable and revocable-iff-linked ring signature with constant-size construction. Theoretical Computer Science, 2013, 469: 1–14
24	T, Okamoto K Takashima . Efficient attribute-based signatures for non-monotone predicates in the standard model. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public Key Cryptography. 2011, 35−52
25	T, Okamoto K Takashima . Decentralized attribute-based signatures. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public-Key Cryptography. 2013, 125−142
26	J, Camenisch M, Drijvers P, Dzurenda J Hajny . Fast keyed-verification anonymous credentials on standard smart cards. In: Proceedings of the 34th IFIP TC 11 International Conference on ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection. 2019, 286−298
27	S Y, Tan T Groß . Monipoly—an expressive q-SDH-based anonymous attribute-based credential system. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security. 2020, 498−526
28	M, Urquidi D, Khader J, Lancrenon L Chen . Attribute-based signatures with controllable linkability. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Trusted Systems. 2016, 114−129
29	Kaafarani A, El L, Chen E, Ghadafi J Davenport . Attribute-based signatures with user-controlled linkability. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security. 2014, 256−269
30	C C, Drǎgan D, Gardham M Manulis . Hierarchical attribute-based signatures. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security. 2018, 213−234
31	J, Wei X, Huang X, Hu W Liu . Revocable threshold attribute-based signature against signing key exposure. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Security Practice and Experience. 2015, 316−330
32	Ding S, Zhao Y, Liu Y. Efficient traceable attribute-based signature. In: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications. 2014, 582−589
33	Kaafarani A, El E, Ghadafi D Khader . Decentralized traceable attribute-based signatures. In: Proceedings of Cryptographer’s Track at the RSA Conference 2014. 2014, 327−348
34	E Ghadafi . Stronger security notions for decentralized traceable attribute-based signatures and more efficient constructions. In: Proceedings of Cryptographer’s Track at the RSA Conference 2015. 2015, 391−409
35	S T, Ali B B Amberker . Attribute-based group signature without random oracles with attribute anonymity. International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2014, 6( 2): 109–132
36	V, Kuchta G, Sharma R A, Sahu O Markowitch . Generic framework for attribute-based group signature. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Security Practice and Experience. 2017, 814−834
37	N, Kaaniche M Laurent . Attribute-based signatures for supporting anonymous certification. In: Proceedings of the 21st European Symposium on Research in Computer Security. 2016, 279−300
38	A, Kapadia P P, Tsang S W Smith . Attribute-based publishing with hidden credentials and hidden policies. In: Proceedings of Network and Distributed System Security Symposium. 2007, 1−14
39	Y, Zhang X, Chen J, Li D S, Wong H Li . Anonymous attribute-based encryption supporting efficient decryption test. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGSAC Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security. 2013, 511−516
40	J, Li K, Ren B, Zhu Z Wan . Privacy-aware attribute-based encryption with user accountability. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Security. 2009, 347−362
41	H Lipmaa . Progression-free sets and sublinear pairing-based non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments. In: Proceedings of the 9th Theory of Cryptography Conference on Theory of Cryptography. 2012, 169−189
42	J, Groth M Maller . Snarky signatures: minimal signatures of knowledge from simulation-extractable SNARKs. In: Proceedings of the 37th Annual International Cryptology Conference on Advances in Cryptology. 2017, 581−612
43	Z, Guan Z, Wan Y, Yang Y, Zhou B Huang . BlockMaze: an efficient privacy-preserving account-model blockchain based on zk-SNARKs. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2022, 19( 3): 1446–1463

[1]	Peng LI, Junzuo LAI, Yongdong WU. Accountable attribute-based authentication with fine-grained access control and its application to crowdsourcing[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2023, 17(1): 171802-.
[2]	Fei MENG, Leixiao CHENG, Mingqiang WANG. ABDKS: attribute-based encryption with dynamic keyword search in fog computing[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2021, 15(5): 155810-.
[3]	Han Yao HUANG, Kyung Tae KIM, Hee Yong YOUN. Determining node duty cycle using Q-learning and linear regression for WSN[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2021, 15(1): 151101-.
[4]	Yan CAO, Zhiqiu HUANG, Yaoshen YU, Changbo KE, Zihao WANG. A topology and risk-aware access control framework for cyber-physical space[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2020, 14(4): 144805-.
[5]	Qiong ZUO, Meiyi XIE, Guanqiu QI, Hong ZHU. Tenant-based access control model for multi-tenancy and sub-tenancy architecture in Software-as-a-Service[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2017, 11(3): 465-484.
[6]	Li LIN,Jian HU,Jianbiao ZHANG. Packet: a privacy-aware access control policy composition method for services composition in cloud environments[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2016, 10(6): 1142-1157.
[7]	Rahat MASOOD,Muhammad Awais SHIBLI,Yumna GHAZI,Ayesha KANWAL,Arshad ALI. Cloud authorization: exploring techniques and approach towards effective access control framework[J]. Front. Comput. Sci., 2015, 9(2): 297-321.
[8]	Xiaoming WANG, Guoxiang YAO. Access control scheme with tracing for outsourced databases[J]. Front Comput Sci, 2012, 6(6): 677-685.
[9]	Defu CHEN, Zhengsu TAO. An adaptive polling interval and short preamble media access control protocol for wireless sensor networks[J]. Front Comput Sci Chin, 2011, 5(3): 300-307.

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Shared

Discussed