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Generalized Key-Evolving Signature Schemes or How to Foil an Armed Adversary

Authors:
Gene Itkis
Peng Xie
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URL: http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/234
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Abstract: Key exposures, known or inconspicuous, are a real security threat. Recovery mechanisms from such exposures are required. For digital signatures such a recovery should ideally ---and when possible--- include invalidation of the signatures issued with the compromised keys. We present new signature schemes with such recovery capabilities. We consider two models for key exposures: full and partial reveal. In the first, a key exposure reveals {\em all} the secrets currently existing in the system. This model is suitable for the pessimistic inconspicuous exposures scenario. The partial reveal model permits the signer to conceal some information under exposure: e.g., under coercive exposures the signer is able to reveal a ``fake'' secret key. We propose a definition of {\em generalized key-evolving signature scheme}, which unifies forward-security and security against the coercive and inconspicuous key exposures (previously considered separately \cite{BM99,NPT02-mono,I02-TE}). The new models help us address repudiation problems inherent in the monotone signatures \cite{NPT02-mono}, and achieve performance improvements.
BibTeX
@misc{eprint-2003-11947,
  title={Generalized Key-Evolving Signature Schemes or How to Foil an Armed Adversary},
  booktitle={IACR Eprint archive},
  keywords={secret-key cryptography /},
  url={http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/234},
  note={ {itkis,xp}@cs.bu.edu 12366 received 10 Nov 2003},
  author={Gene Itkis and Peng Xie},
  year=2003
}