Paper 2008/328

Attribute-Based Signatures: Achieving Attribute-Privacy and Collusion-Resistance

Hemanta Maji, Manoj Prabhakaran, and Mike Rosulek

Abstract

We introduce a new and versatile cryptographic primitive called {\em Attribute-Based Signatures} (ABS), in which a signature attests not to the identity of the individual who endorsed a message, but instead to a (possibly complex) claim regarding the attributes she posseses. ABS offers: * A strong unforgeability guarantee for the verifier, that the signature was produced by a {\em single} party whose attributes satisfy the claim being made; i.e., not by a collusion of individuals who pooled their attributes together. * A strong privacy guarantee for the signer, that the signature reveals nothing about the identity or attributes of the signer beyond what is explicitly revealed by the claim being made. We formally define the security requirements of ABS as a cryptographic primitive, and then describe an efficient ABS construction based on groups with bilinear pairings. We prove that our construction is secure in the generic group model. Finally, we illustrate several applications of this new tool; in particular, ABS fills a critical security requirement in attribute-based messaging (ABM) systems. A powerful feature of our ABS construction is that unlike many other attribute-based cryptographic primitives, it can be readily used in a {\em multi-authority} setting, wherein users can make claims involving combinations of attributes issued by independent and mutually distrusting authorities.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Unknown where it was published
Keywords
digital signaturesattribute-based signatures
Contact author(s)
rosulek @ uiuc edu
History
2008-08-03: received
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2008/328
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2008/328,
      author = {Hemanta Maji and Manoj Prabhakaran and Mike Rosulek},
      title = {Attribute-Based Signatures: Achieving Attribute-Privacy and Collusion-Resistance},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2008/328},
      year = {2008},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2008/328}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2008/328}
}
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