Paper 2015/913

Functional Signcryption: Notion, Construction, and Applications

Pratish Datta, Ratna Dutta, and Sourav Mukhopadhyay

Abstract

Functional encryption (FE) enables sophisticated control over decryption rights in a multi-user scenario, while functional signature (FS) allows to enforce complex constraints on signing capabilities. This paper introduces the concept of functional signcryption (FSC) that aims to provide the functionalities of both FE and FS in an unified cost-effective primitive. FSC provides a solution to the problem of achieving confidentiality and authenticity simultaneously in digital communication and storage systems involving multiple users with better efficiency compared to a sequential implementation of FE and FS. We begin by providing formal definition of FSC and formulating its security requirements. Next, we present a generic construction of this challenging primitive that supports arbitrary polynomial-size signing and decryption functions from known cryptographic building blocks, namely, indistinguishability obfuscation (IO) and statistically simulation-sound noninteractive zero-knowledge proof of knowledge (SSS-NIZKPoK). Finally, we exhibit a number of representative applications of FSC: (I) We develop the first construction of attribute-based signcryption (ABSC) supporting signing and decryption policies representable by general polynomial-size circuits from FSC. (II) We show how FSC can serve as a tool for building SSS-NIZKPoK system and IO, a result which in conjunction with our generic FSC construction can also be interpreted as establishing an equivalence between FSC and the other two fundamental cryptographic primitives.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Public-key cryptography
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Major revision. ProvSec 2015
Keywords
functional signcryptionIOSSS-NIZKPoKpolynomial-size circuits
Contact author(s)
pratishdatta @ gmail com
History
2015-09-22: received
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2015/913
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2015/913,
      author = {Pratish Datta and Ratna Dutta and Sourav Mukhopadhyay},
      title = {Functional Signcryption: Notion, Construction, and Applications},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2015/913},
      year = {2015},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/913}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/913}
}
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