Universal re-encryption of signatures and controlling anonymous information flow

Year, pages: 2006, 179 - 188

Anonymous communication protocols, very essential for preserving privacy of the parties communicating, may lead to severe problems. A malicious server may use anonymous communication protocols for injecting unwelcome messages into the system so that their source can be hardly traced. Therefore anonymity and privacy protection on one side and protection against such phenomena as spam are so far contradictory goals. We propose a mechanism that may be used to limit the mentioned side effects of privacy protection. During the proposed protocol each encrypted message admitted into the system is signed by a respective authority. Then, on its route through the network the encrypted message and the signature are re-encrypted universally. The purpose of universal re-encryption is to hide the routes of the messages from an observer monitoring the traffic. Despite re-encryption, the signature of the authority remains valid. Depending on a particular application, verification of the signature is possible either off-line by anybody with access to the ciphertext and the signature or requires contacting the authority that has issued the signature. Our work is an extension of recent works by Golle, Jakobsson, Juels and Syverson.

Klonowski, M., Kutyłowski, M., Lauks, A., Zagórski, F. 2006. Universal re-encryption of signatures and controlling anonymous information flow. In Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, vol. 33, no.1, pp. 179-188. 1210-3195.

Klonowski, M., Kutyłowski, M., Lauks, A., Zagórski, F. (2006). Universal re-encryption of signatures and controlling anonymous information flow. Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, 33(1), 179-188. 1210-3195.