Techniques in Allowing Multi-Show in Digital Credentials

Abstract

Cryptographic credential systems provide some possible solutions to the problem of privacy leakage of users in the ``virtual'' world. This thesis presents a privacy-preserving method which can enable the cryptographic credentials to have the capability of anonymous multi-show.

Our approach builds on the work of Brands from the year 2000 which proposed a Digital Credential system that can protect users' privacy. This system is efficient but not perfect, since the Digital Credentials in that system can only be shown once to avoid linkability. We propose the use of a malleable signature technique to transform Brands' Digital Credentials from single-show to multi-show capability.

In this thesis, we describe our modified issuing and showing protocols and discuss the security properties of our proposed scheme. We have a basic implementation (proof of concept) to support our concept and analysis of timing results is also provided. In the end, we point out a number of future directions which can be used to complement or improve this approach.