A blind signature-based protocol for tracing traitors

Abstract

We introduce a protocol based on blind signatures using elliptic curves that allows to trace those users of any service, traitors, that share their legitimate license with other people, avoiding the abuse or the unauthorized use of legal licenses. We show that our protocol is incapable of implicating innocent users in the illegal distribution of licenses and that tracing produces indisputable proof for the implication of the traitors. We also show that our protocol provides anonymity to users unless they share their private information and compare it to other existing schemes. We also provide an implementation showing its practical application.

Keywords:

• blind signatures
• elliptic curve
• license protection
• traitor detection
• high-performance computing

2010 AMS Subject Classifications:

• 00A69
• 11T71
• 14G50
• 68U01
• 14H52

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grants TEC2009-13763-C02-02 and TIN2008-01117 and from Junta de Andalucía FQM 0211 and P11-TIC7176.