Paper 2006/155 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2006/155 ↗

Independent Zero-Knowledge Sets

Abstract

We define and construct Independent Zero-Knowledge Sets (ZKS) protocols. In a ZKS protocols, a Prover commits to a set $S$, and for any $x$, proves non-interactively to a Verifier if $x \in S$ or $x \notin S$ without revealing any other information about $S$. In the {\em independent} ZKS protocols we introduce, the adversary is prevented from successfully correlate her set to the one of a honest prover. Our notion of independence in particular implies that the resulting ZKS protocol is non-malleable. On the way to this result we define the notion of {\em independence} for commitment schemes. It is shown that this notion implies non-malleability, and we argue that this new notion has the potential to simplify the design and security proof of non-malleable commitment schemes. Efficient implementations of ZKS protocols are based on the notion of mercurial commitments. Our efficient constructions of independent ZKS protocols requires the design of {\em new} commitment schemes that are simultaneously independent (and thus non-malleable) and mercurial.