Paper 2022/803 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2022/803 ↗

How to Avoid Repetitions in Lattice-based Deniable Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Abstract

Interactive zero-knowledge systems are a very important cryptographic primitive, used in many applications, especially when deniability (also known as non-transferability) is desired. In the lattice-based setting, the currently most efficient interactive zero-knowledge systems employ the technique of rejection sampling, which implies that the interaction does not always finish correctly in the first execution; the whole interaction must be re-run until abort does not happen. While repetitions due to aborts are acceptable in theory, in some practical applications it is desirable to avoid re-runs for usability reasons. In this work we present a generic technique that departs from an interactive zero-knowledge system (that might require multiple re-runs to complete the protocol) and obtains a 3-moves zero-knowledge system (without re-runs). The transformation combines the well-known Fiat-Shamir technique with a couple of initially exchanged messages. The resulting 3-moves system enjoys honest-verifier zero-knowledge and can be easily turned into a fully deniable proof using standard techniques. We show some practical scenarios where our transformation can be beneficial and we also discuss the results of an implementation of our transformation.