Paper 2025/221 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2025/221 ↗
Uniformly Most Powerful Tests for Ad Hoc Transactions in Monero
Abstract
We introduce a general, low-cost, low-power statistical test for transactions in transaction protocols with small anonymity set authentication (TPSASAs), such as Monero. The test classifies transactions as ad hoc (spontaneously constructed to spend a deterministically selected key) or self-churned (constructed from a probability distribution very close to that of the default wallet software, and with the same sender and receiver). The test is a uniformly most powerful (UMP) likelihood ratio tests (LRT) from the Neyman-Pearson Lemma, and makes no assumptions about user behavior. We extend these tests to expoit prior information about user behavior. We discuss test parameterization, as well as how anonymity set cardinality and user behavior impact test performance. We also describe a maximum-likelihood de-anonymization attack on Monero based on our test.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
PDF- Category
- Cryptographic protocols
- Publication info
- Preprint.
- History
- 2025-02-14: last updated
- 2025-02-13: published
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2025/221
- License
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/221,
author = {Brandon Goodell and Rigo Salazar and Freeman Slaughter},
title = {Uniformly Most Powerful Tests for Ad Hoc Transactions in Monero},
howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/221},
year = {2025},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/221}
}