Separable linkable threshold ring signatures

Abstract

A ring signature scheme is a group signature scheme with no group manager to setup a group or revoke a signer. A linkable ring signature, introduced by Liu, et al. [20], additionally allows anyone to determine if two ring signatures are signed by the same group member (a.k.a. they are linked). In this paper, we present the first separable linkable ring signature scheme, which also supports an efficient thresholding option. We also present the security model and reduce the security of our scheme to well-known hardness assumptions. In particular, we introduce the security notions of accusatory linkability and non-slanderability to linkable ring signatures. Our scheme supports "event-oriented" linking. Applications to such linking criterion is discussed. © Springer-Verlag 2004.