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Quotable Signatures for Authenticating Shared Quotes

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Progress in Cryptology – LATINCRYPT 2023 (LATINCRYPT 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14168))

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Abstract

Quotable signature schemes are digital signature schemes with the additional property that from the signature for a message, any party can extract signatures for (allowable) quotes from the message, without knowing the secret key or interacting with the signer of the original message. Crucially, the extracted signatures are still signed with the original secret key. We define a notion of security for quotable signature schemes and construct a concrete example of a quotable signature scheme, using Merkle trees and classical digital signature schemes. The scheme is shown to be secure, with respect to the aforementioned notion of security. Additionally, we prove bounds on the complexity of the constructed scheme. Finally, concrete use cases of quotable signatures are considered, using them to combat misinformation by bolstering authentic content on social media. We consider both how quotable signatures can be used, and why using them could help mitigate the effects of fake news.

The first and third authors were supported in part by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, Natural Sciences, grant DFF-0135-00018B. All authors are currently associated with DDC – the Digital Democracy Center at the University of Southern Denmark.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This use of “path” is slightly counter intuitive, since it refers to the hashes needed to calculate the hashes on the path from the leaf to the root, and hence not the nodes on this path but their siblings.

  2. 2.

    Of course, algorithms can be adapted to include the entire text instead in such (rare) cases where that might require less space.

  3. 3.

    Specifically, we talked with the editor in charge of the platforms and the editor in charge of the digital editorial office at a large media company that produces multiple newspapers for different regional areas, in both paper and digital versions.

  4. 4.

    To be made available at https://serfurth.dk/research/archive/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Joan Boyar, Simon Erfurth, Kim S. Larsen & Ruben Niederhagen

  2. Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ruben Niederhagen

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  1. Joan Boyar
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  2. Simon Erfurth
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  3. Kim S. Larsen
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  4. Ruben Niederhagen
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Correspondence to Kim S. Larsen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Innovation Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Abdelrahaman Aly

  2. NTT Social Informatics Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan

    Mehdi Tibouchi

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Boyar, J., Erfurth, S., Larsen, K.S., Niederhagen, R. (2023). Quotable Signatures for Authenticating Shared Quotes. In: Aly, A., Tibouchi, M. (eds) Progress in Cryptology – LATINCRYPT 2023. LATINCRYPT 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14168. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44469-2_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44469-2_14

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