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Purpose-restricted Anonymous Mobile Communications Using Anonymous Signatures in Online Credential Systems

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Abstract

To avoid the risk of long-term storage of secrets on a portable device, an online credential system supports the roaming user in retrieving securely at various locations his private key and other material to generate anonymous signatures. The protocol proposed here allows a roaming mobile user to access anonymously services such as whistle blowing and net-counselling. Our approach: (1) allows a mobile user, remembering a short password, to anonymously and securely retrieve the credentials necessary for his anonymous communication without assuming a pre-established anonymous channel to the credential server or establishing an anonymous channel using the time-consuming existing rerouting techniques; (2) provides authenticated anonymous access to privacy-related services without rerouting the packets; (3) helps combatting the abuse of anonymity for performing illegal activities (e.g. redistribution of copy-righted contents, illegal drug trading and so on).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for TeleInfrastuktur, Aalborg University, Niels JernesVej 12, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark

    Hanane Fathi

  2. Research Center for Information Security (RCIS), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology(AIST), 1-18-13 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0021, Japan

    SeongHan Shin, Kazukuni Kobara & Hideki Imai

  3. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-8551, Japan

    Hideki Imai

Authors
  1. Hanane Fathi
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  2. SeongHan Shin
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  3. Kazukuni Kobara
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  4. Hideki Imai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanane Fathi.

Additional information

Part of this work was presented in a paper at WPMC08. This work was done while Hanane Fathi was at AIST RCIS.

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Fathi, H., Shin, S., Kobara, K. et al. Purpose-restricted Anonymous Mobile Communications Using Anonymous Signatures in Online Credential Systems. Wireless Pers Commun 54, 225–236 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9715-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9715-2

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