Zero-knowledge proofs for privacy-preserving user authentication

• Main Author: Gupta, Anant
• Other Authors: Tay Kian Boon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Computer and Information Science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175334
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In a world shaped by increasingly pervasive digitalization, the role of cryptography in securing information and protecting privacy has become paramount. Cryptography, the art and science of securing information for transmission, is fundamental for even the most basic forms of communication in the present day. Its applications span across multiple domains and offer solutions to the challenges posed by the growing digitization of information and services. The digital landscape is ever evolving and the risks associated with data breaches, leaks, unauthorized access and privacy violations have become more pronounced. Cryptography provides a suite of tools and algorithms to mitigate these risks and ensure the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of sensitive information. A noteworthy application of cryptography is in the field of privacy preserving authentication through Zero-knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). ZKPs allow individuals to authenticate their identity without divulging any private details. Zero-knowledge proofs were discussed in a paper by Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, where they demonstrated that is it possible for a ‘prover’ to convince a ‘verifier’ that a statement about a data point is true without divulging any additional information about the data. This circumvents the issue of revealing any sensitive information, as the only requirement is for the prover to perform some task that can only be performed if the prover knows the underlying information. Hence, the scope of this project extends beyond the theoretical considerations to the practical implementation of ZKPs, which underscores the need for cryptographic solutions which have the right balance between security and privacy. The motivation behind this project is to secure the user’s data from all eyes, even the organization they are interacting with. This project will discuss the concepts of ZKPs, various types of ZKPs as well as a practical implementation of ZKPs in a privacy preserving authentication system, which can be implemented to overcome the problems of data ownership and misuse.