Paper 2024/024

FlexHi: A Flexible Hierarchical Threshold Signature Scheme

Muhammed Ali Bingol, De Montfort University, Cyber Technology Institute, Leicester, United Kingdom
Sermin Kocaman, Department of Cryptology, Institute of Applied Mathematics, METU, Turkey
Ali Dogan, Blockchain Technologies Unit, TUBITAK BILGEM, Kocaeli, Turkey
Sibel Kurt Toplu, Blockchain Technologies Unit, TUBITAK BILGEM, Kocaeli, Turkey
Abstract

Threshold signature schemes have gained prominence in enhancing the security and flexibility of digital signatures, allowing a group of participants to collaboratively create signatures while maintaining a predefined threshold of participants for validity. However, conventional threshold signatures treat all participants equally, lacking the capability to accommodate hierarchical structures often seen in real-world applications. Hierarchical Threshold Signature Schemes (HTSS) naturally extend the concept of simple threshold signatures, offering a solution that aligns with hierarchical organizational structures. Our paper introduces a novel, efficient, and flexible HTSS that employs independent polynomials at each hierarchical level, removing limitations on threshold values. This adaptability enables us to tailor the scheme to diverse requirements, whether signing requires only top-level nodes or lower-level participants' involvement. Based on our analysis, our FlexHi integrated into the FROST scheme outperforms Tassa's hierarchical scheme on FROST and operates approximately 30% to 40% faster, depending on the number of participants and the chosen threshold values. This demonstrates that, in addition to flexibility, our scheme has practical benefits through improved performance.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Cryptographic protocols
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Minor revision. 12th Computing Conference 2024
Keywords
Hierarchical Threshold SignatureSecret-SharingSecurityPrivacy
Contact author(s)
muhammed bingol @ dmu ac uk
sermin cakin @ metu edu tr
doganali @ tubitak gov tr
sibel toplu @ tubitak gov tr
History
2024-08-11: last of 4 revisions
2024-01-07: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2024/024
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2024/024,
      author = {Muhammed Ali Bingol and Sermin Kocaman and Ali Dogan and Sibel Kurt Toplu},
      title = {{FlexHi}: A Flexible Hierarchical Threshold Signature Scheme},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2024/024},
      year = {2024},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/024}
}
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