Breaking four mix-related schemes based on Universal Re-encryption

Universal Re-encryption allows El-Gamal ciphertexts to be re-encrypted without knowledge of their corresponding public keys. This has made it an enticing building block for anonymous communications protocols. In this work we analyze four schemes related to mix networks that make use of Universal Re-encryption and find serious weaknesses in all of them. The Universal Re-encryption of signatures is open to existential forgery, and the two mix schemes can be fully compromised by an passive adversary observing a single message close to the sender. The fourth scheme, the rWonGoo anonymous channel, turns out to be less secure than the original Crowds scheme, on which it is based. Our attacks make extensive use of unintended ‘services’ provided by the network nodes acting as decryption and re-routing oracles. Finally, our attacks against rWonGoo demonstrate that anonymous channels are not automatically composable: using two of them in a careless manner makes the system more vulnerable to...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: IJISEC
• Authors: George Danezis
• Keywords: Anonymous Channels, Corresponding Public Keys, IJISEC 2007, Universal Re-encryption