EFFICIENT ZERO-KNOWLEDGE IDENTIFICATION SCHEMES FOR SMART CARDS

Secure identification is an important security issue to avoid computer fraud due to masquerading. This can be achieved with zero-knowledge based smart cards. We present very efficient new zero-knowledge schemes in a general algebraic setting. Particular cases of our scheme improve the performance of the Guillou-Quisquater and the Chaum-Evertsevan de Graaf schemes. Our scheme is formally proven and, overall, is more efficient than currently available schemes including the Fiat-Shamir scheme. As an application we discuss how our scheme can be used for identification, in particular as an electronic passport scheme.