A multi-signature scheme enables a group of signers to produce a
compact, joint signature on a common document. However, existing schemes
impose key setup or PKI requirements that make them impractical, such as
requiring a dedicated, distributed key generation protocol amongst
potential signers, or assuming strong, concurrent zero-knowledge proofs
of knowledge of secret keys done to the CA at key registration.
We provide new schemes that are proved secure in the plain public-key
model, meaning requires nothing more than that each signer has a
(certified) public key. The important simplification in key management
achieved is not at the cost of efficiency or assurance: our schemes
match or surpass known ones in terms of signing time, verification time
and signature size, and are proved secure in the random-oracle model
under standard (not bilinear map related) assumptions. One of the proofs
is based on a simplified and generalized Forking Lemma that may be of
independent interest.
We also present an identity-based multi-signature scheme based on RSA.
The identity-based paradigm is particularly appealing for the case of
multi-signatures, because the need to transmit the public keys of all
signers partially defeats the purpose of using multi-signatures.
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