Towards A Security Model for Computational Puzzle Schemes

Qiang Tang (1) , Arjan Jeckmans

1 Computer Science

In the literature, computational puzzle schemes have been considered as a useful tool for a number of applications, such as constructing timed cryptography, fighting junk emails, and protecting critical infrastructure from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. However, there is a lack of a general security model for studying these schemes. In this paper, we propose such a security model and formally define two properties, namely the determinable difficulty property and the parallel computation resistance property. Furthermore, we prove that a variant of the RSW scheme, proposed by Rivest, Shamir, and Wagner, achieves both properties.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Domaines: Informatique [cs]

Qiang Tang, Arjan Jeckmans. Towards A Security Model for Computational Puzzle Schemes. International Journal of Computer Mathematics, 2011, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00207160.2010.543951⟩. ⟨hal-00691330⟩