Fuzzy identity based signature with applications to biometric authentication

We introduce a new cryptographic primitive which is the signature analog of fuzzy identity based encryption (FIBE). We call it fuzzy identity based signature (FIBS). It possesses similar error-tolerance property as FIBE that allows a user with the private key for identity omega to decrypt a ciphertext encrypted for identity omega' if and only if omega and omega' are within a certain distance judged by some metric. We give the definition and security model of FIBS and present the first practical FIBS scheme. We prove that our scheme is existentially unforgeable against adaptively chosen message attack in the standard model. To our best knowledge, this primitive was never considered in the identity based signature before. FIBS is of particular value for biometric authentication, where biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, iris, voice and gait are used in human identification. We demonstrate the applicability of our construction to secure biometric authentication. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.