Can Alice and Bob be random: a study on human playing zero knowledge protocols

TL;DR

This paper investigates the role of human players in zero knowledge protocols, specifically exploring whether humans can effectively simulate the randomness required for secure cryptographic interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel study on human participation in zero knowledge protocols, focusing on the graph 3-coloring problem as a benchmark for human-based cryptographic experiments.

Findings

Humans can simulate randomness in zero knowledge protocols to some extent.

Human strategies can potentially compromise the security assumptions of ZKP.

The study provides insights into human factors affecting cryptographic protocol security.

Abstract

The research described in this abstract was initiated by discussions between the author and Giovanni Di Crescenzo in Barcelona in early 2004. It was during Advanced Course on Contemporary Cryptology that Di Crescenzo gave a course on zero knowledge protocols (ZKP), see [1]. After that course we started to play with unorthodox ideas for breaking ZKP, especially one based on graph 3-coloring. It was chosen for investigation because it is being considered as a "benchmark" ZKP, see [2], [3]. At this point we briefly recall such a protocol's description.