An Efficient Dynamic and Distributed RSA Accumulator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic RSA accumulator-based authenticated dictionary that enables efficient updates and constant-time verification, with practical implementation results for secure data verification systems.

Contribution

It presents a novel dynamic RSA accumulator scheme supporting efficient updates and constant-time verification, with empirical evaluation for practical deployment.

Findings

Supports efficient incremental updates of the set

Allows constant-time verification of answers

Provides empirical data for system implementation

Abstract

We show how to use the RSA one-way accumulator to realize an efficient and dynamic authenticated dictionary, where untrusted directories provide cryptographically verifiable answers to membership queries on a set maintained by a trusted source. Our accumulator-based scheme for authenticated dictionaries supports efficient incremental updates of the underlying set by insertions and deletions of elements. Also, the user can optimally verify in constant time the authenticity of the answer provided by a directory with a simple and practical algorithm. We have also implemented this scheme and we give empirical results that can be used to determine the best strategy for systems implementation with respect to resources that are available. This work has applications to certificate revocation in public key infrastructure and end-to-end integrity of data collections published by third parties on the Internet.