cross-cutting Context Information Management (CIM); NGSI-LD; Enabling chain of trust from Content Sources to Content Consumers

DGR/CIM-0018

General Information

Status
Not Published
Current Stage
12 - Completion
Due Date
30-Aug-2022
Completion Date
02-Sep-2022
Ref Project
Standard
ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09) - cross-cutting Context Information Management (CIM); NGSI-LD; Enabling chain of trust from Content Sources to Content Consumers
English language
62 pages
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GROUP REPORT
cross-cutting Context Information Management (CIM);
NGSI-LD; Enabling chain of trust from
Content Sources to Content Consumers
Disclaimer
The present document has been produced and approved by the cross-cutting Context Information Management (CIM) ETSI
Industry Specification Group (ISG) and represents the views of those members who participated in this ISG.
It does not necessarily represent the views of the entire ETSI membership.

2 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)

Reference
DGR/CIM-0018
Keywords
blockchain, digital signature, distributed ledger,
provenance, trust, verifiable registry
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ETSI
3 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 5
1 Scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 7
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 9
3.1 Terms . 9
3.2 Symbols . 10
3.3 Abbreviations . 10
4 Data integrity and provenance . 11
4.1 Goals . 11
4.2 Scenarios and Use Cases . 11
4.3 Architectures and Existing Specifications . 11
4.3.1 W3C data integrity model . 11
4.3.1.0 Introduction . 11
4.3.1.1 Controller Document . 12
4.3.1.2 Selective disclosure and aggregation . 13
4.3.1.3 W3C BBS+ Signature suite . 13
4.3.1.4 Bls12381G2Key2020 . 15
4.3.1.5 BLS use cases . 16
4.3.2 Integrity of linked content . 16
4.3.2.0 Introduction . 16
4.3.2.1 Hashlinks . 16
4.3.2.2 IPFS. 17
4.3.3 JWS: JSON Web Signature . 17
4.4 Status of the Specifications . 19
5 Decentralized Identifiers . 19
5.1 Introduction . 19
5.2 Goals . 19
5.3 Scenarios and Use Cases . 19
5.4 Architectures and Existing Specifications . 20
5.4.0 Introduction. 20
5.4.1 DID architecture . 21
5.5 DIDs for juridical persons . 22
5.5.1 Introduction. 22
5.5.2 Requirements on a DID for juridical persons . 23
5.6 Status of the Specifications . 23
6 Verifiable Credentials and Authenticity . 23
6.1 Goals . 23
6.2 Scenarios and Use Cases . 24
6.3 Architectures and Existing Specifications . 24
6.3.1 W3C Verifiable Credentials . 24
6.3.1.0 Introduction . 24
6.3.1.1 Advantages . 24
6.3.1.2 Lifecycle . 25
6.3.1.3 Credential Structure . 25
6.3.1.4 Presentation Structure . 27
6.3.2 C2PA . 30
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4 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
6.3.2.0 Introduction . 30
6.3.2.1 Architecture . 30
6.3.2.2 Trust Model . 33
6.4 Status of the Specifications . 34
7 Trust Framework and the Verifiable Data Registry . 34
7.1 Introduction . 34
7.2 Some requirements . 35
7.2.0 Introduction. 35
7.2.1 Timestamping . 35
7.2.2 Immutability . 36
7.2.3 Un-censurability . 36
7.2.4 Identity binding . 36
7.2.5 Privacy . 37
7.2.6 Conclusion . 37
8 JSON Canonicalization Algorithms . 38
8.1 Introduction . 38
8.2 Canonicalization algorithms and their status . 39
8.2.0 Introduction. 39
8.2.1 JCS: JSON Canonicalization Scheme . 39
8.2.1.0 Introduction . 39
8.2.1.1 JWS/CT (JWS "Clear Text") . 40
8.2.2 RDF Dataset Canonicalization . 41
9 Analysis and Comparison . 43
9.1 Introduction . 43
9.2 Mapping of actors and terms among different standards . 43
9.3 Mapping of Structures among different Standards . 44
10 Suggested Solution . 45
10.1 Introduction . 45
10.2 Modular approach. 45
10.2.0 Introduction. 45
10.2.1 Algorithm . 46
10.2.2 Type changing and Multitype issue . 50
10.2.3 Consideration about merged fragment integrity . 51
10.2.4 Attempts to update signed Attributes . 52
10.3 Call Back approach . 52
10.3.0 Introduction. 52
10.3.1 Algorithm . 53
10.3.2 Final Consideration about the Call Back approach . 58
10.4 Bridging DIDs and ETSI identifiers for juridical persons . 58
11 Prototyped Implementation of Digital Signatures . 59
History . 62

ETSI
5 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be
found in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to
ETSI in respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the
ETSI Web server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not
referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web server) which are, or may be, or may become,
essential to the present document.
Trademarks
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ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
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Organizational Partners. oneM2M™ logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of the ®
oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Foreword
This Group Report (GR) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) cross-cutting Context
Information Management (CIM).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and "cannot" are to be
interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The present document focuses on the issue of trust and identity, scrutinizing the current landscape and pointing out how
the current initiatives can be integrated into the NGSI-LD [i.18] ecosystem.
The goal is to design technical means for enabling a chain of trust from content sources to content consumers that helps
endorse documents, by connecting or embedding verifiable credentials into NGSI-LD documents (defined in [i.18]).
These solutions will then enhance the current NGSI-LD standard [i.18].
Introduction
When focusing the issues of trust and identity, it is important to notice that trust is orthogonal to identity: while
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is about a digital identity that benefits the individual, trust is not about giving identifiers to
assets, but about providing provenance to an asset, thus complementing each other.
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6 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
Frameworks for provenance seek to delegate and transfer trust, in order to build authenticity solutions that are
decentralized. In September 2021, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) released its content ®
provenance specifications. C2PA leverages DID (a form of SSI) and Verifiable Credentials from W3C .
The W3C Verifiable Credentials and the C2PA initiative, although still in their infancy, aim at filling a gap, creating
coordinated efforts towards standardization of technical specifications for provenance that robustly link content to
producers.
The present document includes material copied from or derived from "Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0" [i.10],
available at https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/ and "Verifiable Credentials Data Model v1.1" [i.11], available at
© ®
https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/. Copyright 2022 W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang).
It also uses material form the "C2PA Technical Specifications" [i.12]) (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ®
4.0 International License) and from the W3C "Data Integrity 1.0" [i.1] Specification, published by the Credentials ®
Community Group under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA).
The present document discusses possible approaches about how such specifications should be completed and integrated
with distributed registry/ledger technologies having precise requirements, for the purpose of integration with the NGSI-
LD ecosystem [i.18].
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7 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
1 Scope
The present document focuses on the issue of trust and identity, scrutinizing the current landscape, analysing the
existing requirements, and pointing out how such current initiatives and requirements can be integrated into the NGSI-
LD ecosystem.
The approach revolves around two goals:
• A first goal is decentralization.
• A second goal is not only the verification of the credential, but to have means to distinguish which of its
claims can be considered authoritative and which cannot, or, equivalently, to discover information that can be
used to evaluate the risk of accepting the claims in the VC.
Thus, the present document examines solutions to verify integrity, and to precisely evaluate attribution and authenticity
of NGSI-LD Context Information throughout its lifecycle. The goal is to design technical means for enabling a chain of
trust from content sources to content consumers that helps endorse documents, by connecting or embedding verifiable
credentials into NGSI-LD documents.
These solutions will then enhance the current NGSI-LD standard (ETSI GS CIM 009) [i.18].
2 References
2.1 Normative references
Normative references are not applicable in the present document.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area. ®
[i.1] W3C Final Community Group Report 22 July 2022: "Data Integrity 1.0".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/community/reports/credentials/CG-FINAL-data-integrity-20220722. ®
[i.2] W3C Recommendation 3 May 2022: "BBS+ Signatures 2020".
NOTE: Available at https://w3c-ccg.github.io/ldp-bbs2020/. ®
[i.3] W3C Recommendation 16 July 2020: "JSON-LD 1.1 Framing".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11-framing/.
[i.4] IETF draft-sporny-hashlink-07 expired on November 2021: "Cryptographic Hyperlinks ".
NOTE: Available at https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-sporny-hashlink-07.txt.
[i.5] InterPlanetary File System (IPFS).
NOTE: Available at https://ipfs.tech.
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8 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
[i.6] IETF RFC 7515: "JSON Web Signature (JWS)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7515.
[i.7] IETF RFC 7516: "JSON Web Encryption (JWE)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7516.
[i.8] IETF RFC 7519: "JSON Web Token (JWT)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7519.
[i.9] IETF RFC 7518: "JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7518. ®
[i.10] W3C Recommendation 19 July 2022: "Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/. ®
[i.11] W3C Recommendation 03 March 2022: "Verifiable Credentials Data Model v1.1".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/.
[i.12] C2PA Specifications: "C2PA Technical Specification".
NOTE: Available at https://c2pa.org/specifications/specifications/1.0/specs/C2PA_Specification.html.
[i.13] IETF RFC 8785: "JSON Canonicalization Scheme (JCS)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8785.
[i.14] IETF draft-jordan-jws-ct-01: "JWS Clear Text JSON Signature Option (JWS/CT)".
NOTE: Available at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-jordan-jws-ct-01. ®
[i.15] W3C Recommendation 25 February 2014: "RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/. ®
[i.16] W3C Working Group Note 07 November 2013: "RDF 1.1 JSON Alternate Serialization
(RDF/JSON)".
NOTE: Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-json/. ®
[i.17] W3C Draft Community Group Report 13 April 2021: "RDF Dataset Canonicalization".
NOTE: Available at https://json-ld.github.io/rdf-dataset-canonicalization/spec.
[i.18] ETSI GS CIM 009: "Context Information Management (CIM); NGSI-LD API".
[i.19] ETSI EN 319 412-1: "Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures (ESI); Certificate Profiles; Part 1:
Overview and common data structures".
[i.20] ISO 3166-1: "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 1:
Country codes".
[i.21] Payments Services Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC,
2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive
2007/64/EC.
[i.22] ETSI TS 119 495: "Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures (ESI); Sector Specific Requirements;
Certificate Profiles and TSP Policy Requirements for Open Banking".
[i.23] ISO 17442-1:2020: "Financial services - Legal entity identifier (LEI) - Part 1: Assignment".
NOTE: Available at https://www.iso.org/standard/78829.html.
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9 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
[i.24] JSON-LD Signatures implementation.
NOTE: Available at https://github.com/digitalbazaar/jsonld-signatures.
[i.25] jsonld-signatures-bbs implementation.
NOTE: Available at https://github.com/mattrglobal/jsonld-signatures-bbs.
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms apply:
assertion: data structure which represents a statement asserted by an actor concerning the asset
atomic entity: signed NGSI-LD Entity with only one attribute
Base64url: modification of the main Base64 standard, the purpose of which is the ability to use the encoding result as
filename or URL address
BBS+ signature: digital signature algorithm by Boneh, Boyen, and Shachum
BLS signature: Boneh–Lynn–Shacham (BLS) cryptographic signature scheme
CL signature: signature scheme developed by Jan Camenisch and Anna Lysyanskay
claim: assertion made about a subject
controller document: set of data that specifies one or more relationships between a controller and a set of data, such as
a set of public cryptographic keys
derivation process: process that transforms NGSI-LD attributes in Sealed Attributes
DID controller: entity that has the capability to make changes to a DID document
DID document: set of data describing the DID subject
DID method: definition of how a specific DID method scheme is implemented
DID resolution: process that takes as its input a DID and a set of resolution options and returns a DID document
hard binding: one or more cryptographic hashes that uniquely identifies either the entire asset or a portion thereof
holder: role an entity might perform by possessing one or more verifiable credentials and generating presentations from
them
issuer: role an entity can perform by asserting claims about one or more subjects, creating a verifiable credential
manifest: set of information about the provenance of an asset based on the combination of one or more assertions
(including content bindings), a single claim, and a claim signature
NGSI-LD Attribute: reference to both an NGSI-LD Property and to an NGSI-LD Relationship
NGSI-LD Context Broker: architectural component that implements all the NGSI-LD interfaces
NGSI-LD Context Consumer: agent that uses the query and subscription functionality of NGSI-LD to retrieve context
information
NGSI-LD Context Producer: agent that uses the NGSI-LD context provision and/or registration functionality to
provide or announce the availability of its context information to an NGSI-LD Context Broker
NGSI-LD Context Source: source of context information which implements the NGSI-LD consumption and
subscription (and possibly provision) interfaces defined by the present document
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10 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
NGSI-LD Entity: informational representative of something that is supposed to exist in the real world, physically or
conceptually
NGSI-LD Property: description instance which associates a main characteristic, i.e. an NGSI-LD Value, to either an
NGSI-LD Entity, an NGSI-LD Relationship or another NGSI-LD Property and that uses the special hasValue property
to define its target value
NGSI-LD Relationship: description of a directed link between a subject which is either an NGSI-LD Entity, an
NGSI-LD Property or another NGSI-LD Relationship on one hand, and an object, which is an NGSI-LD Entity, on the
other hand, and which uses the special hasObject property to define its target object
recreation process: opposite process of the Derivation Process
Sealed Attribute: NGSI-LD attribute structure with "ngsildproof" property
soft binding: content identifier that is either:
a) not statistically unique, such as a fingerprint; or
b) embedded as a watermark in the identified digital content
verification method: set of parameters that can be used together with a process to independently verify a proof
3.2 Symbols
Void.
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
API Application Programming Interface
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
BBS Boneh, Boyen, and Shachum
BLS Boneh-Lynn-Shacham
BMFF Base Media File Format
CBOR Concise Binary Object Representation
CID Content IDentifier
CL Jan Camenisch and Anna Lysyanskay
DID Decentralized IDentifier
DoS Denial of Service
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
HMAC Hash-based Message Authentication Code
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
ID Identifier
I-JSON Internet JSON
IPFS InterPlanetary File System
IRI Internationalized Resource Identifier
JCS JSON Canonicalization Scheme
JOSE JSON Object Signing and Encryption
JSON JavaScript Object Notation
JSON-LD JSON-Linked Data
JUMBF JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format
JWA JSON Web Algorithms
JWE JSON Web Encryption
JWS JSON Web Signature
JWS/CT JWS "Clear Text"
JWT JSON Web Token
MAC Message Authentication Code
NGSI Next Generation Service Interfaces
NGSI-LD NGSI-Linked Data
PIA Privacy Impact Assessment
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11 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
RDF Resource Description Format
SSI Self-Sovereign Identity
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
URL Universal Resource Locator
UTF Unicode (or Universal Coded Character Set) Transformation Format
UTF-8 Unicode Transformation Format, 8 bit
VC Verifiable Credential
ZKP Zero Knowledge Proof
4 Data integrity and provenance
4.1 Goals
This clause is focused on data integrity problem, specifically to JSON-LD documents and NGSI-LD Entities.
The preferred solution, in both literature and industry, to achieve data integrity is the implementation of a digital
signature system, where, in this case, a digest file of the NGSI-LD Entity, cryptographically encoded with the signer
private key, bound with it, will guarantee the non-corruption of data and the association to a specific private key.
Thus, the first goal of the present document is to design a standard to guarantee the integrity of an NGSI-LD Entity.
In order to do this, it is important to create guidelines that ensure data accuracy and consistency over the Entity's entire
life-cycle.
4.2 Scenarios and Use Cases
A generic scenario can be the signing process of a generic JSON-LD document.
In this case, a typical scenario is the generation of an NGSI-LD Entity from a content creator (Producer or Source) sent
through multiple Context Brokers to a Client.
In this scenario, where a typical NGSI-LD Entity will contain Attributes (Property or Relationship), it is important to
guarantee that these values will not be altered through all its cycles, so that a client without contact creators can be sure
of its integrity.
4.3 Architectures and Existing Specifications
4.3.1 W3C data integrity model
4.3.1.0 Introduction
One already implemented solution can be the W3C Data integrity [i.1], which is not yet a W3C standard.
With this, it is possible to create a data integrity proof, which is a set of attributes that represent a digital proof and all
parameters required to verify it.
A data integrity proof is containing the following attributes:
• type: which indicates the specific type of digital signature used
• proofPurpose: a parameter that ensures that the digital proof is used for the reason it was created for
• verificationMethod: a set of parameters required to independently verify the proof
• created: date and time of the proof generation
• proofValue: the value of the encoded hash file
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12 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
Here is a proof example that uses the JcsSignature2020 proof type:
"proof": {
"type": "JcsSignature2020",
"created": "2020-11-05T19:23:24Z",
"verificationMethod":"https://di.example/issuer#z6MkjLrk3gKS2nnkeWcmcxiZPGskmesDpuwRBorgHxUXfxnG",
"proofPurpose": "assertionMethod",
"proofValue":"zQeVbY4oey5q2M3XKaxup3tmzN4DRFTLVqpLMweBrSxMY2xHX5XT…"
}
More optional attributes can be implemented in the data integrity proof in order to add further information or limitation
(domain, challenge).
At the moment the following signature suites are contemplated in W3C Data integrity specification [i.1]: eddsa-2022,
nist-ecdsa-2022, koblitz-ecdsa-2022, rsa-2022, pgp-2022, bbs-2022, eascdsa-2022, ibsa-2022, and jws-2022.
4.3.1.1 Controller Document
The verification process is possible through the access of the Controller Document, a set of data that specifies the
relationship between a controller, the entity who can change the controller document, and other data sets such as a
public cryptographic key.
Whoever wants to verify the data integrity proof needs to ensure that a verification method is bound to a specific
controller, by going from the verification method attribute in the proof to the controller document, ensuring that this
also contains the same verification method and the same proof purpose.
The verificationMethod property in the Controller Document is optional, but if present it has to be a set of
verification method's map.
Each verification method has to include the following properties:
• id: a string that conforms to the URL syntax.
• type: which indicates the specific type of verification method used.
• controller: a string that conforms to the URL syntax.
The controller value for a verification method is not necessarily a controller. Controllers are expressed using the
controller property at the highest level of the controller document.
The verification method could be filled with other verification material for example the cryptographic public key,
accordingly with the verification method type.
Examples of supported verification material are publicKeyJwk and publicKeyMultibase, representing
respectively the JSON Web Key and the multibase encoded public key.
Here is a Controller Document example:
{
"@context": [
"https://w3id.org/security/suites/ed25519-2020/v1",
"https://w3id.org/security/v2"
],
"id": "https://example.org/controllerDocument",
"verificationMethod":{
"id":https://example.org/controllerDocument.json#z6MksnCpNjGV",
"type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2020",
"controller": "https://example.org/controllerInfo.json",
"publicKeyMultibase": "z6MksnCpNjGV"
},
"assertionMethod": {
"id":https://example.org/controllerDocument.json#z6MksnCpNjGV",
"type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2020",
"controller": "https://example.org/controllerDocument.json",
"publicKeyMultibase": "z6MksnCpNjGVkL87mnaC2sbBbAZ"
}
}
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13 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
The verification method could be included by reference using an URL and its properties will need to be retrieved from
elsewhere in the Controller Document or from another Controller Document. This is done by dereferencing the URL
and searching the resulting resource for a verification method map with an id property whose value matches the URL.
The Controller Document can express also verification relationship between the controller and a verification method,
enabling this to be used for different purposes.
Contemplated verification relationships are: Authentication, Assertion, keyAgreement, capabilityInvocation,
capabilityDelegation.
The W3C Data integrity specification [i.1] suggests that any verification relation should be registered in the Data
Integrity Specification Registries, which is not already defined.
At the actual state of the data integrity specification no other proof types that are not data integrity signatures are
implemented.
4.3.1.2 Selective disclosure and aggregation
A secondary problem of the digital signature of a piece of data is that, in order to verify it, the entire document needs to
be shared.
In many scenarios it can be useful or even necessary to choose what information can be shared without renouncing the
integrity granted by the proof.
Also, in order to recreate provenance of data, it is commonly used the possibility to merge single data fragments without
losing information of the original signatures.
Data integrity is a prerequisite, not only required for the final data, coming from multiple merging processes, but also
required for every single original data fragment.
One possible solution can be the signature aggregation mechanism.
This property will guarantee the possibility to create an aggregated signature from every single message signature
which can be verified by an aggregated public key created from all signer's public keys.
This process does not require the aggregator's signature, so whoever performs the aggregation does not enter inside the
trust model.
The overhaul data integrity is guaranteed because only the aggregated public key made out of all original signers can
verify the aggregated signature.
Additional information about the signer's identity, or its public key, can be added to the original fragments and signed in
order to, subsequently, prove which fragment was signed by whom.
In addition, with Data Integrity Specification it is possible to utilize signature suites that allow the implementation of a
selective disclosure, with Zero Knowledge proof technology and signature aggregation, such as BBS signature suite or

Cl signature suite.
4.3.1.3 W3C BBS+ Signature suite
The BBS signature was invented by Dan Boneh, Ben Lynn and Hovav Shacham.
It uses elliptic curve pairings and guarantees the following benefits:
• is very simple to use (aside the extreme complexity of elliptic curve pairing)
• is deterministic and verifiably
• is able to provide signatures aggregations
• Signatures and keys can be 32 bytes long, but not at the same time (BLS12-381 48 bytes)
The W3C BBS+ Signatures 2020 specification [i.2], which is not a W3C standard, describes the utilization of
BBS+ signatures to provide the capability of zero-knowledge proof disclosures.
ETSI
14 ETSI GR CIM 018 V1.1.1 (2022-09)
Using traditional digital signatures, starting with a message and the issuer private key, it is possible to create a
signature.
On verification, starting with the original message and issuer public key, it is possible to establish if the signature is
valid or not.
Signature validation tells if the message is untampered with and it gives origin authenticity, in the sense that it is
possible to know who produced that signature.
Traditional signature scheme can be represented as in Figure 4.3.1.3-1.
Sign Process
Message 1
Message 2
Issuer private key
+ => Signature

Message n
Verify Process
Message 1
Message 2
Issuer public key
+ Signature => Signature Validation
+

Message n
Figure 4.3.1.3-1: Traditional signature scheme
On the other side, BBS+ signature is a multi-message digital signature scheme, represented as in Figure 4.3.1.3-2.
Derive Proof
Message 1
Message 2
Issuer private key +
+ Signature => Derived Proof

Message n
Hidden Message
Revealed Message
Verify Proof
Message 1
Issuer private key
+ + Derived Proof Proof Validation
=>

Message n
Figure 4.3.1.3-2: BBS signature scheme
Instead of a single message on input it is possible to have many of them. A group of messages are signed with the
issuer's private key, and can be verified in groups
...

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