Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection -- Requirements for attribute-based unlinkable entity authentication

Sécurité de l'information, cybersécurité et protection de la vie privée -- Exigences relatives à l'authentification des entités non rattachables par des attributs

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09-Jun-2021
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09-Jun-2021
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551 - Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection -- Requirements for attribute-based unlinkable entity authentication
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FINAL
INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
DRAFT
STANDARD FDIS
27551
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27
Information security, cybersecurity
Secretariat: DIN
and privacy protection —
Voting begins on:
2021­06­09 Requirements for attribute-based
unlinkable entity authentication
Voting terminates on:
2021­08­04
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO
SUBMIT, WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION
OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH
THEY ARE AWARE AND TO PROVIDE SUPPOR TING
DOCUMENTATION.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
Reference number
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO­
ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES,
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON
OCCASION HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE
LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL TO BECOME STAN­
DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE MADE IN
NATIONAL REGULATIONS. ISO/IEC 2021
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO/IEC 2021

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may

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Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
Contents Page

Foreword ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................iv

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v

1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

2 Normative references ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

3 Terms and definitions ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

4 Symbols and abbreviated terms ........................................................................................................................................................... 2

5 General objectives of attribute-based entity authentication ................................................................................. 2

6 Properties of attribute-based entity authentication protocols ........................................................................... 4

6.1 Correctness ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4

6.2 Unforgeability .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

6.2.1 General...................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

6.2.2 Replay protections ...................................................................... .................................................................................... 4

7 Unlinkability properties of attribute-based entity authentication protocols ......................................4

7.1 General ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

7.2 Generic definition of unlinkability ......................................................................................................................................... 5

7.3 Specific definitions of unlinkability ...................................................................................................................................... 5

7.3.1 General...................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

7.3.2 Passive outsider unlinkability (anti-tracking from passive outsiders) ............................. 7

7.3.3 Active outsider unlinkability (anti-tracking from active outsiders) ................................... 7

7.3.4 RP-U unlinkability (“anonymous visits” to an RP) .............................................................................. 7

7.3.5 AP-U unlinkability ........................................................................................................................................................... 8

7.3.6 RP+AP-U unlinkability (anti-RP-AP-collusion) ...................................................................................... 8

7.3.7 AP-RP unlinkability (anti-tracking of RP from AP) ............................................................................ 8

7.3.8 AP-RP+U unlinkability ................................................................................................................................................ 8

7.3.9 RP+RP'-U unlinkability (anti-tracking of U from a set of colluding RPs) ........................ 8

7.4 Relationships between notions of unlinkability ........................................................................................................ 9

7.5 Unlinkability levels for attribute-based entity authentication ...................................................................... 9

7.6 Models .........................................................................................................................................................................................................10

8 Attributes ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................10

8.1 Categories of attributes ................................................................................................................................................................10

8.1.1 Personal attributes ........................................................................................................................................... ...........10

8.1.2 Self­claimed attributes ........................................................................................................................................... ..10

8.1.3 Verified attributes ........................................................................................................................................................10

8.1.4 Static attributes ..............................................................................................................................................................11

8.1.5 Semi­static attributes ........................................................................................................................................... .....11

8.1.6 Dynamic attributes .....................................................................................................................................................11

8.1.7 Computed attributes ........................................................................................................................................... .......11

8.1.8 Identifying attributes ................................................................................................................................................11

8.1.9 Supporting attributes ...............................................................................................................................................11

8.2 Verified attribute expiry and revocation .......................................................................................................................11

8.3 Attribute assurance ..........................................................................................................................................................................11

9 Requirements for level N attribute-based unlinkable entity authentication ....................................11

Annex A (informative) Formal definitions for security and unlinkability notions ...........................................13

Annex B (informative) Examples of attribute-based entity authentication protocols ..................................19

Annex C (informative) ......................................................................................................................................................................................................26

Annex D (informative) Use cases for attribute-based unlinkable entity authentication ............................33

Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................34

© ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved iii
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical

Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are

members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical

committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical

activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international

organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the

work.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are

described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for

the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the

editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives or www .iec .ch/ members

_experts/ refdocs).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject

of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent

rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the

Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents) or the IEC

list of patent declarations received (see patents.iec.ch).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not

constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and

expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the

World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www .iso .org/

iso/ foreword .html. In the IEC, see www .iec .ch/ understanding ­standards.

This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,

Subcommittee SC 27, Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A

complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html and www .iec .ch/ national

­committees.
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
Introduction

ISO/IEC 29100 sets forth eleven privacy principles which apply to all actors that can be involved in the

processing of PII. The second principle is the collection limitation. Despite this recommendation, the

current state of the art is that internet sites collect more than necessary information during the PII

principal’s access to the service. For example, if the site only requires verification that the PII principal

is over a certain age, only that information should be necessary for the consumption of the service.

However, it is often the case that other information such as the user’s persistent identifier is supplied,

making it possible to link visits from the same PII principal to different sites or to link two or more

visits from the same PII principal to the same site.

To adhere to the principle of the collection limitation, the site in the above case should instead use a

type of entity identifier that does not allow the site to link two or more visits by the PII principal. This

means that, when two transactions are performed, it is difficult to distinguish whether the transactions

were performed by the same user or by two different users. This is one type of unlinkability. Several

other types of unlinkability can also be considered and desired in applications.

Attribute-based unlinkable entity authentication (ABUEA) provides a means for PII principals to

establish the authenticity of a selected subset of their identity attributes without revealing a larger

subset. Special focus is put on unlinkability and a metric that measures the strength of this property in

implementations of ABUEA is introduced. This document focuses on cases where at least one attribute

is attested by a third party. This document also identifies security properties to be met to achieve

various protections as well as unlinkable properties.

The methodology developed by this document may be tailored and applied to other privacy principles.

The requirements identified in this document apply at the application communication layer. However,

some properties met at the application layer protocol can be ruined by a lower layer protocol, such as

the network layer, which means that the lower layers' privacy and security properties should also be

taken into consideration to ensure that the properties met at the application communication layer are

still valid when considering the privacy and security characteristics of the lower communication layers.

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FINAL DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
Information security, cybersecurity and privacy
protection — Requirements for attribute-based unlinkable
entity authentication
1 Scope

This document provides a framework and establishes requirements for attribute-based unlinkable

entity authentication (ABUEA).
2 Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO/IEC 29100, Information technology — Security techniques — Privacy framework

ISO/IEC 24760­1, IT Security and Privacy — A framework for identity management — Part 1: Terminology

and concepts
3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 29100, ISO/IEC 24760-1,

and the following apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
anonymity set
set of identities that shares certain characteristics
3.2
attribute provider

authority trusted by one or more users and one or more relying parties to issue or verify attributes

related to an entity
3.3
significantly
not vanishing faster than any inverse polynomial in the security parameter
3.4
user-agent
software and/or hardware used by the PII Principal to interact with the system
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
4 Symbols and abbreviated terms
A adversary
AO active outsider
AP attribute provider
OIDC OpenID Connect
PII personally identifiable information
PO passive outsider
RP relying party
SIOP self­issued OpenID provider
U user­agent
UL unlinkability level
5 General objectives of attribute-based entity authentication

Attribute-based entity authentication is a means to establish a form of trust between two unfamiliar

parties that share trust in a common third-party entity.

This clause defines the notion of attribute-based entity authentication in a minimal communication

three parties model involving three entity roles U, RP and AP as depicted in Figure 1.

Key
1 setup phase (optional)
2 user registration phase
3 authentication phase
Optional.
Figure 1 — Phases of attribute-based entity authentication

RP trusts AP in the sense that RP is convinced of the correctness of statements expressed by AP. RP and

AP can have engaged in some optional preliminary procedure, referred to as the setup phase, which

enables the RP to ascertain that statements expressed by AP are genuine.

A PII principal, referred to as a user hereafter, uses a software called user­agent or U to communicate

with AP and RP. U has a number of attributes which collectively represent its distinct identity. U and AP

can also have carried out a preliminary procedure referred to as the user registration phase, in which

AP validates the user’s attributes and links them to U's attributes. During this process, U can be given

data material to enable later attribute-based entity authentication towards RP.
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)

There is no such preliminary procedure between U and RP, meaning that U and RP are a priori strangers

to one another.

An attribute-based entity authentication protocol is a sequence of computations and communications

among U, RP and AP which, when conducted successfully throughout, results in a state at RP where

RP is convinced that a statement made by U about its attributes is correct or not. The purpose of the

protocol is to reach that state.

The authentication phase is the protocol stage where U and RP interact, which can involve the

participation of AP or not.

The description of a particular attribute-based entity authentication protocol requires a specification

of the attributes, of the statements that can be made on them, as well as of all computations and

communications between the three parties. It includes a description of the authentication phase, the

setup phase if any, and the user registration phase if any.

NOTE Attribute-based entity authentication can also be achieved in communication models that extend

beyond the minimal U-RP-AP model either by involving additional specific-purpose entities or by limiting the use

of communication channels at determined stages of the protocol. Annex B describes some examples of attribute-

based entity authentication protocols and their underlying model.
Attributes are defined in ISO/IEC 24760-1. As properties, they can have:

— a type, a Boolean, or a character string of alphabetical characters, or an integer in a certain range,

or a compound type built on these basic types (such as a fixed length vector of integers or a dynamic

list of mixed strings and integers, and so forth);
— a name, which is a string in a prescribed alphabet;

— a value selected within the range of admissible values for the considered type.

Other properties of attributes such as their origin or level of assurance, or more generally classes or

categories of sorts, can exist and be involved in the attribute-based authentication protocol. However,

they are usually encoded as additional attributes. Therefore, it is enough to rely on the notions of type,

name and value when describing an attribute.

A policy decision function is a function that takes a policy and other information for the purpose of

returning a boolean value. It is defined as a logic predicate combining basic relational expressions using

logic operators such as OR, AND or possibly more complex ones such as threshold gates (t-out-of-n). A

relational expression can express:
— equality of an attribute value to a particular value;
— non-equality of an attribute value to a particular value;

— inequality of an attribute value towards a particular value (less than, greater than). This requires

that the attribute type support an ordering over its set of admissible values.

It is usual to rely on a structured language to express policies when some level of genericity is desired.

OASIS eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) is one such example. In other applications,

the policy may be fixed and hard-coded into the attribute-based entity authentication protocol itself.

It should also be noted that some attribute-based entity authentication protocols may only support

restricted policies, where:

— attribute values can only be compared to constants and not to other attribute values;

— the nature or the number of logic operators is limited; or
— some other restriction applies.

The purpose of an attribute-based entity authentication protocol is for RP to be convinced that the set

of attributes A temporarily associated to an a-priori unknown entity U satisfies a certain policy P,

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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)

namely that the policy decision function returns true for P(A ). For attributes that originate from a

neutral AP that the RP trusts, some form of interaction with that AP is necessary.

Annex D describes examples of use cases in which ABUEA systems are used.
6 Properties of attribute-based entity authentication protocols
6.1 Correctness
Under the assumptions that:
— RP is always convinced by the statements expressed by AP;
— All parties U, AP and RP engage in the correct execution of the protocol;

the protocol is correct when, if the user has a set of attributes A and A satisfies the policy P, then the

U U

protocol terminates in an acceptance state by the RP, meaning that RP acknowledges that P(A ) = true.

6.2 Unforgeability
6.2.1 General

Unforgeability is a security property that exists for attribute-based entity authentication protocols.

The protocol is unforgeable if it is infeasible for U to make RP terminate the protocol in the acceptance

state when P(A ) =false.
Clause A.2 describes the conditions of achieving unforgeability.
6.2.2 Replay protections

Unforgeability requires two security measures to be taken into consideration for any kind of entity

authentication protocol, namely:
— replay protection against one relying party; and
— replay protection against different relying parties.

The first kind of protection requires the use of a time-variant parameter that can either be a challenge

sent by the relying party and then reused by the U or be a unique number presented by the U to the SP.

These time-variant parameters are part of the computation of the credentials presented by the U to the

RP.

The second kind of protection requires the use in the protocol of a data item containing a characteristic

unique to the intended relying party.
7 Unlinkability properties of attribute-based entity authentication protocols
7.1 General

In this document, unlinkability refers to a family of properties that an attribute-based entity

authentication protocol can or cannot fulfil. The purpose of this clause is to provide a definition for

these properties and show how they interrelate.

Note that these definitions are formulated for attribute-based entity authentication protocols operating

in the minimal U-RP-AP model. They can give rise to distinct definitions in extended communication

models.
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
7.2 Generic definition of unlinkability

Linking is defined as the ability for an entity or a group of colluding entities to distinguish protocol

executions where:
— an entity role is played by the same entity; from
— that entity role is played by different entities.

Unlinkability refers to the inability to link protocol executions. The entity or group of entities attempting

to link protocol executions is called the adversary while the entity role under observation is the target

entity role. Considering different settings for the adversary and target entity role produces entirely

different notions of unlinkability.

For example, if U visits an RP more than twice and if the RP can link these visits together to recognize

the repeated visits, then the RP is linking the user visits. In this case, U is not “anonymous” but only

“pseudonymous” at best and if U was wishing to be “anonymous”, then RP is acting as an adversary

against the user’s wish. Similarly, when U is trying to authenticate itself to RP using attributes provided

by AP, U may wish so that AP cannot find out to which RP U has provided those attributes. Under such

circumstances, if AP identifies that U provided attributes to RP, then AP is acting as an adversary.

The protocol itself is said to be unlinkable if its executions cannot be linked, given explicit settings for

the adversary and target entity role.

NOTE A clear distinction is to be made between the various unlinkability properties that a protocol can

or cannot achieve and the traceability or linkability of data transfers at the data transport level. It is usual to

[2]

assume that an anonymization tool such as TOR can be used to avoid a trivial form of linking through network

connections instead of the nature of the exchanged messages. This consideration is independent of the actual

unlinkability properties that a protocol possess or not.

This document is concerned with achieving unlinkability of the protocol executions without external

context (metadata). Even if a protocol is unlinkable, linking may be achieved with metadata (e.g. by

considering the timings or location when authentication takes place). Techniques to prevent linking via

metadata are out of scope for this document.

The level of anonymity also depends on the size of the anonymity set resulting from the combination of

policy P and the set of user attributes A such that A satisfies the policy P. An example is a policy that

U U

asks for a user's year of birth but the user is over 100 years old. The resulting anonymity set can be very

small.
7.3 Specific definitions of unlinkability
7.3.1 General

While the terms “unlinkable” or “anonymous” are often used, the meaning actually varies depending on

the context of the use of the terms. To speak about them precisely, it is necessary to speak of from which

adversary role, what target entity role is unlinkable.

This document adopts a naming convention for notions of unlikability where the adversarial role

constitutes the first part of the name and the second part describes the target entity role. The two parts

are separated by a “-”, as show in Figure 2.
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ISO/IEC FDIS 27551:2021(E)
Key
1 adversary
2 target entity
Unlinkability.
Figure 2 — Naming convention for notions of unlinkability

This document provides the following notions of unlinkability for attribute-based entity authentication

protocols, indicating this aspect together with “unlinkability”.

1) Passive outsider unlinkability (PO-U). The adversary plays none of the U, RP or AP roles but can

passively observe the content of all exchanged messages. The target entity role is U.

2) Active outsider unlinkability (AO-U). The adversary plays none of the U, RP or AP roles but can

observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged messages in a man-in-the-middle fashion. The

target entity role is U.

3) RP-U unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged messages

and additionally plays the role of RP. The target entity role is U.

4) AP-U unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged messages

and additionally plays the role of AP. The target entity role is U.

5) RP+AP-U unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged

messages and additionally plays the role of both RP and AP. The target entity role is U.

6) AP-RP unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged messages

and additionally plays the role of AP. The target entity role is RP.

7) AP-RP+U unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept and modify exchanged

messages and additionally plays the role of AP. The target entity roles are U and RP. This means

that neither U nor RP can be linked.

8) RP+RP'-U unlinkability. The adversary can observe, actively intercept, and modify exchanged

messages and additionally plays the roles of RP and RP'. The target enti
...

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