How to Prove You Know Something Without Conveying Secret Info

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U.S. military researchers are trying to enhance information security and trusted computing by advancing zero-knowledge proof technology to enable cryptography in complex military applications.

A zero-knowledge proof in cryptography enables one party to prove that he knows a particular without conveying any secret information; the challenge is proving possession of sensitive information without revealing the information itself.

US Military researchers seek to improve zero-knowledge proofs technology in trusted computing cryptography, to verify military capabilities without revealing sensitive details, and increase the efficiency of zero knowledge proof technology. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has initiated the Securing Information for Encrypted Verification and Evaluation (SIEVE) project, to advance the state of the art in zero-knowledge proofs to enable complex military applications. 

The project also will focus on increasing the efficiency of the technology to enable large, complex proof statements.

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the efficiency and real-world use of zero-knowledge proofs. Most of these uses have been within the cryptocurrency domain where there is a need to provide certain verifiable data without revealing personal or other sensitive information. While useful in this context, the zero-knowledge proofs created are specialized for this task. They prioritize communication and verification efficiency but do not necessarily scale for transactions that are more complex. For highly complex proof statements like those that the DoD may wish to employ, novel and more efficient approaches are needed, according to darpa.mil.

SIEVE focuses on zero-knowledge proofs for statements about cybersecurity and cyberspace operations, which historically have been difficult for the U.S. military to discuss in a verifiable way without releasing sensitive information.

According to militaryaerospace.com, SIEVE will demonstrate the feasibility of encoding complex military statements into intermediate representations that can help create efficient zero-knowledge proofs for those statements.

The project will first demonstrate feasibility of encoding military statements into intermediate representations, and for giving efficient zero-knowledge proofs in military scenarios. The second phase emphasizes an integrated pipeline to create zero-knowledge proofs from intermediate-representation-encoded statements. The third phase emphasizes optimization and scaling techniques.