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An executive master's programme thesis from Aalborg University
Book cover


Electronic voting application based on public verifiable secret sharing

Authors

;

Term

4. term

Publication year

2017

Submitted on

Pages

116

Abstract

Denne kandidatafhandling undersøger, hvordan Publicly Verifiable Secret Sharing (PVSS) og Multiparty Computation (MPC) kan danne grundlag for en elektronisk afstemningsløsning. Med udgangspunkt i Schoenmakers’ arbejde præsenterer vi den nødvendige matematiske baggrund (modular aritmetik, gruppeteori) og kryptografiske byggesten (diskret logaritme, nul-vidensbeviser, Fiat–Shamir), og vi forklarer, hvordan hemmelighedsdeling bruges til at fordele og offentligt verificere valgrelaterede data. Afhandlingen beskriver e-valgprotokollen i to niveauer: en praktisk gennemgang for udviklere og en detaljeret specifikation med korrektheds- og konsistensbeviser, herunder DLEQ-baserede beviser for verifikation mellem vælgere, verificer og optællere. Med sikkerhedskrav for elektronisk valg som funktionelle krav designer vi en webbaseret proof-of-concept-applikation ved hjælp af softwarearkitekturmetoder (kvalitetsattribut-scenarier) med fokus på interoperabilitet, sikkerhed, testbarhed og modifiérbarhed, og dokumenterer arkitekturen gennem modul-, komponent- og allokeringsperspektiver. Vi implementerer prototypen og analyserer, i hvilket omfang den adresserer udvalgte sikkerhedsegenskaber og arkitekturdrivere. Arbejdet peger på praktiske overvejelser som generering af primtal og individuel verificerbarhed. Resultaterne skal forstås som en gennemførlighedsdemonstration frem for en produktionsklar løsning.

This master’s thesis investigates how Publicly Verifiable Secret Sharing (PVSS) and Multiparty Computation (MPC) can underpin an electronic voting scheme. Building on Schoenmakers’ work, we present the required mathematical background (modular arithmetic, group theory) and cryptographic primitives (discrete logarithms, zero-knowledge proofs, Fiat–Shamir), and explain how secret sharing distributes and publicly verifies vote-related data. The e-voting protocol is described at two levels: a developer-oriented overview and a detailed specification with proofs of correctness and consistency, including DLEQ-based proofs between voters, a verifier, and talliers. Using established e-voting security requirements as functional demands, we design a web-based proof-of-concept application guided by software architecture techniques (quality attribute scenarios) emphasizing interoperability, security, testability, and modifiability, and document the architecture via module, component-and-connector, and allocation views. We implement the prototype and analyze how it addresses selected security properties and architectural drivers. The work highlights practical issues such as prime generation and individual verifiability. The contribution is a feasibility demonstration rather than a production-ready system.

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