Paper 2025/694

A Formal Security Analysis of Hyperledger AnonCreds

Ashley Fraser, Lancaster University
Steve Schneider, University of Surrey
Abstract

In an anonymous credential system, users collect credentials from issuers, and can use their credentials to generate privacy-preserving identity proofs that can be shown to third-party verifiers. Since the introduction of anonymous credentials by Chaum in 1985, there has been promising advances with respect to system design, security analysis and real-world implementations of anonymous credential systems. In this paper, we examine Hyperledger AnonCreds, an anonymous credential system that was introduced in 2017 and is currently undergoing specification. Despite being implemented in deployment-ready identity system platforms, there is no formal security analysis of the Hyperledger AnonCreds protocol. We rectify this, presenting syntax and a security model for, and a first security analysis of, the Hyperledger AnonCreds protocol. In particular, we demonstrate that Hyperledger AnonCreds is correct, and satisfies notions of unforgeability and anonymity. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of our findings, highlighting the importance of rigorous specification efforts to support security evaluation of real-world cryptographic protocols.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Cryptographic protocols
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Minor revision. IEEE EuroS&P 2025
Keywords
anonymous credentialsgame-based securityprovable security
Contact author(s)
a fraser5 @ lancaster ac uk
s schneider @ surrey ac uk
History
2025-04-17: approved
2025-04-16: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2025/694
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/694,
      author = {Ashley Fraser and Steve Schneider},
      title = {A Formal Security Analysis of Hyperledger {AnonCreds}},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/694},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/694}
}
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