User Profile

Jacob T.

jacob@knowledgehub.social

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

This link opens in a pop-up window

Really exciting research that could transform digital spaces

5 stars

zk-creds shows (and builds a Rust proof-of-concept for) how to use zero-knowledge proofs as a flexible and privacy-preserving identity framework. The core concepts allows for ZK linking of related proofs, and blinding those, while allowing for dynamic attestations. Practically, this allows for someone to scan the NFC data on their passport, signed by a trusted entity, and use that to e.g., prove that they are above a certain age, or are a person of X citizenship, all without having to get the trusted entity to onboard into the identity system.

The ability to set the gadgets that compute on identity attributes after the fact allows for changes to age verification policies, or other checks that all operate without revealing any other aspects of the identity (e.g. DOB or name). This work could form the basis for anonymous, but only-human social networks or other systems that use identity as a proxy …

Fingerprint authentication has been widely adopted on smartphones to complement traditional password authentication, making it …

Interesting approach of using a fault-tolerance feature to handle transient HW issues as a way to bypass fingerprint attempt counters. Obviously less practical due to needing invasive physical access and a fingerprint database, but a nice multi-device logic bug class!

Fingerprint authentication has been widely adopted on smartphones to complement traditional password authentication, making it …

We present a practical method to achieve timelock encryption, where a ciphertext is guaranteed to …

A breakthrough if it withstands scrutiny

5 stars

This paper (and the associated code/service: timevault.drand.love/) may be one of the most/only valuable contributions to come from the entire web3 ecosystem. The ability to commit to a future decryption time is a powerful primitive, such as in auctions, coordinated disclosure, and other "dead man's switch" scenarios.

I look forward to this work being critiqued and built-upon for a whole host of interesting offerings.

Satellites in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) provide a number of commercial, government, and military services around …

While an interesting modeling exercise, and certainly something to be worried about if you own or rely on a GEO satellite, the hostile takeover of an entire LEO constellation would be incredibly impactful beyond temporary jamming of a GEO bird.

COSPAS-SARSAT is an International programme for “Search and Rescue” (SAR) missions based on the “Satellite …

High consequence junk hacking

2 stars

This paper predictably finds a lack of authentication and cryptographic protections in a legacy RF protocol that is designed to work around the world for life-saving signals. While they determine is it possible to spoof a signal in a lab environment, and call for improved authentication, etc. they fail to include the international legal framework surrounding these signals, and the fact that in a safety-critical environment, a signal discarded due to lack of nonce freshness is more risky than allowing bad actors with drones to send illegal signals.

Wi-Fi devices routinely queue frames at various layers of the network stack before transmitting, for …

A good reminder that edge cases in state machines can have severe security implications, even if the crypto itself is done well.

avatar for jacob Jacob T. boosted

Verifying where and when a digital image was taken has become increasingly difficult; this issue …

Great talk on a timely topic. Other applications of this work could have significant benefits across numerous fields, including pharmaceutical research, repeatable science, etc.