Abstract:
A method and a system for authentication whereby authentication characteristic information is not disclosed to a third party when a verifier uses a verification device of a limited scale to authenticate a user's rights or qualifications. A ticket issuing device interacts with the user's interactive device having a secret function f to calculate document secret information &mgr; based on a document m (data) to be transmitted to the interactive device, whereby the user is issued a ticket t generated from authentication characteristic information x and the document secret information &pgr;. Upon receipt of the document m, the interactive device generates the document secret information using its unique secret function f to perform an interaction based on the generated information. The interaction involves output of a commitment r, input of a challenge c, and an output of a response &sgr;. The user converts the interaction (r, c, &sgr;) into another interaction (r, c, s) using the ticket t to effect Guillou-Quisquater authentication.