Existential Unforgeability of signature scheme against Adaptive Chosen Message Attack

Question

While reading a literature on signature schemes, I came across the concept of Existential Unforgeability of signature scheme against Adaptive Chosen Message Attack. Can anyone point me to the paper where this notion was introduced first? Otherwise, may I ask for a paper/reference where the above-mentioned game is properly defined?

Answer 1

These are standard terms in the cryptographic literature. Refer to Goldwasser's Lecture Notes on Cryptography, particularly section 10.3.1 where the definitions of forgery of digital signatures are introduced:

• Existential Forgery: The adversary succeeds in forging the signature of one message, not necessarily of his choice.

• Selective Forgery: The adversary succeeds in forging the signature of some message of his choice.

• Universal Forgery: The adversary, although unable to find the secret key of the The forger, is able to forge the signature of any message.

• Total Break: The adversary can compute the signer’s secret key.

The exact use of these definitions can be seen later in the notes in which some proofs are discussed.