A novel workflow for improved access to microservices using ZKP-based methods

Wasee, Abdul (2025) A novel workflow for improved access to microservices using ZKP-based methods. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Microservices commonly rely on bearer tokens such as JSON Web Tokens (JWTs). Although fast, these tokens reveal user claims to every service and can be reused if stolen. This thesis designs and evaluates a privacy-preserving alternative based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) that verifies each request under a zero-trust model without disclosing identity attributes. The authentication prototype service is built with two implementations (TypeScript/NestJS and Rust) and compared with a JWT baseline in privacy, access control correctness, and performance.

Across six concurrency levels (1, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30) over 15-second runs, CPU and memory usage were sampled every 250 ms, and means were reported across the concurrency points. The workflow achieves zero attribute disclosure while keeping verification practical: verification adds 1.8 ms per microservice hop with a native Rust verifier and ∼130 ms with a NestJS verifier. Proof generation is the main computational cost (∼0.7s in NestJS; ∼1.4s in Rust), with NestJS demonstrating superior performance due to efficient WASM witness generation and reuse of artefacts. These measurements were taken on the same host with an otherwise idle machine to control variance. Formal statistical significance would require multiple independent repetitions; the present analysis reports central tendencies and observed stability.

Contributions are: (i) a working ZKP-based authentication workflow suitable for microservices, (ii) a dual-stack prototype and comparative evaluation against JWT, and (iii) evidence that privacy can be improved without prohibitive verification overhead.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Supervisors:	Name Email Estrada, Giovani UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Cloud computing
Divisions:	School of Computing > Master of Science in Cloud Computing
Depositing User:	Ciara O'Brien
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2026 12:37
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2026 12:37
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/9279

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