zkRansomware: Proof-of-Data Recoverability and Multi-round Game Theoretic Modeling of Ransomware Decisions

2026-01-10

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This work proposes zkRansomware, a novel model that integrates zero-knowledge proofs with blockchain smart contracts to address the critical uncertainties in traditional ransomware scenarios, where victims often fail to recover their data even after paying ransoms and risk further privacy breaches. By establishing a verifiable data recovery mechanism and a multi-round payment protocol, zkRansomware preserves data confidentiality while fundamentally reshaping the adversarial dynamics between attackers and defenders. Grounded in game theory and cryptography, the model constructs an incentive-compatible decision framework that overcomes the trust bottleneck inherent in conventional ransomware interactions. This approach not only ensures rational strategic behavior from both parties but also establishes a new paradigm for ransomware risk assessment and response strategies.

Technology Category

• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Adversarial Learning
• Reasoning under Uncertainty: Decision/Utility Theory
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Cryptocurrency and smart contracts
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Attacks and countermeasures in recommendation systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies

Abstract

Ransomware is still one of the most serious cybersecurity threats. Victims often pay but fail to regain access to their data, while also facing the danger of losing data privacy. These uncertainties heavily shape the attacker-victim dynamics in decision-making. In this paper, we introduce and analyze zkRansomware. This new ransomware model integrates zero-knowledge proofs to enable verifiable data recovery and uses smart contracts to enforce multi-round payments while mitigating the risk of data disclosure and privacy loss. We show that zkRansomware is technically feasible using existing cryptographic and blockchain tools and, perhaps counterintuitively, can align incentives between the attacker and the victim. Finally, we develop a theoretical decision-making frame- work for zkRansomware that distinguishes it from known ransomware decision models and discusses its implications for ransomware risk anal- ysis and response decision support.

Problem

• ransomware
• data recoverability
• privacy loss
• decision-making
• uncertainty

Innovation

• zero-knowledge proofs
• smart contracts
• multi-round game theory
• verifiable data recovery
• ransomware decision modeling