SecureVAX: A Blockchain-Enabled Secure Vaccine Passport System
Debendranath Das, Sushmita Ruj, Subhamoy Maitra
TL;DR
SecureVAX addresses the problem of secure, privacy-preserving, globally interoperable vaccine credentials by integrating on-chain smart contracts with off-chain cryptography and IPFS storage. The approach employs six interacting modules, Merkle-tree based commitments, and proxy re-encryption to enable verifiable vaccine status without exposing PII, evaluated on the Ethereum Sepolia network. Key contributions include preventing certificate forgery, enabling fair vaccine distribution insights, and providing auditable, tamper-resistant records through on-chain commitments paired with off-chain VP storage. Experimental results on a Linux setup quantify gas costs and latency, and a web-based toolkit demonstrates offline cryptographic computations, with code available on GitHub. Overall, SecureVAX offers a practical, privacy-aware blueprint for scalable, globally interoperable vaccination documentation in public health infrastructure.
Abstract
A vaccine passport serves as documentary proof, providing passport holders with greater freedom while roaming around during pandemics. It confirms vaccination against certain infectious diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, and flu. The key challenges faced by the digital vaccine passport system include passport forgery, unauthorized data access, and inaccurate information input by vaccination centers. Privacy concerns also need to be addressed to ensure that the user's personal identification information (PII) is not compromised. Additionally, it is necessary to track vaccine vials or doses to verify their authenticity, prevent misuse and illegal sales, as well as to restrict the illicit distribution of vaccines. To address these challenges, we propose a Blockchain-Enabled Secure Vaccine Passport System, leveraging the power of smart contracts. Our solution integrates off-chain and on-chain cryptographic computations, facilitating secure communication among various entities. We have utilized the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to store encrypted vaccine passports of citizens securely. Our prototype is built on the Ethereum platform, with smart contracts deployed on the Sepolia Test network, allowing for performance evaluation and validation of the system's effectiveness. By combining IPFS as a distributed data storage platform and Ethereum as a blockchain platform, our solution paves the way for secure, efficient, and globally interoperable vaccine passport management, supporting comprehensive vaccination initiatives worldwide.