Showing papers on "Encryption published in 2001"

Identity-Based Encryption from the Weil Pairing

Abstract: We propose a fully functional identity-based encryption scheme (IBE). The scheme has chosen ciphertext security in the random oracle model assuming an elliptic curve variant of the computational Diffie-Hellman problem. Our system is based on the Weil pairing. We give precise definitions for secure identity based encryption schemes and give several applications for such systems.

Universally composable security: a new paradigm for cryptographic protocols

Abstract: We propose a novel paradigm for defining security of cryptographic protocols, called universally composable security. The salient property of universally composable definitions of security is that they guarantee security even when a secure protocol is composed of an arbitrary set of protocols, or more generally when the protocol is used as a component of an arbitrary system. This is an essential property for maintaining security of cryptographic protocols in complex and unpredictable environments such as the Internet. In particular, universally composable definitions guarantee security even when an unbounded number of protocol instances are executed concurrently in an adversarially controlled manner, they guarantee non-malleability with respect to arbitrary protocols, and more. We show how to formulate universally composable definitions of security for practically any cryptographic task. Furthermore, we demonstrate that practically any such definition can be realized using known techniques, as long as only a minority of the participants are corrupted. We then proceed to formulate universally composable definitions of a wide array of cryptographic tasks, including authenticated and secure communication, key-exchange, public-key encryption, signature, commitment, oblivious transfer, zero knowledge and more. We also make initial steps towards studying the realizability of the proposed definitions in various settings.

Foundations of Cryptography

Abstract: List of figures Preface Acknowledgements 5. Encryption schemes 6. Digital signatures and message authentication 7. General cryptographic protocols Appendix C: corrections and additions to volume I Bibliography Index.

How to Leak a Secret

Abstract: In this paper we formalize the notion of a ring signature, which makes it possible to specify a set of possible signers without revealing which member actually produced the signature. Unlike group signatures, ring signatures have no group managers, no setup procedures, no revocation procedures, and no coordination: any user can choose any set of possible signers that includes himself, and sign any message by using his secret key and the others' public keys, without getting their approval or assistance. Ring signatures provide an elegant way to leak authoritative secrets in an anonymous way, to sign casual email in a way which can only be verified by its intended recipient, and to solve other problems in multiparty computations. The main contribution of this paper is a new construction of such signatures which is unconditionally signer-ambiguous, provably secure in the random oracle model, and exceptionally efficient: adding each ring member increases the cost of signing or verifying by a single modular multiplication and a single symmetric encryption.

Fast Software Encryption

Abstract: RC6 has been submitted as a candidate for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Two important features of RC6 that were absent from its predecessor RC5 are a quadratic function and a fixed rotation. By examining simplified variants that omit these features we clarify their essential contribution to the overall security of RC6.

Revocation and Tracing Schemes for Stateless Receivers

Abstract: We deal with the problem of a center sending a message to a group of users such that some subset of the users is considered revoked and should not be able to obtain the content of the message. We concentrate on the stateless receiver case, where the users do not (necessarily) update their state from session to session. We present a framework called the Subset-Cover framework, which abstracts a variety of revocation schemes including some previously known ones. We provide sufficient conditions that guarantees the security of a revocation algorithm in this class. We describe two explicit Subset-Cover revocation algorithms; these algorithms are very flexible and work for any number of revoked users. The schemes require storage at the receiver of log N and 1/2 log2 N keys respectively (N is the total number of users), and in order to revoke r users the required message lengths are of r log N and 2r keys respectively. We also provide a general traitor tracing mechanism that can be integrated with any Subset-Cover revocation scheme that satisfies a "bifurcation property". This mechanism does not need an a priori bound on the number of traitors and does not expand the message length by much compared to the revocation of the same set of traitors. The main improvements of these methods over previously suggested methods, when adopted to the stateless scenario, are: (1) reducing the message length to O(r) regardless of the coalition size while maintaining a single decryption at the user's end (2) provide a seamless integration between the revocation and tracing so that the tracing mechanisms does not require any change to the revocation algorithm.

An Identity Based Encryption Scheme Based on Quadratic Residues

Abstract: We present a novel public key cryptosystem in which the public key of a subscriber can be chosen to be a publicly known value, such as his identity. We discuss the security of the proposed scheme, and show that this is related to the difficulty of solving the quadratic residuosity problem.

A Generalisation, a Simplification and Some Applications of Paillier's Probabilistic Public-Key System

Abstract: We propose a generalisation of Paillier's probabilistic public key system, in which the expansion factor is reduced and which allows to adjust the block length of the scheme even after the public key has been fixed, without loosing the homomorphic property. We show that the generalisation is as secure as Paillier's original system. We construct a threshold variant of the generalised scheme as well as zero-knowledge protocols to show that a given ciphertext encrypts one of a set of given plaintexts, and protocols to verify multiplicative relations on plaintexts. We then show how these building blocks can be used for applying the scheme to efficient electronic voting.This reduces dramatically the work needed to compute the final result of an election, compared to the previously best known schemes.W e show how the basic scheme for a yes/no vote can be easily adapted to casting a vote for up to t out of L candidates. The same basic building blocks can also be adapted to provide receipt-free elections, under appropriate physical assumptions. The scheme for 1 out of L elections can be optimised such that for a certain range of parameter values, a ballot has size only O(log L) bits.

An Efficient System for Non-transferable Anonymous Credentials with Optional Anonymity Revocation

Abstract: A credential system is a system in which users can obtain credentials from organizations and demonstrate possession of these credentials. Such a system is anonymous when transactions carried out by the same user cannot be linked. An anonymous credential system is of significant practical relevance because it is the best means of providing privacy for users. In this paper we propose a practical anonymous credential system that is based on the strong RSA assumption and the decisional Diffie-Hellman assumption modulo a safe prime product and is considerably superior to existing ones: (1) We give the first practical solution that allows a user to unlinkably demonstrate possession of a credential as many times as necessary without involving the issuing organization. (2) To prevent misuse of anonymity, our scheme is the first to offer optional anonymity revocation for particular transactions. (3) Our scheme offers separability: all organizations can choose their cryptographic keys independently of each other. Moreover, we suggest more effective means of preventing users from sharing their credentials, by introducing all-or-nothing sharing: a user who allows a friend to use one of her credentials once, gives him the ability to use all of her credentials, i.e., taking over her identity. This is implemented by a new primitive, called circular encryption, which is of independent interest, and can be realized from any semantically secure cryptosystem in the random oracle model.

Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4

Abstract: In this paper we present several weaknesses in the key scheduling algorithm of RC4, and describe their cryptanalytic significance. We identify a large number of weak keys, in which knowledge of a small number of key bits suffices to determine many state and output bits with non-negligible probability. We use these weak keys to construct new distinguishers for RC4, and to mount related key attacks with practical complexities. Finally, we show that RC4 is completely insecure in a common mode of operation which is used in the widely deployed Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol (WEP, which is part of the 802.11 standard), in which a fixed secret key is concatenated with known IV modifiers in order to encrypt different messages. Our new passive ciphertext-only attack on this mode can recover an arbitrarily long key in a negligible amount of time which grows only linearly with its size, both for 24 and 128 bit IV modifiers.

Data security system and method for separation of user communities

Abstract: Data is secured in a computer network to transparently establish and manage a separation of user-based communities of interest based upon crypto-graphically separated, need to know, security levels. Data from a source document, data object or data stream is filtered to form subsets of extracted data and remainder data based upon security levels for the communities. Extracts are stored in assigned memories. Full or partial plaintext reconstruction is permitted only in the presence of assigned security clearance for the community of the inquiring party. Encryption, corresponding to security levels, establishes separation of secured data. The information processing system uses a data filter to extract security sensitive words, data objects, etc., a distributed storage system and a compiler is used to reconstruct plaintext based on security clearance. Multiple level encryption in one document is also available.

Design and Analysis of Practical Public-Key Encryption Schemes Secure against Adaptive Chosen Ciphertext Attack.

Abstract: A new public key encryption scheme, along with several variants, is proposed and analyzed. The scheme and its variants are quite practical, and are proved secure against adaptive chosen ciphertext attack under standard intractability assumptions. These appear to be the rst publickey encryption schemes in the literature that are simultaneously practical and provably secure.

A Compact Rijndael Hardware Architecture with S-Box Optimization

Abstract: Compact and high-speed hardware architectures and logic optimization methods for the AES algorithm Rijndael are described. Encryption and decryption data paths are combined and all arithmetic components are reused. By introducing a new composite field, the S-Box structure is also optimized. An extremely small size of 5.4 Kgates is obtained for a 128-bit key Rijndael circuit using a 0.11-µm CMOS standard cell library. It requires only 0.052 mm2 of area to support both encryption and decryption with 311 Mbps throughput. By making effective use of the SPN parallel feature, the throughput can be boosted up to 2.6 Gbps for a high-speed implementation whose size is 21.3 Kgates.

OCB: a block-cipher mode of operation for efficient authenticated encryption

Abstract: We describe a parallelizable block-cipher mode of operation that simultaneously provides privacy and authenticity. OCB encrypts-and-authenticates a nonempty string M e {0,1}• using \lceil |M|/n\rceil + 2 block-cipher invocations, where n is the block length of the underlying block cipher. Additional overhead is small. OCB refines a scheme, IAPM, suggested by Charanjit Jutla. Desirable properties of OCB include: the ability to encrypt a bit string of arbitrary length into a ciphertext of minimal length; cheap offset calculations; cheap session setup; a single underlying cryptographic key; no extended-precision addition; a nearly optimal number of block-cipher calls; and no requirement for a random IV. We prove OCB secure, quantifying the adversary's ability to violate the mode's privacy or authenticity in terms of the quality of its block cipher as a pseudorandom permutation (PRP) or as a strong PRP, respectively.

Controlling and managing digital assets

Abstract: Systems and techniques are provided for controlling and managing digital assets. These systems and techniques are particularly useful when digital assets are transmitted electronically using, for example, the Internet, as these techniques serve to make the Internet secure for communication and control of digital assets. In addition, they permit dynamic control and management of digital assets, regardless of where the assets reside. Use of these systems and techniques promises to enable new, Internet-based distribution models, and to provide superior insight with respect to the use and status of digital assets. Particular implementations of the systems and techniques permit features such as lifetime control of digital content, multi-level control of digital content (including session encryption, asset encryption, and remote management), and try-before-you buy marketing approaches. They also support functions such as digital rights transfer, tracking, segmentation, archiving, and improved handling of upgrades and updates.

Timing analysis of keystrokes and timing attacks on SSH

Abstract: SSH is designed to provide a secure channel between two hosts. Despite the encryption and authentication mechanisms it uses, SSH has two weakness: First, the transmitted packets are padded only to an eight-byte boundary (if a block cipher is in use), which reveals the approximate size of the original data. Second, in interactive mode, every individual keystroke that a user types is sent to the remote machine in a separate IP packet immediately after the key is pressed, which leaks the interkeystroke timing information of users' typing. In this paper, we show how these seemingly minor weaknesses result in serious security risks. First we show that even very simple statistical techniques suffice to reveal sensitive information such as the length of users' passwords or even root passwords. More importantly, we further show that by using more advanced statistical techniques on timing information collected from the network, the eavesdropper can learn significant information about what users type in SSH sessions. In particular, we perform a statistical study of users' typing patterns and show that these patterns reveal information about the keys typed. By developing a Hidden Markov Model and our key sequence prediction algorithm, we can predict key sequences from the interkeystroke timings. We further develop an attacker system, Herbivore, which tries to learn users' passwords by monitoring SSH sessions. By collecting timing information on the network, Herbivore can speed up exhaustive search for passwords by a factor of 50. We also propose some countermeasures. In general our results apply not only to SSH, but also to a general class of protocols for encrypting interactive traffic. We show that timing leaks open a new set of security risks, and hence caution must be taken when designing this type of protocol

Key-Privacy in Public-Key Encryption

Abstract: We consider a novel security requirement of encryption schemes that we call "key-privacy" or "anonymity". It asks that an eavesdropper in possession of a ciphertext not be able to tell which specific key, out of a set of known public keys, is the one under which the ciphertext was created, meaning the receiver is anonymous from the point of view of the adversary. We investigate the anonymity of known encryption schemes. We prove that the El Gamal scheme provides anonymity under chosen-plaintext attack assuming the Decision Diffie-Hellman problem is hard and that the Cramer-Shoup scheme provides anonymity under chosen-ciphertext attack under the same assumption. We also consider anonymity for trapdoor permutations. Known attacks indicate that the RSA trapdoor permutation is not anonymous and neither are the standard encryption schemes based on it. We provide a variant of RSA-OAEP that provides anonymity in the random oracle model assuming RSA is one-way. We also give constructions of anonymous trapdoor permutations, assuming RSA is one-way, which yield anonymous encryption schemes in the standard model.

The Oracle Diffie-Hellman Assumptions and an Analysis of DHIES

Abstract: This paper provides security analysis for the public-key encryption scheme DHIES (formerly named DHES and DHAES), which was proposed in [7] and is now in several draft standards. DHIES is a Diffie-Hellman based scheme that combines a symmetric encryption method, a message authentication code, and a hash function, in addition to number-theoretic operations, in a way which is intended to provide security against chosen-ciphertext attacks. In this paper we find natural assumptions under which DHIES achieves security under chosen-ciphertext attack. The assumptions we make about the Diffie-Hellman problem are interesting variants of the customary ones, and we investigate relationships among them, and provide security lower bounds. Our proofs are in the standard model; no random-oracle assumption is required.

Digital steganography: hiding data within data

Abstract: Digital steganography is the art of inconspicuously hiding data within data. Steganography's goal in general is to hide data well enough that unintended recipients do not suspect the steganographic medium of containing hidden data. The software and links mentioned in this article are just a sample of the steganography tools currently available. As privacy concerns continue to develop along with the digital communication domain, steganography will undoubtedly play a growing role in society. For this reason, it is important that we are aware of digital steganography technology and its implications. Equally important are the ethical concerns of using steganography and steganalysis. Steganography enhances rather than replaces encryption. Messages are not secure simply by virtue of being hidden. Likewise, steganography is not about keeping your message from being known - it's about keeping its existence from being known.

The Order of Encryption and Authentication for Protecting Communications (or: How Secure Is SSL?)

Abstract: We study the question of how to generically compose symmetric encryption and authentication when building "secure channels" for the protection of communications over insecure networks. We show that any secure channels protocol designed to work with any combination of secure encryption (against chosen plaintext attacks) and secure MAC must use the encrypt-then-authenticate method. We demonstrate this by showing that the other common methods of composing encryption and authentication, including the authenticate-then-encrypt method used in SSL, are not generically secure. We show an example of an encryption function that provides (Shannon's) perfect secrecy but when combined with any MAC function under the authenticate-then-encrypt method yields a totally insecure protocol (for example, finding passwords or credit card numbers transmitted under the protection of such protocol becomes an easy task for an active attacker). The same applies to the encrypt-and-authenticate method used in SSH. On the positive side we show that the authenticate-then-encrypt method is secure if the encryption method in use is either CBC mode (with an underlying secure block cipher) or a stream cipher (that xor the data with a random or pseudorandom pad). Thus, while we show the generic security of SSL to be broken, the current practical implementations of the protocol that use the above modes of encryption are safe.

ELK, a new protocol for efficient large-group key distribution

Abstract: Secure media broadcast over the Internet poses unique security challenges. One problem is access control to a large number of subscribers in a public broadcast. A common solution is to encrypt the broadcast data and to disclose the decryption key to legitimate receivers only. However, how do we securely and efficiently establish a shared secret among the legitimate receivers? And most importantly, how can we efficiently update the group key securely if receivers join or leave? How can we provide reliability for key update messages in a way that scales up to large groups? Recent research makes substantial progress to address these challenges. Current schemes feature efficient key update mechanisms assuming that the key updates are communicated reliably to the receivers. In practice, however the principal impediment to achieve a scalable system is to distribute the key updates reliably to all receivers. We have designed and implemented ELK, a novel key distribution protocol, to address these challenges with the following features: ELK features perfectly reliable, super-efficient member joins; ELK uses smaller key update messages than previous protocols; ELK features a mechanism that allows short hint messages to be used for key recovery allowing a tradeoff of communication overhead with member computation; ELK proposes to append a small amount of key update information to data packets, such that the majority of receivers can recover from lost key update messages; and ELK allows to trade off security with communication overhead.

Efficient generation of shared RSA keys

Abstract: We describe efficient techniques for a number of parties to jointly generate an RSA key. At the end of the protocol an RSA modulus N = pq is publicly known. None of the parties know the factorization of N. In addition a public encryption exponent is publicly known and each party holds a share of the private exponent that enables threshold decryption. Our protocols are efficient in computation and communication. All results are presented in the honest but curious scenario (passive adversary).

Report on the Development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Abstract: In 1997, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a process to select a symmetric-key encryption algorithm to be used to protect sensitive (unclassified) Federal information in furtherance of NIST’s statutory responsibilities. In 1998, NIST announced the acceptance of fifteen candidate algorithms and requested the assistance of the cryptographic research community in analyzing the candidates. This analysis included an initial examination of the security and efficiency characteristics for each algorithm. NIST reviewed the results of this preliminary research and selected MARS, RC6™, Rijndael, Serpent and Twofish as finalists. Having reviewed further public analysis of the finalists, NIST has decided to propose Rijndael as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The research results and rationale for this selection are documented in this report.

A model for asynchronous reactive systems and its application to secure message transmission

Abstract: We present a rigorous model for secure reactive systems in asynchronous networks with a sound cryptographic semantics, supporting abstract specifications and the composition of secure systems. This enables modular proofs of security, which is essential in bridging the gap between the rigorous proof techniques of cryptography and tool-supported formal proof techniques. The model follows the general simulatability approach of modern cryptography. A variety of network structures and trust models can be described such as static and adaptive adversaries, some examples of this are given. As an example of our specification methodology we provide an abstract and complete specification for Secure Message Transmission, improving on recent results by Lynch (1999), and verify one concrete implementation. Our proof is based on a general theorem on the security of encryption in a reactive multi-user setting, generalizing a recent result by Bellare et. al (2000).

Digital content distribution and subscription system

Abstract: A digital content distribution and subscription system for digital data files, which provides subscriber (64) with music or video (62) for a fee.Subscribers (64) may subscribe to a predetermined number of song slots for a period of time.The subscriber (64) may select songs from various play lists, which causes encrypted digital audio files (68) for the selected music to be downloaded to the subscriber's PC.A license key (66) is downloaded to the subscriber's PC to enable the selected songs to be decoded and displayed for a predetermined time period.At the expiration of the time period, the license key (66) expires.Each subscriber's selections are tabulated for the purpose of toyality tracking and payment of a license fee to the copyright holder.The current system provides subscribers (64) with relatively high-quality digital audio files (68) and allows subscribers (64) to select from a wide range of stored digital audio files (68) on demand while not violating copyright laws.

Encryption in a secure computerized gaming system

Abstract: The present invention provides an architecture and method for a gaming-specific platform that features secure storage (354) and verification (366) of game code and other data, provides the ability to securely exchange data with a computerized wagering gaming system, and does so in a manner that is straightforward and easy to manage. Some embodiments of the invention provide the ability to identify game program code as certified or approved, such as by the Nevada Gaming Regulations Commission or other regulatory agency. The invention provides these and other functions by use of encryption (216), including digital signatures (220) and hash functions (210) as well as other encryption methods.

Secure and Efficient Asynchronous Broadcast Protocols

Abstract: Broadcast protocols are a fundamental building block for implementing replication in fault-tolerant distributed systems. This paper addresses secure service replication in an asynchronous environment with a static set of servers, where a malicious adversary may corrupt up to a threshold of servers and controls the network.We develop a formal model using concepts from modern cryptography, give modular definitions for several broadcast problems, including reliable, atomic, and secure causal broadcast, and present protocols implementing them. Reliable broadcast is a basic primitive, also known as the Byzantine generals problem, providing agreement on a delivered message. Atomic broadcast imposes additionally a total order on all delivered messages. We present a randomized atomic broadcast protocol based on a new, efficient multivalued asynchronous Byzantine agreement primitive with an external validity condition. Apparently, no such efficient asynchronous atomic broadcast protocol maintaining liveness and safety in the Byzantine model has appeared previously in the literature. Secure causal broadcast extends atomic broadcast by encryption to guarantee a causal order among the delivered messages. Our protocols use threshold cryptography for signatures, encryption, and coin-tossing.

Secure processor architecture for use with a digital rights management (DRM) system on a computing device

Abstract: A secure processor is operable in normal and preferred modes, and includes a security kernel instantiated when the processor enters into preferred mode and a security key accessible by the security kernel during preferred mode. The security kernel employs the accessed security key to authenticate a secure application, and allows the processor to be trusted to keep hidden a secret of the application. To instantiate the application, the processor enters preferred mode where the security key is accessible, and instantiates and runs the security kernel. The security kernel accesses the security key and applies same to decrypt a key for the application, stores the decrypted key in a location where the application will expect same, and instantiates the application. The processor then enters the normal mode, where the security key is not accessible.

Security Weaknesses in Bluetooth

Abstract: We point to three types of potential vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth standard, version 1.0B. The first vulnerability opens up the system to an attack in which an adversary under certain circumstances is able to determine the key exchanged by two victim devices, making eavesdropping and impersonation possible. This can be done either by exhaustively searching all possible PINs (but without interacting with the victim devices), or by mounting a so-called middle-person attack. We show that one part of the key exchange protocol - an exponential back-off method employed in case of incorrect PIN usage - adds no security, but in fact benefits an attacker. The second vulnerability makes possible an attack - which we call a location attack - in which an attacker is able to identify and determine the geographic location of victim devices. This, in turn, can be used for industrial espionage, blackmail, and other undesirable activities. The third vulnerability concerns the cipher. We show two attacks on the cipher, and one attack on the use of the cipher. The former two do not pose any practical threat, but the latter is serious. We conclude by exhibiting a range of methods that can be employed to strengthen the protocol and prevent the newly discovered attacks. Our suggested alterations are simple, and are expected to be possible to be implemented without major modifications.

System and method for the delivery of targeted data over wireless networks

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and method for the passive location positioning of wireless handsets for the purposes of delivering targeted data to users in a wireless communications network while protecting the privacy of the users. The network may contain a plurality of clusters comprising at least two physical nodes communication with each other via a remote link. The first node, the Mediation Server, receives raw location positioning data from the wireless communications network and sends standardized location positioning data with encrypted unique identifiers to the second node, the Profiling Server. The Profiling Server tracks and profiles current and historical location positioning data, compiling databases of anonymous user profiles to permit targeting of personalized and relevant data. The Profiling Server targets data to users with matching profiles and forwards those messages to the Mediation Server for encryption and further message compilation and transport. Privacy is achieved by separation of data collection and message transmission functions from the profiling and targeting functions. The present invention also concerns a method of anonymizing data related to a wireless transceiver.