Cryptographic protocol

Last updated

A cryptographic protocol is an abstract or concrete protocol that performs a security-related function and applies cryptographic methods, often as sequences of cryptographic primitives. A protocol describes how the algorithms should be used and includes details about data structures and representations, at which point it can be used to implement multiple, interoperable versions of a program. [1]

Contents

Cryptographic protocols are widely used for secure application-level data transport. A cryptographic protocol usually incorporates at least some of these aspects:

For example, Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that is used to secure web (HTTPS) connections. [2] It has an entity authentication mechanism, based on the X.509 system; a key setup phase, where a symmetric encryption key is formed by employing public-key cryptography; and an application-level data transport function. These three aspects have important interconnections. Standard TLS does not have non-repudiation support.

There are other types of cryptographic protocols as well, and even the term itself has various readings; Cryptographic application protocols often use one or more underlying key agreement methods, which are also sometimes themselves referred to as "cryptographic protocols". For instance, TLS employs what is known as the Diffie–Hellman key exchange, which although it is only a part of TLS per se, Diffie–Hellman may be seen as a complete cryptographic protocol in itself for other applications.

Advanced cryptographic protocols

A wide variety of cryptographic protocols go beyond the traditional goals of data confidentiality, integrity, and authentication to also secure a variety of other desired characteristics of computer-mediated collaboration. [3] Blind signatures can be used for digital cash and digital credentials to prove that a person holds an attribute or right without revealing that person's identity or the identities of parties that person transacted with. Secure digital timestamping can be used to prove that data (even if confidential) existed at a certain time. Secure multiparty computation can be used to compute answers (such as determining the highest bid in an auction) based on confidential data (such as private bids), so that when the protocol is complete the participants know only their own input and the answer. End-to-end auditable voting systems provide sets of desirable privacy and auditability properties for conducting e-voting. Undeniable signatures include interactive protocols that allow the signer to prove a forgery and limit who can verify the signature. Deniable encryption augments standard encryption by making it impossible for an attacker to mathematically prove the existence of a plain text message. Digital mixes create hard-to-trace communications.

Formal verification

Cryptographic protocols can sometimes be verified formally on an abstract level. When it is done, there is a necessity to formalize the environment in which the protocol operates in order to identify threats. This is frequently done through the Dolev-Yao model.

Logics, concepts and calculi used for formal reasoning of security protocols:

Research projects and tools used for formal verification of security protocols:

Notion of abstract protocol

To formally verify a protocol it is often abstracted and modelled using Alice & Bob notation. A simple example is the following:

This states that Alice intends a message for Bob consisting of a message encrypted under shared key .

Examples

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerberos (protocol)</span> Computer authentication protocol

Kerberos is a computer-network authentication protocol that works on the basis of tickets to allow nodes communicating over a non-secure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner. Its designers aimed it primarily at a client–server model, and it provides mutual authentication—both the user and the server verify each other's identity. Kerberos protocol messages are protected against eavesdropping and replay attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public-key cryptography</span> Cryptographic system with public and private keys

Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic algorithms based on mathematical problems termed one-way functions. Security of public-key cryptography depends on keeping the private key secret; the public key can be openly distributed without compromising security. There are many kinds of public-key cryptosystems, with different security goals, including digital signature, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, public-key key encapsulation, and public-key encryption.

In cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, or on-path attack, is a cyberattack where the attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communications between two parties who believe that they are directly communicating with each other, where in actuality the attacker has inserted themselves between the two user parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Block cipher mode of operation</span> Cryptography algorithm

In cryptography, a block cipher mode of operation is an algorithm that uses a block cipher to provide information security such as confidentiality or authenticity. A block cipher by itself is only suitable for the secure cryptographic transformation of one fixed-length group of bits called a block. A mode of operation describes how to repeatedly apply a cipher's single-block operation to securely transform amounts of data larger than a block.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network, such as the Internet. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securing HTTPS remains the most publicly visible.

Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic is a set of rules for defining and analyzing information exchange protocols. Specifically, BAN logic helps its users determine whether exchanged information is trustworthy, secured against eavesdropping, or both. BAN logic starts with the assumption that all information exchanges happen on media vulnerable to tampering and public monitoring. This has evolved into the popular security mantra, "Don't trust the network."

The Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) is an augmented password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) protocol, specifically designed to work around existing patents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forward secrecy</span> Practice in cryptography

In cryptography, forward secrecy (FS), also known as perfect forward secrecy (PFS), is a feature of specific key-agreement protocols that gives assurances that session keys will not be compromised even if long-term secrets used in the session key exchange are compromised, limiting damage. For HTTPS, the long-term secret is typically the private key of the server. Forward secrecy protects past sessions against future compromises of keys or passwords. By generating a unique session key for every session a user initiates, the compromise of a single session key will not affect any data other than that exchanged in the specific session protected by that particular key. This by itself is not sufficient for forward secrecy which additionally requires that a long-term secret compromise does not affect the security of past session keys.

Authenticated Encryption (AE) is an encryption scheme which simultaneously assures the data confidentiality and authenticity. Examples of encryption modes that provide AE are GCM, CCM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CBC-MAC</span> Message authentication code algorithm

In cryptography, a cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) is a technique for constructing a message authentication code (MAC) from a block cipher. The message is encrypted with some block cipher algorithm in cipher block chaining (CBC) mode to create a chain of blocks such that each block depends on the proper encryption of the previous block. This interdependence ensures that a change to any of the plaintext bits will cause the final encrypted block to change in a way that cannot be predicted or counteracted without knowing the key to the block cipher.

Mutual authentication or two-way authentication refers to two parties authenticating each other at the same time in an authentication protocol. It is a default mode of authentication in some protocols and optional in others (TLS).

The Dolev–Yao model, named after its authors Danny Dolev and Andrew Yao, is a formal model used to prove properties of interactive cryptographic protocols.

Multimedia Internet KEYing (MIKEY) is a key management protocol that is intended for use with real-time applications. It can specifically be used to set up encryption keys for multimedia sessions that are secured using SRTP, the security protocol commonly used for securing real-time communications such as VoIP.

Cryptographic primitives are well-established, low-level cryptographic algorithms that are frequently used to build cryptographic protocols for computer security systems. These routines include, but are not limited to, one-way hash functions and encryption functions.

In cryptography, Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) is a mode of operation for symmetric-key cryptographic block ciphers which is widely adopted for its performance. GCM throughput rates for state-of-the-art, high-speed communication channels can be achieved with inexpensive hardware resources.

A cipher suite is a set of algorithms that help secure a network connection. Suites typically use Transport Layer Security (TLS) or its deprecated predecessor Secure Socket Layer (SSL). The set of algorithms that cipher suites usually contain include: a key exchange algorithm, a bulk encryption algorithm, and a message authentication code (MAC) algorithm.

IEC 62351 is a standard developed by WG15 of IEC TC57. This is developed for handling the security of TC 57 series of protocols including IEC 60870-5 series, IEC 60870-6 series, IEC 61850 series, IEC 61970 series & IEC 61968 series. The different security objectives include authentication of data transfer through digital signatures, ensuring only authenticated access, prevention of eavesdropping, prevention of playback and spoofing, and intrusion detection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal Protocol</span> Non-federated cryptographic protocol

The Signal Protocol is a non-federated cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for voice and instant messaging conversations. The protocol was developed by Open Whisper Systems in 2013 and was introduced in the open-source TextSecure app, which later became Signal. Several closed-source applications have implemented the protocol, such as WhatsApp, which is said to encrypt the conversations of "more than a billion people worldwide" or Google who provides end-to-end encryption by default to all RCS-based conversations between users of their Google Messages app for one-to-one conversations. Facebook Messenger also say they offer the protocol for optional Secret Conversations, as does Skype for its Private Conversations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamarin Prover</span> Software for formal verification of cryptographic protocols

Tamarin Prover is a computer software program for formal verification of cryptographic protocols. It has been used to verify Transport Layer Security 1.3, ISO/IEC 9798, DNP3 Secure Authentication v5, WireGuard, and the PQ3 Messaging Protocol of Apple iMessage.

Application Layer Transport Security (ALTS) is a Google-developed authentication and transport encryption system used for securing remote procedure call (RPC) within Google machines. Google started its development in 2023, as a tailored modification of TLS.

References

  1. "Cryptographic Protocol Overview" (PDF). 2015-10-23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-29. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  2. Chen, Shan; Jero, Samuel; Jagielski, Matthew; Boldyreva, Alexandra; Nita-Rotaru, Cristina (2021-07-01). "Secure Communication Channel Establishment: TLS 1.3 (over TCP Fast Open) versus QUIC". Journal of Cryptology. 34 (3): 26. doi: 10.1007/s00145-021-09389-w . ISSN   0933-2790. S2CID   235174220.
  3. Berry Schoenmakers. "Lecture Notes Cryptographic Protocols" (PDF).
  4. Fábrega, F. Javier Thayer, Jonathan C. Herzog, and Joshua D. Guttman., Strand Spaces: Why is a Security Protocol Correct?{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA)". Archived from the original on 22 September 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  6. Armando, A.; Arsac, W; Avanesov, T.; Barletta, M.; Calvi, A.; Cappai, A.; Carbone, R.; Chevalier, Y.; +12 more (2012). Flanagan, C.; König, B. (eds.). The AVANTSSAR Platform for the Automated Validation of Trust and Security of Service-Oriented Architectures. Vol. 7214. LNTCS. pp. 267–282. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-28756-5_19 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "Constraint Logic-based Attack Searcher (Cl-AtSe)". Archived from the original on 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
  8. Open-Source Fixed-Point Model-Checker (OFMC)
  9. "SAT-based Model-Checker for Security Protocols and Security-sensitive Application (SATMC)". Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
  10. Casper: A Compiler for the Analysis of Security Protocols
  11. cpsa: Symbolic cryptographic protocol analyzer
  12. "Knowledge In Security protocolS (KISS)". Archived from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  13. Maude-NRL Protocol Analyzer (Maude-NPA)
  14. Scyther
  15. Tamarin Prover

Further reading