Messaging Layer Security

Last updated

Messaging Layer Security (MLS) is a security layer for end-to-end encrypting messages in arbitrarily sized groups. It is maintained by the MLS working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force to provide an efficient and practical security mechanism. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Security properties

Security properties of MLS include message confidentiality, message integrity and authentication, membership authentication, asynchronicity, forward secrecy, post-compromise security, and scalability. [4]

History

The idea was born in 2016 and first discussed in an unofficial meeting during IETF 96 in Berlin with attendees from Wire, Mozilla and Cisco. [5]

Initial ideas were based on pairwise encryption for secure 1:1 and group communication. In 2017, an academic paper introducing Asynchronous Ratcheting Trees was published by the University of Oxford and Facebook setting the focus on more efficient encryption schemes. [6]

The first BoF took place in February 2018 at IETF 101 in London. The founding members are Mozilla, Facebook, Wire, Google, Twitter, University of Oxford, and INRIA. [7]

As of March 29, 2023, the IETF has approved publication of Messaging Layer Security (MLS) as a new standard. [8] It was officially published on July 19, 2023. [9] [10]

Implementations

Related Research Articles

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.

The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behavior. Devices that typically support SNMP include cable modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, and more.

In computing, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a secure network protocol suite that authenticates and encrypts packets of data to provide secure encrypted communication between two computers over an Internet Protocol network. It is used in virtual private networks (VPNs).

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. 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.

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.

Opportunistic encryption (OE) refers to any system that, when connecting to another system, attempts to encrypt communications channels, otherwise falling back to unencrypted communications. This method requires no pre-arrangement between the two systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network Security Services</span> Collection of cryptographic computer libraries

Network Security Services (NSS) is a collection of cryptographic computer libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications with optional support for hardware TLS/SSL acceleration on the server side and hardware smart cards on the client side. NSS provides a complete open-source implementation of cryptographic libraries supporting Transport Layer Security (TLS) / Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and S/MIME. NSS releases prior to version 3.14 are tri-licensed under the Mozilla Public License 1.1, the GNU General Public License, and the GNU Lesser General Public License. Since release 3.14, NSS releases are licensed under GPL-compatible Mozilla Public License 2.0.

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.

Opportunistic TLS refers to extensions in plain text communication protocols, which offer a way to upgrade a plain text connection to an encrypted connection instead of using a separate port for encrypted communication. Several protocols use a command named "STARTTLS" for this purpose. It is a form of opportunistic encryption and is primarily intended as a countermeasure to passive monitoring.

Server Name Indication (SNI) is an extension to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) computer networking protocol by which a client indicates which hostname it is attempting to connect to at the start of the handshaking process. The extension allows a server to present one of multiple possible certificates on the same IP address and TCP port number and hence allows multiple secure (HTTPS) websites to be served by the same IP address without requiring all those sites to use the same certificate. It is the conceptual equivalent to HTTP/1.1 name-based virtual hosting, but for HTTPS. This also allows a proxy to forward client traffic to the right server during TLS/SSL handshake. The desired hostname is not encrypted in the original SNI extension, so an eavesdropper can see which site is being requested. The SNI extension was specified in 2003 in RFC 3546

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WebSocket</span> Computer network protocol

WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing simultaneous two-way communication channels over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. The WebSocket protocol was standardized by the IETF as RFC 6455 in 2011. The current specification allowing web applications to use this protocol is known as WebSockets. It is a living standard maintained by the WHATWG and a successor to The WebSocket API from the W3C.

DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) is an Internet security protocol to allow X.509 digital certificates, commonly used for Transport Layer Security (TLS), to be bound to domain names using Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

In cryptography, the Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism (SCRAM) is a family of modern, password-based challenge–response authentication mechanisms providing authentication of a user to a server. As it is specified for Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL), it can be used for password-based logins to services like LDAP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP and JMAP (e-mail), XMPP (chat), or MongoDB and PostgreSQL (databases). For XMPP, supporting it is mandatory.

In cryptography, the Double Ratchet Algorithm is a key management algorithm that was developed by Trevor Perrin and Moxie Marlinspike in 2013. It can be used as part of a cryptographic protocol to provide end-to-end encryption for instant messaging. After an initial key exchange it manages the ongoing renewal and maintenance of short-lived session keys. It combines a cryptographic so-called "ratchet" based on the Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DH) and a ratchet based on a key derivation function (KDF), such as a hash function, and is therefore called a double ratchet.

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 first 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.

Wire is an encrypted communication and collaboration app created by Wire Swiss. It is available for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers such as Firefox. Wire offers a collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice calls, video calls, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration – all protected by a secure end-to-end-encryption. Wire offers three solutions built on its security technology: Wire Pro – which offers Wire's collaboration feature for businesses, Wire Enterprise – includes Wire Pro capabilities with added features for large-scale or regulated organizations, and Wire Red – the on-demand crisis collaboration suite. They also offer Wire Personal, which is a secure messaging app for personal use.

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 2007, as a tailored modification of TLS.

ChaCha20-Poly1305 is an authenticated encryption with additional data (AEAD) algorithm, that combines the ChaCha20 stream cipher with the Poly1305 message authentication code. Its usage in IETF protocols is standardized in RFC 8439. It has fast software performance, and without hardware acceleration, is usually faster than AES-GCM.

References

  1. ↑ "Inside MLS, the New Protocol for Secure Enterprise Messaging". Dark Reading. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  2. ↑ at 10:29, Richard Chirgwin 22 Aug 2018. "Elders of internet hash out standards to grant encrypted message security for world+dog". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ "Messaging Layer Security". GitHub.
  4. ↑ "Messaging Layer Security (mls) -". datatracker.ietf.org. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
  5. ↑ "Das sind die sieben Entwickler-Trends 2019: Vom Java-Comeback über MLS bis KI/ML-zentrierte Technologien". IT Finanzmagazin. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  6. ↑ Cohn-Gordon, Katriel; Cremers, Cas; Garratt, Luke; Millican, Jon; Milner, Kevin (2017). "On Ends-to-Ends Encryption: Asynchronous Group Messaging with Strong Security Guarantees". Cryptology ePrint Archive.
  7. ↑ Chirgwin, Richard (22 August 2018). "Elders of internet hash out standards to grant encrypted message security for world+dog" . Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  8. ↑ Sullivan, Nick; Turner, Sean (2023-03-29). "Messaging Layer Security: Secure and Usable End-to-End Encryption". IETF . Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  9. ↑ "New MLS protocol provides groups better and more efficient security at Internet scale". 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  10. ↑ Beurdouche, Benjamin; Vasquez, Sarah (2023-07-20). "Messaging Layer Security is now an internet standard". Mozilla . Retrieved 2023-07-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.