Multi-Protocol Attacks and the Public Key Infrastructure

Abstract

The public-key infrastructure will be utilized to store and disseminate certified copies of user's public keys for use in secure transmission and digital signature verification. This paper presents a class of attacks, multi-protocol attacks, which can be used to break otherwise secure public-key based authentication protocols. These attacks are possible when the public-key infrastructure permits the use of a user's public key in multiple protocols. An attacker can then use either an existing protocol or a tailored protocol to subvert an otherwise secure protocol. Possible solutions are discussed. Keywords: Public Key Infrastructure, Cryptography, Security, Authentication 1 Introduction The widespread use of electronic commerce and other networked applications that require a high level of authentication will benefit from the establishment of a public-key infrastructure (PKI). With such an infrastructure in place, it will be easy for users to obtain the public keys of other participant...