On secure and pseudonymous client-relationships with multiple servers

Abstract

This paper introduces a cryptographic engine, Janus, that assists clients in establishing and maintaining secure and pseudonymous relationships with multiple servers. The setting is such that clients reside on a particular subnet (e.g., corporate intranet, ISP) and the servers reside anywhere on the Internet. The Janus engine allows for each client-server relationship to use either weak or strong authentication on each interaction. At the same time, each interaction preserves privacy by neither revealing a client's true identity ("modulo" the subnet) nor the set of servers a particular client interacts with. Furthermore, clients do not need any secure long-term memory, enabling scalability and mobility. The interaction model extends to allow servers to send data back to clients via e-mail at a later date. Hence, our results complement the functionality of current network anonymity tools and remailers. 1 Introduction We consider the following problem: there is a set of clients located ...