Securing the itinerary of mobile agents through a non-repudiation protocol

Abstract

We propose a cryptographic solution to protect the itinerary of mobile agents. We consider real-life applications, where hosts do not act independently but are included in a hierarchical structure. In this structure, at least one trusted authority exists: the certification authority that provides hosts with the necessary cryptographic keys to establish secret and authentic communications between them. In our solution, all agents necessary to the application are launched by a trusted authority (TA). Each agent carries its itinerary as a sequence of encrypted entries. Each entry is readable only by one of the hosts. It includes private information useful only to this host, and the identification of the next host in the agent's itinerary.