An Elliptic Curve-based Signcryption Scheme with Forward Secrecy

An elliptic curve-based signcryption scheme is introduced in this paper that effectively combines the functionalities of digital signature and encryption, and decreases the computational costs and communication overheads in comparison with the traditional signature-then-encryption schemes. It simultaneously provides the attributes of message confidentiality, authentication, integrity, unforgeability, non-repudiation, public verifiability, and forward secrecy of message confidentiality. Since it is based on elliptic curves and can use any fast and secure symmetric algorithm for encrypting messages, it has great advantages to be used for security establishments in store-and-forward applications and when dealing with resource-constrained devices.Comment: 13 Pages, 5 Figures, 2 Table

Lattice-Based Group Signatures: Achieving Full Dynamicity (and Deniability) with Ease

In this work, we provide the first lattice-based group signature that offers full dynamicity (i.e., users have the flexibility in joining and leaving the group), and thus, resolve a prominent open problem posed by previous works. Moreover, we achieve this non-trivial feat in a relatively simple manner. Starting with Libert et al.'s fully static construction (Eurocrypt 2016) - which is arguably the most efficient lattice-based group signature to date, we introduce simple-but-insightful tweaks that allow to upgrade it directly into the fully dynamic setting. More startlingly, our scheme even produces slightly shorter signatures than the former, thanks to an adaptation of a technique proposed by Ling et al. (PKC 2013), allowing to prove inequalities in zero-knowledge. Our design approach consists of upgrading Libert et al.'s static construction (EUROCRYPT 2016) - which is arguably the most efficient lattice-based group signature to date - into the fully dynamic setting. Somewhat surprisingly, our scheme produces slightly shorter signatures than the former, thanks to a new technique for proving inequality in zero-knowledge without relying on any inequality check. The scheme satisfies the strong security requirements of Bootle et al.'s model (ACNS 2016), under the Short Integer Solution (SIS) and the Learning With Errors (LWE) assumptions. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to equip the obtained group signature scheme with the deniability functionality in a simple way. This attractive functionality, put forward by Ishida et al. (CANS 2016), enables the tracing authority to provide an evidence that a given user is not the owner of a signature in question. In the process, we design a zero-knowledge protocol for proving that a given LWE ciphertext does not decrypt to a particular message

Interest-Based Access Control for Content Centric Networks (extended version)

Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is an emerging network architecture designed to overcome limitations of the current IP-based Internet. One of the fundamental tenets of CCN is that data, or content, is a named and addressable entity in the network. Consumers request content by issuing interest messages with the desired content name. These interests are forwarded by routers to producers, and the resulting content object is returned and optionally cached at each router along the path. In-network caching makes it difficult to enforce access control policies on sensitive content outside of the producer since routers only use interest information for forwarding decisions. To that end, we propose an Interest-Based Access Control (IBAC) scheme that enables access control enforcement using only information contained in interest messages, i.e., by making sensitive content names unpredictable to unauthorized parties. Our IBAC scheme supports both hash- and encryption-based name obfuscation. We address the problem of interest replay attacks by formulating a mutual trust framework between producers and consumers that enables routers to perform authorization checks when satisfying interests from their cache. We assess the computational, storage, and bandwidth overhead of each IBAC variant. Our design is flexible and allows producers to arbitrarily specify and enforce any type of access control on content, without having to deal with the problems of content encryption and key distribution. This is the first comprehensive design for CCN access control using only information contained in interest messages.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio