Identity-Based Cryptosystems for Enhanced Deployment of OSGi Bundles

The OSGi platform is designed to make Java software extensible at runtime. This undeniably presents a great interest in several domains like embedded platforms or enterprise application servers. However, securing the deployment of the OSGi components, or bundles, proves to be a major challenge. The current approach consists in digitally signing the bundles and certifying the signature through a Public Key Infrastructure. We propose to replace this technology with Identitybased cryptographic mechanisms, which provide both better performances and simplified key management. We present an infrastructure for initialization and use of Identity-based key management, and define the digital signature of bundles using such a cryptographic scheme. Based on our implementation, we provide a comparison between PKI management and Identitybased Key Management. The proposed approach proves to support radical improvement in the key management process, especially in strongly asymmetric system such as OSGi-based Home Gateway, where a few providers publish services for millions of potential users