10,219 research outputs found
Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey
The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic
viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of
the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not
provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established
by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for
which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can
vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in
security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other
cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly
centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We
first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment
techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic
scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures:
1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a
point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the
objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the
constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts.
We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD
technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special
issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8
Comparison Between Asymmetric and Symmetric Channel-Based Authentication for MIMO Systems
Authentication is a key element of security, by which a receiver confirms the
sender identity of a message. Typical approaches include either key-based
authentication at the application layer or physical layer authentication (PLA),
where a message is considered authentic if it appears to have gone through the
legitimate channel. In both cases a source of randomness is needed, whereas for
PLA the random nature of the communication channel is exploited. In this paper
we compare the various approaches using in all cases the channel as a source of
randomness. We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with a
finite number of antennas. Simple auto-regressive (AR) models for its evolution
as well as the relation of the legitimate and attacker channel are considered.
In this setting the attacker can either predict the key used for key-based
authentication or forge the channel estimated at the legitimate receiver for
PLA. The analysis includes both symmetric and asymmetric key-based
authentication. We compare the schemes in terms of false alarm and missed
detection probability and we outline best attack strategies.Comment: Updated version (with typos correction) of paper accepted for WSA
conferenc
Community-Based Security for the Internet of Things
With more and more devices becoming connectable to the internet, the number
of services but also a lot of threats increases dramatically. Security is often
a secondary matter behind functionality and comfort, but the problem has
already been recognized. Still, with many IoT devices being deployed already,
security will come step-by-step and through updates, patches and new versions
of apps and IoT software. While these updates can be safely retrieved from app
stores, the problems kick in via jailbroken devices and with the variety of
untrusted sources arising on the internet. Since hacking is typically a
community effort? these days, security could be a community goal too. The
challenges are manifold, and one reason for weak or absent security on IoT
devices is their weak computational power. In this chapter, we discuss a
community based security mechanism in which devices mutually aid each other in
secure software management. We discuss game-theoretic methods of community
formation and light-weight cryptographic means to accomplish authentic software
deployment inside the IoT device community
Context-aware Authorization in Highly Dynamic Environments
Highly dynamic computing environments, like ubiquitous and pervasive computing environments, require frequent adaptation of applications. Context is a key to adapt suiting user needs. On the other hand, standard access control trusts users once they have authenticated, despite the fact that they may reach unauthorized contexts. We analyse how taking into account dynamic information like context in the authorization subsystem can improve security, and how this new access control applies to interaction patterns, like messaging or eventing. We experiment and validate our approach using context as an authorization factor for eventing in Web service for device (like UPnP or DPWS), in smart home security
Principles of Physical Layer Security in Multiuser Wireless Networks: A Survey
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the domain of physical layer
security in multiuser wireless networks. The essential premise of
physical-layer security is to enable the exchange of confidential messages over
a wireless medium in the presence of unauthorized eavesdroppers without relying
on higher-layer encryption. This can be achieved primarily in two ways: without
the need for a secret key by intelligently designing transmit coding
strategies, or by exploiting the wireless communication medium to develop
secret keys over public channels. The survey begins with an overview of the
foundations dating back to the pioneering work of Shannon and Wyner on
information-theoretic security. We then describe the evolution of secure
transmission strategies from point-to-point channels to multiple-antenna
systems, followed by generalizations to multiuser broadcast, multiple-access,
interference, and relay networks. Secret-key generation and establishment
protocols based on physical layer mechanisms are subsequently covered.
Approaches for secrecy based on channel coding design are then examined, along
with a description of inter-disciplinary approaches based on game theory and
stochastic geometry. The associated problem of physical-layer message
authentication is also introduced briefly. The survey concludes with
observations on potential research directions in this area.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, 303 refs. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1303.1609 by other authors. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials,
201
Comprehensive Security Framework for Global Threats Analysis
Cyber criminality activities are changing and becoming more and more professional. With the growth of financial flows through the Internet and the Information System (IS), new kinds of thread arise involving complex scenarios spread within multiple IS components. The IS information modeling and Behavioral Analysis are becoming new solutions to normalize the IS information and counter these new threads. This paper presents a framework which details the principal and necessary steps for monitoring an IS. We present the architecture of the framework, i.e. an ontology of activities carried out within an IS to model security information and User Behavioral analysis. The results of the performed experiments on real data show that the modeling is effective to reduce the amount of events by 91%. The User Behavioral Analysis on uniform modeled data is also effective, detecting more than 80% of legitimate actions of attack scenarios
On Secure Implementation of an IHE XUA-Based Protocol for Authenticating Healthcare Professionals
The importance of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) has been addressed in recent years by governments and institutions.Many large scale projects have been funded with the aim to allow healthcare professionals to consult patients data. Properties such as confidentiality, authentication and authorization are the key for the success for these projects. The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative promotes the coordinated use of established standards for authenticated and secure EHR exchanges among clinics and hospitals. In particular, the IHE integration profile named XUA permits to attest user identities by relying on SAML assertions, i.e. XML documents containing authentication statements. In this paper, we provide a formal model for the secure issuance of such an assertion. We first specify the scenario using the process calculus COWS and then analyse it using the model checker CMC. Our analysis reveals a potential flaw in the XUA profile when using a SAML assertion in an unprotected network. We then suggest a solution for this flaw, and model check and implement this solution to show that it is secure and feasible
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