Secure Auctions in a Publish/Subscribe System

Abstract

We present an approach to provide a fault-tolerant and secure service for sealed-bid auctions. The solution is designed for a loosely coupled publish/subscribe system. It employs multiple auction servers and achieves validity and security properties through application of secret-sharing methods and public-key encryption and signatures. It can tolerate Byzantine failures of one third of the auction servers and any number of bidders. A verification of the desired properties has been machine-checked using PVS. This work also provides insight and useful experience in techniques for specifying and verifying this type of system. 1 Introduction The transition from traditional financial procedures to novel electronic and digital procedures is taking place worldwide at a surprisingly high speed. Electronic commerce systems, such as electronic trading, electronic banking, and electronic exchanges are becoming critical systems for society. As is the case with the traditional forms of critical sy..