ELEC5616_Computer And Network Security_2014 Semester 1_CNS_Lecture_14.pdfVIP

ELEC5616 COMPUTER NETWORK SECURITY Lecture 14: Cryptographic Protocols II SECRET SPLITTING Problem: You are the CEO of Coca-Cola. You’re responsible for keeping the formula secret from Pepsi’s industrial spies. You could tell your most trusted employees, but... – They could defect to the opposition – They could fall to rubber hose cryptanalysis How can we split a secret among two or more parties where each piece by itself is useless? SECRET SPLITTING Simple XOR Algorithm: Assume Trent wishes to protect message m: 1. Trent generates a random bit string r, the same length m 2. Trent computes s = m ⊕r 3. Trent gives Alice r 4. Trent gives Bob s Each piece is called a shadow To reconstruct m, Alice and Bob XOR their shadows together If r is truly random, the system is perfectly secure (O P) To extend the scheme to n people, generate n random bit strings (e.g. m ⊕r ⊕s ⊕t = u) SECRET SPLITTING Secret splitting aims to enhance reliability without increasing risk through distributing trust Issues: The system is adjudicated by Trent Trent can hand out rubbish and say it’s part of the secret He can hand out a piece to Alice, Bob, Carol and Dave, and later tell everyone that only the first three pieces are needed and Dave is fired All parties know the length of the message It’s the same length as their piece of message The message is malleable Alice can manipulate her shadow to “blind” it or alter bits in a known way (like flipping) All parties are required to recover message (bus factor = 1) SECRET SHARING Problem: You are responsible for a small third-world country’s nuclear weapons program. You want to ensure that no single lunatic can launch a missile. You want to ensure that no two lunatics can collude to launch a missile. You want at least three of five officers to be lunatics before a missile can be launched (bus factor = 3) We call this a (3,5)-threshold scheme SHAMIR