Many emerging applications (e.g., teleconference, real-time information services, pay per view, distributed interactive simulation, and collaborative work) are based upon a group communications model, i.e., they require packet delivery from one or more authorized senders to a very large number of authorized receivers. As a result, securing group communications (i.e., providing confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of messages delivered between group members) will become a critical networking issue. In this paper, we present a novel solution to the scalability problem of group/multicast key management. We formalize the notion of a secure group as a triple (U; K;R) where U denotes a set of users, K a set of keys held by the users, and R a user-key relation. We then introduce key graphs to specify secure groups. For a special class of key graphs, we present three strategies for securely distributing rekey messages after a join/leave, and specify protocols for joining and leaving a...

Abstract—Multicast communication is becoming the basis for a growing number of applications. It is therefore critical to provide sound security mechanisms for multicast communication. Yet, existing security protocols for multicast offer only partial solutions. We first present a taxonomy of multicast scenarios on the Internet and point out relevant security concerns. Next we address two major security problems of multicast communication: source authentication, and key revocation. Maintaining authenticity in multicast protocols is a much more complex problem than for unicast; in particular, known solutions are prohibitively inefficient in many cases. We present a solution that is reasonable for a range of scenarios. Our approach can be regarded as a ‘midpoint ’ between traditional Message Authentication Codes and digital signatures. We also present an improved solution to the key revocation problem. I.

We present and analyze a new algorithm for establishing shared cryptographic keys in large, dynamically changing groups. Our algorithm is based on a novel application of one-way function trees. In comparison with previously published methods, our algorithm achieves a new minimum in the number of bits that need to be broadcast to members in order to re-key after a member is added or evicted. The number of keys stored by group members, the number of keys broadcast to the group when new members are added or evicted, and the computational efforts of group members, are logarithmic in the number of group members. Our algorithm provides complete forward and backwards security: newly admitted group members cannot read previous messages, and evicted members cannot read future messages, even with collusion by arbitrarily many evicted members. This algorithm offers a new scalable method for establishing group session keys for secure large-group applications such as electronic conferences, multica...

Secure group communication is an increasingly popular research area having received much attention in recent years. The fundamental challenge revolves around secure and efficient group key management. While centralized methods are often appropriate for key distribution in large groups, many collaborative group settings require distributed key agreement techniques. This work investigates a novel approach to group key agreement by blending binary key trees with Diffie-Hellman key exchange. The resultant protocol suite is very simple, secure and fault-tolerant. Moreover, its efficiency surpasses that of prior art.

The low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware components in unshielded sensor-network nodes leave them vulnerable to compromise. With little effort, an adversary may capture nodes, analyze and replicate them, and surreptitiously insert these replicas at strategic locations within the network. Such attacks may have severe consequences; they may allow the adversary to corrupt network data or even disconnect significant parts of the network. Previous node replication detection schemes depend primarily on centralized mechanisms with single points of failure, or on neighborhood voting protocols that fail to detect distributed replications. To address these fundamental limitations, we propose two new algorithms based on emergent properties [17], i.e., properties that arise only through the collective action of multiple nodes. Randomized Multicast distributes node location information to randomly-selected witnesses, exploiting the birthday paradox to detect replicated nodes, while Line-Selected Multicast uses the topology of the network to detect replication. Both algorithms provide globally-aware, distributed node-replica detection, and Line-Selected Multicast displays particularly strong performance characteristics. We show that emergent algorithms represent a promising new approach to sensor network security; moreover, our results naturally extend to other classes of networks in which nodes can be captured, replicated and re-inserted by an adversary.

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Middleware supporting secure applications in a distributed environment faces several challenges. Scalable security in the context of multicasting or broadcasting is especially hard when privacy and authenticity is to be assured to highly dynamic groups where the application allows participants to join and leave at any time. Unicast security is well-known and has widely advanced into production state. But proposals for multicast security solutions that have been published so far are complex, often require trust in network components or are inefficient. In this paper, we propose a framework of new approaches for achieving scalable security in IP multicasting. Our solutions assure that that newly joining members are not able to understand past group traffic, and that leaving members may not follow future communication. For versatility, our framework supports a range of closely related schemes for key management, ranging from tightly centralized to fully distributed and even allows switching between these schemes on-the-fly with low overhead. Operations have low complexity (O(log N) for joins or leaves), thus granting scalability even for very large groups. We also present a novel concurrency-enabling scheme, which was devised for fully distributed key management. In this paper we discuss the requirements for secure multicasting, present our flexible system, and evaluate its properties, based on the existing prototype implementation.

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to scalable group re-keying for secure multicast. Our approach, which we call Kronos, is based upon the idea of periodic group re-keying. We first motivate our approach by showing that if a group is re-keyed on each membership change, as the size of the group increases and/or the rate at which members leave and join the group increases, the frequency of re-keying becomes the primary bottleneck for scalable group re-keying. In contrast, Kronos can scale to handle large and dynamic groups because the frequency of re-keying is independent of the size and membership dynamics of the group. Next, we describe how Kronos can be used in conjunction with distributed key management frameworks such as IGKMP [10], that use a single group-wide session key for encrypting communications between members of the group. Using a detailed simulation, we compare the performance tradeoffs between Kronos and other key management protocols. 1 Introduction M...

This document describes a framework for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) running across IP backbones. It discusses the various different types of VPNs, their respective requirements, and proposes specific mechanisms that could be used to implement each type of VPN using existing or proposed specifications. The objective of this document is to serve as a framework for related protocol development in order to develop the full set of specifications required for widespread deployment of interoperable VPN solutions.

This document describes a framework for the standardization of bulkdata reliable multicast transport. It builds upon the experience gained during the deployment of several classes of contemporary reliable multicast transport, and attempts to pull out the commonalities between these classes of protocols into a number of building blocks. To that end, this document recommends that certain components that are common to multiple protocol classes be standardized as "building blocks". The remaining parts of the protocols, consisting of highly protocol specific, tightly intertwined functions, shall be designated as "protocol cores". Thus, each protocol...