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Public Key Infrastructure: A Tutorial

Public Key Infrastructure: A Tutorial. Ravi Mukkamala Department of Computer Science Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia, USA mukka@cs.odu.edu. ORGANIZATION. Introduction PKI Architectures Revocation Modes of deployment PKI Alternatives Wireless PKI References. INTRODUCTION.

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Public Key Infrastructure: A Tutorial

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  1. Public Key Infrastructure: A Tutorial Ravi Mukkamala Department of Computer Science Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia, USA mukka@cs.odu.edu

  2. ORGANIZATION • Introduction • PKI Architectures • Revocation • Modes of deployment • PKI Alternatives • Wireless PKI • References

  3. INTRODUCTION

  4. Enterprise PKI

  5. Why PKI? • PKI is not the goal • Scalable security services are the goal • PKI supports scalable security services using public key cryptography

  6. What is PKI? Public/Private key pair The public key is a string of bits A public key certificate answers the following questions (and many more) • Whose certificate is it? • What can it be used for? • Is it still valid? • Example uses: – Is this really the key for Jack Nathan? – Can this key be used to send an encrypted message to John Smith? – Was the key used for digitally signing this document valid at the time of signing? • Fetch me the key of Mike Jones

  7. Security Services That Can BeSupported By PKI • Authentication - Ability to verify the identity of an entity • Confidentiality - Protection of information from unauthorized disclosure • Data Integrity - Protection of information from undetected modification • Non-repudiation - Prevention of an entity from denying previous actions • Key estalishment

  8. A Fully Functional PKI • Certification authority • Certificate repository • Certificate revocation • Key backup and recovery • Automatic key update • Key history management • Cross-certification • Support for non-repudiation • Time stamping • Client software

  9. Secret Key Cryptography • Classical form of cryptography • Single key used to encrypt and decrypt data • Strengths –Very fast relative to public key cryptography –Relatively short keys • Weakness: Key must be shared among interested parties

  10. Public Key Cryptography • Each entity has a PAIR of mathematically related keys – Private Key - known by ONE – Public Key - known by Many • Not feasible to determine Private Key from Public Key • Strength – no shared private keys • Weakness – Relatively slow – Requires longer keys for same level of security

  11. Public Key Cryptography (cont.) • Public key is best suited to – Digital signatures (e.g., RSA and DSA) – Key Management • Key transfer (e.g., RSA) • Key agreement (e.g., Diffie-Hellman)

  12. encryption algorithm message encryptionkey Transmission Channel decryption algorithm decryptionkey message Cryptography

  13. Public Key Cryptosystem (RSA) • A public encryption method that relies on a public encryption algorithm, a public decryption algorithm, and a public encryption key. • Using the public key and encryption algorithm, everyone can encrypt a message. • The decryption key is known only to authorized parties. • Asymmetric method. • Encryption and decryption keys are different; one is not easily computed from the other.

  14. Public Key Cryptosystem (RSA) • and q are two prime numbers. • n = pq • m = (p-1)(q-1) • a is such that 1 < a < m and gcd(m,a) = 1. • b is such that (ab) mod m = 1. • a is computed by generating random positive integers and testing gcd(m,a) = 1 using the extendedEuclid’s gcd algorithm. • The extended Euclid’s gcd algorithm also computes b when gcd(m,a) = 1.

  15. RSA Encryption And Decryption • Message M < n. • Encryption key = (a,n). • Decryption key = (b,n). • Encrypt => E = Ma mod n. • Decrypt => M = Eb mod n.

  16. Breaking RSA • Factor n and determine p and q, n = pq. • Now determine m = (p-1)(q-1). • Now use Euclid’s extended gcd algorithm to compute gcd(m,a). b is obtained as a byproduct. • The decryption key (b,n) has been determined!

  17. Security Of RSA • Relies on the fact that prime factorization is computationally very hard. • Let q be the number of bits in the binary representation of n. • No algorithm, polynomial in q,is known to find the prime factors of n. • Try to find the factors of a 100 bit number.

  18. Why Do We Need Certificates? • Associate the public key with a name or entity • What is this key good for? – Signatures or encryption? – Authorization – Secure mail, secure web, or digital signatures – How can I trust it?

  19. Example Public Key Certificate

  20. A Certificate with Policy Information

  21. Problems with Identity Certificates • Which “Don Smith?” does this certificate corresponds to? • Suppose there are two “Don Smith” s in the same organization, how do we know to whom a given certificate belongs? • Where directory do we look up for “Don Smith?” • Examples: • PGP: Used for email encryption • Identity is name + email address • SPKI: Used for authorization/access control • Identity is a name meaningful within the domain of application • Account name on a server • Credit card number • Merchant ID • PGP and SPKI also use the public key as a unique ID

  22. More on Public Key Certificates • Features – Tamper-evident – Issued by a Trusted third party (TTP) called CA – Complete user identification – Fixed expiration • Drawbacks – Must trust issuer

  23. X.509: A Standard for PKI • Defined and standardized a general, flexible certificate format. • Three nested components in an X.509 certificate • Tamper evident envelop (outer most) • Basic certificate contents • Certificate extensions (options)

  24. Tamper-evident Envelop • Thecertificate (contents) • signatuerAlgorithm (DSA with SHA-1) • signaturevalue

  25. Basic Certificate Contents • Version • Serialnumber • Signature (algorithm identifier: DSA with SHA-1)Issuer • Validity • Subject (Name) • Subject PublicKeyInfo • IssueruniqueID (optional) • subjectuniqueID (optional)

  26. Certificate Extensions • Subject type (CA or end entity) • Names and identity information • Key attributes • Policy information • Additional information • CRL distribution points • Freshest CRL • Authority (CA) information access

  27. X.509 Certificate Usage Model Relying party wants to verify a signature • Fetch certificate • Fetch certificate revocation list (CRL) • Check certificate against CRL • Check signature using certificate

  28. An Example Certificate Usage

  29. PKI ARCHITECTURES

  30. Conventional PKI Architecture

  31. PKI Architectures • Single CA • Hierarchical PKI • Mesh PKI • Trust lists (Browser model) • Bridge CAs

  32. Single CA • A CA that issues certificates to users and systems, but not to other CAs – Easy to build – Easy to maintain – All users trust this CA – Paths have one certificate and one CRL – Doesn’t scale particularly well

  33. Hierarchical PKI • CAs have a hierarchical relationship (as in a tree) • All CAs trust the root CA • Root CA certifies its child CAs, and they in turn certify their child CAs, and so on. • Easy to establish/verify trust relationship between any two CAs

  34. Strict Hierarchy of CAs

  35. Mesh PKI • CAs have peer-to-peer relationships • Users trust the CA that issued their certificates

  36. Trust lists (Browser) • User trusts more than one CA • Each CA could be a single CA or part of a PKI – For hierarchies, should be the root – For mesh PKIs, could be any CA

  37. Bridge CA • Designed to address the shortcomings of the trust lists and cross-certified enterprise architecture • To unify many PKIs into a single PKI---acts as a sort of trust arbitrator • If the trust domain is implemented as a hierarchical PKI, the bridge CA will establish a relationship with the root CA • If the domain is implemented as a mesh, the bridge will establish a relationship with one of its CAs.

  38. Cross-certification • CA of one organization being certified (for trust purposes) by another CA of a different organization • Peer-to-peer relationships among CAs • Appropriate when a small number of enterprise PKIs intend to establish trust relationships

  39. A Certificate Chain

  40. Attribute Certificates vs. Identity Certificates • A certificate may simply bind a public key with a name • Or bind a set of attributes with a name and public key. • These are more likely to be revoked since attributes are more likely to be changed than the name/key. • Certificate becomes too long with description of all attributes

  41. PKI Design Guidelines • Identity • Use a locally meaningful identifier • User name, email address, Account number • If possible, design your PKI so that revocation isn’t required • Alternately, use a mechanism which provides freshness guarantees • Application-specific PKIs • SPKI Binds a key to an authorization • X.509 binds a key to an (often irrelevant) identity which must then somehow be mapped to an authorization • PGP is designed to secure email

  42. Certificate Revocation

  43. Certificate Revocation Revocation is managed with a certificate revocation list (CRL), a form of anti-certificate which cancels a certificate • Equivalent to the old credit card blacklist booklets – Relying parties are expected to check CRLs before using a certificate – “This certificate is valid unless you hear somewhere that it is not”

  44. CRL Problems CRL problems mirror credit card blacklist problems • Not issued frequently enough to be effective against an attacker • Expensive to distribute • Vulnerable to simple DOS attacks – Attacker can prevent revocation by blocking CRL delivery CRLs add further problems of their own • Can contain retroactive invalidity dates • CRL issued right now can indicate that a cert was invalid last week – Checking that something was valid at time t isn’t sufficient to establish validity – Back-dated CRL can appear at any point in the future • Destroys the entire concept of non-repudiation

  45. CRL Distribution Problems • CRLs have a fixed validity period – Valid from issue date to expiry date • At expiry date, all relying parties connect to the CA to fetch the new CRL – Massive peak loads when a CRL expires (DDOS attack) • Issuing CRLs to provide timely revocation exacerbates the problem – 10M clients download a 1MB CRL issued once a minute = ~150GB/s traffic

  46. More on certificate revocation • Many applications require prompt revocation • CAs (and X.509) don’t really support this • CAs are inherently an offline operation • Requirements for online checks • Should return a simple boolean value “Certificate is valid/not valid right now” • Can return additional information such as “Not valid because …” • •Historical query support is also useful, “Was valid at the time the signature was generated” • Should be lightweight

  47. On-line Status Checking Protocol (OCSP) • Inquires of the issuing CA whether a given certificate is still valid – Acts as a simple responder for querying CRLs – Still requires the use of a CA to check validity • OCSP acts as a selective CRL protocol • Standard CRL process: “Send me a CRL for everything you’ve got” • OCSP process: “Send me a pseudo-CRL/OCSP response for only the specified certificates” • Lightweight pseudo-CRL avoids CRL size problems • Reply is created on the spot in response to the request • Ephemeral pseudo-CRL avoids CRL validity period problems • Requires a signing operation for every query

  48. On-line Status Checking (cont.) Problems arise to some extent from the CRL-based origins of OCSP • CRL can only report a negative result • “Not revoked” doesn’t mean a cert was ever issued • Some OCSP implementations will report “I can’t find a CRL” as “Good” • Some relying party implementations will assume “revoked” as “not good”, so any other status = “good”

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