Equipping "Smart Devices" With Public Key Signatures

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2-2007

Abstract

One of the major recent trends in computing has been towards so-called smart devices, such as PDAs, cell phones and sensors. Such devices tend to have a feature in common: limited computational capabilities and equally limited power, as most operate on batteries. This makes them ill-suited for public key signatures. This article explores practical and conceptual implications of using Server-Aided Signatures (SAS) for these devices. SAS is a signature method that relies on partially-trusted servers for generating (normally expensive) public key signatures for regular users. Although the primary goal is to aid small, resource-limited devices in signature generation, SAS also offers fast certificate revocation, signature causality and reliable timestamping. It also has some interesting features such as built-in attack detection for users and DoS resistance for servers. Our experimental results also validate the feasibility of deploying SAS on smart devices.

Discipline

Information Security

Research Areas

Information Security and Trust

Publication

ACM Transactions on Internet Technology

Volume

7

Issue

1

ISSN

1533-5399

Identifier

10.1145/1189740.1189743

Publisher

ACM

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS