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    Authentication Functions

    Uploaded by

    Rahul Jain

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Authentication Functions

    Uploaded by

    Rahul Jain
    3 views4 pages

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    3 views4 pages

    Authentication Functions

    Uploaded by

    Rahul Jain

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    Authentication Functions

    Introduction: -Any message authentication or digital signature


    mechanism has two levels of functionality. At the lower level, there
    must be some sort of function that produces an authenticator: a value
    to be used to authenticate a message. This lower-level function is then
    used as a primitive in a higher-level authentication protocol that
    enables a receiver to verify the authenticity of a message.

    Following functions can be used to produce an authenticator:-

    Message encryption: The cipher text of the entire message serves as


    its authenticator.

    Message authentication code (MAC): A function of the message


    and a secret key that produces a fixed-length value that serves as the
    authenticator. C(M,K)

    C = Authentication function

    M= Message

    K= Key

    Hash function: A function that maps a message of any length into a


    fixed-length hash value, which serves as the authenticator.

    H(M)

    Message Encryption:-Message encryption by itself can provide a


    measure of authentication. The analysis differs for symmetric and
    public-key encryption schemes.
    Symmetric Encryption: A message M transmitted from source A to
    destination B is encrypted using a secret key K shared by A and B. If
    no other party knows the key, then confidentiality is provided: No
    other party can recover the plaintext of the message.

    B is assured that the message was generated by A. Why? The message


    must have come from A because A is the only other party that
    possesses K and therefore the only other party with the information
    necessary to construct ciphertext that can be decrypted with K.
    Furthermore, if M is recovered, B knows that none of the bits of M
    have been altered, because an opponent that does not know K would
    not know how to alter bits in the ciphertext to produce desired
    changes in the plaintext.

    So we may say that symmetric encryption provides authentication as


    well as confidentiality. However, this flat statement needs to be
    qualified. Consider exactly what is happening at B. Given a
    decryption function D and a secret key K, the destination will accept
    any input X and produce output Y = D(K, X). If X is the ciphertext of
    a legitimate message M produced by the corresponding encryption
    function, then Y is some plaintext message M. Otherwise, Y will
    likely be a meaningless sequence of bits. There may need to be some
    automated means of determining at B whether Y is legitimate
    plaintext and therefore must have come from A.

    Public-Key Encryption:The straightforward use of public-key


    encryption provides confidentiality but not authentication. The source
    (A) uses the public key PUb of the destination (B) to encrypt M.
    Because only B has the corresponding private key PR b, only B can
    decrypt the message. This scheme provides no authentication because
    any opponent could also use B's public key to encrypt a message,
    claiming to be A.

    o provide authentication, A uses its private key to encrypt the


    message, and B uses A's public key to decrypt. This provides
    authentication using the same type of reasoning as in the symmetric
    encryption case: The message must have come from A because A is
    the only party that possesses PRa and therefore the only party with the
    information necessary to construct ciphertext that can be decrypted
    with PUa. Again, the same reasoning as before applies: There must be
    some internal structure to the plaintext so that the receiver can
    distinguish between well-formed plaintext and random bits.

    Basic Uses of Message Encryption

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