EGERTON COMP 424

UNIVERSITY

Computer Security

ASSIGNMENT: Digital signature and Non-repudiation services in E-Commerce

PRESENTED BY: BII K. ERIC S13/20450/08 k.ericbii@gmail.com 0727652805

Lecturer: MR. BOSIRE Date: 23-2-2012

DIGITAL SIGNATURE TECHNOLOGY Introduction Definition: a "digital signature" is extra data appended to a message which identifies and authenticates the identity of the sender and the message data using public-key encryption. The sender uses a one-way hash function to generate a hash-code from the message data. He/she then encrypts the hash-code with his/her private key. The receiver recomputes the hashcode from the data and decrypts the received hash with the senders public key. If the two hash-codes are equal, the receiver is given an indication that the data has not been corrupted while in transit from one machine to another, and that it appears on first glance to have come from the given sender. Digital signature technology grew out of public key cryptography. In public key cryptography, you have two keys: a private key and a public key. When you send a document to someone, you use your private key to sign the document. When recipients receive the signed document, they use the sender's public key to authenticate the document.

This diagram illustrates the digital signature process

Suppose you want to send a digitally signed document to John. After you create the document, you pass it through a message hash algorithm. The algorithm generates a hash of the document that is a checksum of the contents of the document. You then encrypt the message hash with your private key. The result is a digital signature. You append this digital signature to the document to form a digitally signed document, and then send it to John. When John receives the document, he passes the document contents through the same message hash algorithm that you used, and creates a new hash. At the same time, John uses your public key to decrypt your digital signature, thereby converting the signature to the original hash. John then compares the newly generated hash and the original hash. If the hashes match, John can be sure that the document he received is really from you and that no one altered it during transmission. If the hashes don't match, John knows that tampering or a transmission error changed the document contents. The most commonly used message hash algorithms are Message Digest 5 (MD5) and Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1). MD5 can produce a 128-bit hash, and SHA-1 can produce a 160-bit hash. The hash algorithm is a one-way function that generates a one-way hash. Therefore, no one can derive original document contents from a message hash. The chance that two documents will have the same hash is almost zero. For example, the possibility that MD5 will output the same hash for two different documents is 1/2128. (2128 translates into about 1,500 documents for every square meter of the earth's surface.) A digital signature is superior to a traditional handwritten signature. A skilled forger can alter the contents of a document with a handwritten signature or move a signature from one document to another without being detected. With digital signature technology, however, any change in a signed documentsuch as content modification or signature replacementcauses the digital signature verification process to fail. Use of Digital signature in E-Commerce Web-commerce has grown into one of the fastest-growing sector of industry in the past two years. Billions of dollars have passed hands in the process and each entrepreneur wants a slice of the dough. To make this possible, data encryption plays a very central role in ensuring customers that paying for anything online is secure.

Importance of encryption in e-commerce In order to enable secure online transaction, data encryption plays four important functions: Digital authentication allows both the customers and the merchant to be sure that they are dealing with whom the other party claims to be. This is absolutely necessary before sending credit card details to the merchant and also allows merchants to verify that the customer is the real owner of the credit card being used. Integrity ensures that the messages received re not changed during transmission by any third party. Non-repudiation prevents customers or merchants denying they ever received or sent a particular message or order. In the event that information is intercepted, encryption ensures privacy that prevents third parties from reading and or using the information to their own advantage. What kind of encryption does e-commerce use? There are two methods of encryption employed: Private-key encryption (secret-key or symmetric encryption) in which users share a common key. Public-key encryption (also known as asymmetric encryption) where different keys are used for encryption and decryption. These systems have their advantages and disadvantages and so secure transaction protocols such as Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer and Secure Electronic Transaction use a combination of both.

Digital Identification To be sure those genuine clients are dealing with genuine merchants; a scheme to identify oneself in the digital world must exist. This is the role played by digital signature and digital authentication. Digital signatures therefore are implemented through public-key encryption and are used to verify the origin and contents of a message. A digital signature is prepared by first passing the message through a cryptographic function to calculate the message digest. The digest is then encrypted with the private key to produce a signature which is then added to the original message. The recipient of the digital signature can be sure that the message genuinely came from the sender. And, because the slightest change in the message gets reflected multi-fold in the message digest in a very obvious manner, the recipient can be sure that the message was not changed after the message digest was generated. What is a digital certificate? Digital certificates provide the basis for secure electronic transactions as they enable all participants in a transaction to quickly and easily verify the identity of the other participants. They are digitally signed and issued by a Certificate Authority which verifies that the public key attached to the certificate belongs to the party stated. Established Online Transaction Protocols Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol is currently the most widely used method for performing secure transactions on the Web and is supported by most Web servers and clients including Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol provides several features that make it particularly suitable for use in e-commerce transactions. Privacy is guaranteed through encryption. Although data can still be intercepted by a third party they will be unable to read it as they have no access to the encryption key. Integrity is also ensured through encryption. If a message is received that will not decrypt properly then the recipient knows that the information has been tampered with during transmission.

Authentication is provided through digital certificates. Digital certificates provide the basis for secure electronic transactions as they enable all participants in a transaction to quickly and easily verify the identity of the other participants.

Netscape was one of the pioneers in online information public security when it introduced SSL (secure sockets layer) in its popular Navigator browser in 1995. SSL is an encryption technology that scrambles a message so that only the recipient can unscramble it, using technologies developed by RSA Security. URLs that begin with "https://" are using SSL. It increased the volume of online transaction, because this reduces online transaction risk and increases customer sense of security. People are much more willing to supply their credit card to the intended merchant when they learn of the security feature. To be able to use SSL, a particular web-server must enable its SSL feature. Just like telephones, this will work only when the visitors' browser support SSL, the recent batch of which actually do. Both merchant and potential customer then should obtain a digital ID (also known as an authentication certificate) from a trusted third-party source that can vouch for their repective identity. A digital certificate as a form of identification in the online world, where a reputable company confirms that one really is who one says one is. Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) SET is the Secure Electronic Transaction protocol developed by Visa and MasterCard specifically for enabling secure credit card transactions on the Internet. It uses digital certificates to ensure the identities of all parties involved in a purchase and encrypts credit card information before sending it across the Internet. Like SSL, SET allows for the merchant's identity to be authenticated via digital certificates. However, SET also allows for the merchant to request users authenticate themselves through digital certificates. This makes it much more difficult for someone to use a stolen credit card. Digital Copyright Protection There are several ways in which encryption could help protect copyrighted materials in electronic world. Often, the key to the encrypted data is provided by the manufacturer after a purchaser registers his product.

Pirated Copies freezing data at original time of original version copy may indicate authenticity. When the time does not match with the hashed value of time and purchaser ID, the program may be made to abort installation. Hardware or software may also be forced to accept only authentic data. Locking CD-ROM Files are locked in CD-ROM. Unlocking the files requires different keys, which may be obtained from the manufacturer upon purchase of that particular file. This unlocked version is copied into hard disk ready to use. This method prevents collecting a list of unlocking codes for the CD and then distributing it, since each CD has different sequence of unlocking codes. However, this does not rule out copying all the files and their unlocking codes into new CDs and redistributing them. Customizing software when software is installed, the existing serial number is converted into a product of hash function obtained from some blocks of data from the hard disk. Machine-specific program will not work when program is transferred, unless a customized digital ID code is generated and copied together with software. This code is shipped at registration time. Custom unlocking codes Files has one true key to unlock it. CD-ROM contains many files, not all of which the user wants to buy. Often the value of key K, which is not necessarily unique from CD to CD, has to be read aloud over the phone. A solution is to encrypt K with ID: FID(K). Hence the value made known to user varies from CD to CD (different IDs). A weakness occurs when a user gathers FID(K1), FID(K2), FID(Kn) and try to decrypt the algorithm to recover ID, hence obtaining raw values of K for different files. A defensive mechanism then would be to encrypt each locking code with different values (hashed from time and ID). Smart Card 'pay per view' system could be implemented, where the smart card contains keys that can be used to decrypt the already present encrypted data. When keys are replaced in regular intervals, card too can be re-issued and recycled. In smart card, it is obvious from the absence of a magnetic stripe that they store all their
7

information on a chip buried within the card. Compared to conventional magnetic stripe cards, smart cards differ in several important ways: They can store much more data They can be password protected They can incorporate a microprocessor that can perform processes such as encryption

NON-REPUDIATION SERVICE IN E-COMMERCE Non-repudiation is the assurance that someone cannot deny something. It is the ability to ensure that a party to a contract or a communication cannot deny the authenticity of their signature on a document or the sending of a message that they originated. To repudiate means to deny. Authorities have sought to make repudiation impossible in some situations. One might send registered mail, for example, so the recipient cannot deny that a letter was delivered. Similarly, a legal document typically requires witnesses to signing so that the person who signs cannot deny having done so. On the Internet, a digital signature is used not only to ensure that a message or document has been electronically signed by the person that purported to sign the document, but also, since a digital signature can only be created by one person, to ensure that a person cannot later deny that they furnished the signature. Since no security technology is absolutely fool-proof, some experts warn that a digital signature alone may not always guarantee non-repudiation. It is suggested that multiple approaches be used, such as capturing unique biometric information and other data about the sender or signer that collectively would be difficult to repudiate. Email non-repudiation involves methods such as email tracking that is designed to ensure that the sender cannot deny having sent a message and/or that the recipient cannot deny having received it. Non-repudiation Protocol While security issues such as secrecy and authentication have been studied intensively, most interest in non-repudiation protocols has only come in recent years, notably in the yearly 1990s with the explosion of Internet services and electronic transactions. Non-repudiation services must ensure that when two parties exchange information over a network, neither one nor the other can deny having participated in this communication. Consequently a non-repudiation protocol has to
8

generate evidences of participation to be used in the case of a dispute. With the advent of digital signatures and public key cryptography, the base for non-repudiation services was created. Given an adequate public key infrastructure, one having a signed message has an irrefutable evidence of the participation and the identity of his party. In the cases where the evidence is provided to both parties, the protocol might also aim to provide fairness, i.e. no party should be able to reach a point where they have the evidence or the message they require without the other party also having their required evidence. Fairness is not required for non-repudiation, but it is usually desirable. A typical non-repudiation protocol can provide a number of different non-repudiation services, like non-repudiation of origin, non-repudiation of receipt and fairness, but the actual nonrepudiation services provided by a protocol depend mainly on its application. For example, the publisher of an on-line magazine may want to keep track of the users that are downloading the latest issue, so non-repudiation of receipt would be required; that means the user could not deny having received the latest issue because the publisher has an evidence of the download. In that case non-repudiation of origin or fairness is not applicable. Contrariwise an electronic transactions site would require both non-repudiation of origin, receipt and also fairness. The first solutions providing fairness in exchange protocols were based on a gradual exchange of the expected information. However this simultaneous secret exchange is troublesome for actual implementation because fairness is based on the assumption of equal computational power on both parties, which is very unlikely in a real world scenario. Therefore the solution we will focus here is the adoption of a trusted third party (TTP). The TTP can be used as a delivery agent to provide simultaneous share of evidences. From the existing applications, we can distinguish the following non-repudiation services: Non-repudiation of origin (NRO): provides the recipient with the evidence NRO which ensures that the originator will not be able to deny having sent the message. The evidence of origin is generated by the originator and held by the recipient. Non-repudiation of receipt (NRR): provides the originator with the evidence NRR which ensures that the recipient will not be able to deny having received the message. The evidence of receipt is generated by the recipient and held by the originator. Non-repudiation of submission (NRS): is intended to provide evidence that the originator submitted the message for delivery. This service only applies when the protocol uses a TTP.
9

Evidence of submission is generated by the delivery agent, and will be held by the originator. Non-repudiation of delivery (NRD): is intended to provide evidence that the recipient received the message. This service also only applies when the protocol uses a TTP. Evidence of delivery is generated by the delivery agent, and will be held by the originator. Fairness: is achieved for a non-repudiation protocol if at the end of the protocol execution either the originator has the evidence of receipt for the message m and the recipient has the evidence of origin of the corresponding message m, or none of them has any valuable information.

References i. ii. http://library.thinkquest.org J. Zhou, Non-repudiation in electronic commerce, Computer Security S e r i e s , Artech House, 2001.

10