Cryptography and Network Security (4th Edition)

[Page 377]

13.1 Digital Signatures

Requirements

Direct Digital Signature

Arbitrated Digital Signature

13.2 Authentication Protocols

Mutual Authentication

One-Way Authentication

13.3 Digital Signature Standard

The DSS Approach

The Digital Signature Algorithm

13.4 Recommended Reading and Web Sites

13.5 Key Terms, Review Questions, and Problems

Key Terms

Review Questions

Problems

[Page 378]

To guard against the baneful influence exerted by strangers is therefore an elementary dictate of savage prudence. Hence before strangers are allowed to enter a district, or at least before they are permitted to mingle freely with the inhabitants, certain ceremonies are often performed by the natives of the country for the purpose of disarming the strangers of their magical powers, or of disinfecting, so to speak, the tainted atmosphere by which they are supposed to be surrounded.

The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer

Key Points

  • A digital signature is an authentication mechanism that enables the creator of a message to attach a code that acts as a signature. The signature is formed by taking the hash of the message and encrypting the message with the creator's private key. The signature guarantees the source and integrity of the message.

  • Mutual authentication protocols enable communicating parties to satisfy themselves mutually about each other's identity and to exchange session keys.

  • In one-way authentication, the recipient wants some assurance that a message is from the alleged sender.

  • The digital signature standard (DSS) is an NIST standard that uses the secure hash algorithm (SHA).

The most important development from the work on public-key cryptography is the digital signature. The digital signature provides a set of security capabilities that would be difficult to implement in any other way. We begin this chapter with an overview of digital signatures. Then we look at authentication protocols, many of which depend on the use of the digital signature. Finally, we introduce the Digital Signature Standard (DSS).

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