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A Decentralized Dynamic PKI based on Blockchain

Toorani, Mohsen LU and Gehrmann, Christian LU (2021) The 36th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing, SAC '21
Abstract
The central role of the certificate authority (CA) in traditional public key infrastructure (PKI) makes it fragile and prone to compromises and operational failures. Maintaining CAs and revocation lists is demanding especially in loosely-connected and large systems. Log-based PKIs have been proposed as a remedy but they do not solve the problem effectively. We provide a general model and a solution for decentralized and dynamic PKI based on a blockchain and web of trust model where the traditional CA and digital certificates are removed and instead, everything is registered on the blockchain. Registration, revocation, and update of public keys are based on a consensus mechanism between a certain number of entities that are already part of... (More)
The central role of the certificate authority (CA) in traditional public key infrastructure (PKI) makes it fragile and prone to compromises and operational failures. Maintaining CAs and revocation lists is demanding especially in loosely-connected and large systems. Log-based PKIs have been proposed as a remedy but they do not solve the problem effectively. We provide a general model and a solution for decentralized and dynamic PKI based on a blockchain and web of trust model where the traditional CA and digital certificates are removed and instead, everything is registered on the blockchain. Registration, revocation, and update of public keys are based on a consensus mechanism between a certain number of entities that are already part of the system. Any node which is part of the system can be an auditor and initiate the revocation procedure once it finds out malicious activities. Revocation lists are no longer required as any node can efficiently verify the public keys through witnesses. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Proceedings of the 36th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC'21)
pages
10 pages
publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
conference name
The 36th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing, SAC '21
conference location
Virtual Event, Korea, Republic of
conference dates
2021-03-22 - 2021-03-26
external identifiers
  • scopus:85104999222
ISBN
978-1-4503-8104-8
DOI
10.1145/3412841.3442038
project
Säkra mjukvaruuppdateringar för den smarta staden
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c7e94129-4fd3-41d8-a770-fbbf36a4b581
date added to LUP
2020-12-31 17:59:30
date last changed
2022-04-26 22:58:03
@inproceedings{c7e94129-4fd3-41d8-a770-fbbf36a4b581,
  abstract     = {{The central role of the certificate authority (CA) in traditional public key infrastructure (PKI) makes it fragile and prone to compromises and operational failures. Maintaining CAs and revocation lists is demanding especially in loosely-connected and large systems. Log-based PKIs have been proposed as a remedy but they do not solve the problem effectively. We provide a general model and a solution for decentralized and dynamic PKI based on a blockchain and web of trust model where the traditional CA and digital certificates are removed and instead, everything is registered on the blockchain. Registration, revocation, and update of public keys are based on a consensus mechanism between a certain number of entities that are already part of the system. Any node which is part of the system can be an auditor and initiate the revocation procedure once it finds out malicious activities. Revocation lists are no longer required as any node can efficiently verify the public keys through witnesses.}},
  author       = {{Toorani, Mohsen and Gehrmann, Christian}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 36th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC'21)}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-4503-8104-8}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)}},
  title        = {{A Decentralized Dynamic PKI based on Blockchain}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/89252684/2012.15351.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3412841.3442038}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}