“This new BatFly messaging service solves the public key distribution problem,” announces Watson cheerfully. “Suppose Alice wants to send a message m to Bob, but she’s not sure what public key Bob is using at the moment. Alice sends the message to the BatFly server, encrypted with the server’s public key to keep the message secret. Alice specifies that she wants to send the message to Bob, and signs the whole thing with her private key to prove that the message really is from her:

A → S : A, Ea- [ B, Es+ [ m ] ]

The BatFly server knows Bob’s up-to-date public key, and uses it to re-encrypt the message m. Then the server signs everything for integrity, and sends it back to Alice:

S → A : S, Es- [ B, Eb+ [ m ] ]

Now Alice sends this message on to Bob using whatever app she likes.

The only public key that Alice has to know is the key for the server. And when Bob changes his public key, he only has to tell the BatFly server, not everyone else. The server never knows anybody else’s private key, and revocation is trivial!”

Holmes has been examining the protocol closely. “Doesn’t anything worry you about the protocol at all, Watson?” he asks. “Well, now that you mention it,” replies Watson, “I’m a little uneasy about encrypting and then signing. I was thinking of recommending to them that it should be the other way round:

A → S : B, Es+ [ A, Ea- [ m ] ]
S → A : B, Eb+ [ S, Es- [ m ] ]

What do you think, Holmes?” Holmes shakes his head. “I think that if I were Moriarty I’d be busing BatFly to revoke my public key right now,” he replies enigmatically.

q1) Diagram for the given protocols

q2) Suggest and discuss some ways that Moriarty might attack the Batfly server. Propose a revised version of the protocol and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your revised version. State any assumptions carefully

q3) What is the purpose of the Batfly server?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

2Case Study This is a breakthrough in making public keys usable declares Watson Private keys are too ... View the full answer