Certified mail is the fair exchange of secret data for a receipt. It is the most mature instance of fair exchange that has been standardized in [4]: the players in a certified mail system are at least one sender S and one receiver R. Depending on the protocols used and the service provided, the protocol may involve one or more trusted third parties (TTPs) T. If reliable {time stamping} is desired, additional time-stamping authorities TS may be involved, too. For evaluating the evidence produced, a verifier V can be invoked after completion of the protocol. Sending a certified mail includes several actions [4]. Each of these actions may be disputable, i.e., may later be disputed at a verifier, such as a court (see Figure 1): a sender composes a signed message (nonrepudiationof origin) and sends it to the first TTP (nonrepudiation of submission). The first TTP may send, it to additional TTPs (nonrepudiation of transport) and finally to the recipient (nonrepudiation of delivery, which...
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Schunter, M. (2005). Certified Mail. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_54
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