Simple Identity-Based Cryptography with Mediated RSA

Abstract

Identity-based public key encryption facilitates easy introduction of public key cryptography by allowing an entity’s public key to be derived from an arbitrary identification value, such as name or email address.Th e main practical benefit of identity-based cryptography is in greatly reducing the need for, and reliance on, public key certificates. Although some interesting identity-based techniques have been developed in the past, none are compatible with popular public key encryption algorithms (such as El Gamal and RSA).Th is limits the utility of identity-based cryptography as a transitional step to full-blown public key cryptography. Furthermore, it is fundamentally difficult to reconcile fine-grained revocation with identity-based cryptography.

Mediated RSA (mRSA) [9] is a simple and practical method of splitting a RSA private key between the user and a Security Mediator (SEM). Neither the user nor the SEM can cheat one another since each cryptographic operation (signature or decryption) involves both parties. mRSA allows fast and fine-grained control of users’ security privileges.H owever, mRSA still relies on conventional public key certificates to store and communicate public keys.In this paper, we present IB-mRSA, a simple variant of mRSA that combines identity-based and mediated cryptography. Unde r the random oracle model, IB-mRSA with OAEP [7] is shown as secure (against adaptive chosen ciphertext attack) as standard RSA with OAEP. Furthermore, IB-mRSA is simple, practical, and compatible with current public key infrastructures.

This work was supported by DARPA contract F30602-99-1-0530.