language: en

A Scalable Key Distribution Hierarchy

Patrick McDaniel Sugih Jamin
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
fpdmcdan,jaming@eecs.umich.edu April 13, 1998

Abstract As the use of the Internet for electronic commerce, audio and video conferencing, and other applications with sensitive content grows, the need for secure services becomes critical. Central to the success of these services is the support for secure public key distribution. Although there are several existing services available for this purpose, they are not very scalable, either because they depend on a centralized server or rely on ad hoc trust relationships. In this paper, we present and examine a flexible approach to certificate distribution scalable to arbitrarily large networks. We propose a two level hierarchy where certificates can be independently authenticated by one or more peer authorities, called keyservers. Certificates for end-user and host entities are managed within local domains, called enterprises. By administering certificates close to the source, we reduce the load on the key servers and the effects of network topology changes. We describe the design of our system and present a preliminary performance analysis based on traces of present-day DNS requests.

1 Introduction