Distance-bounding protocols

  • Authors:
  • Stefan Brands;David Chaum

  • Affiliations:
  • CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;CWI & DigiCash, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • EUROCRYPT '93 Workshop on the theory and application of cryptographic techniques on Advances in cryptology
  • Year:
  • 1994

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Abstract

It is often the case in applications of cryptographic protocols that one party would like to determine a practical upper-bound on the physical distance to the other party. For instance, when a person conducts a cryptographic identification protocol at an entrance to a building, the access control computer in the building would like to be ensured that the person giving the responses is no more than a few meters away. The "distance bounding" technique we introduce solves this problem by timing the delay between sending out a challenge bit and receiving back the corresponding response bit. It can be integrated into common identification protocols. The technique can also be applied in the three-party setting of "wallets with observers" in such a way that the intermediary party can prevent the other two from exchanging information, or even developing common coinflips.