Method and system for assessing a message in a decentralized communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9949119-B2
Application number	US-201414911737-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 17, 2014
Priority date	Dec 23, 2013
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

A method for assessing a message transmitted between at least: two parties via a previously unknown third party in a decentralized communication network, wherein all parties share a common trust architecture, includes publishing, on-behalf-of indication and public, security information of the third party; publishing, the message of the first party; evaluating the published information to extract published content of the first party by the second party as intended receiver of the message; verifying a real-world-identity of the third party and/or the signature of the third party based on the previously received trust information and/or based on the self-certifying name and the public security information of the third party; checking a trust information chain according to the common trust architecture from the second party to the third party; and assessing the content of the first party based on the checked trust chain.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for assessing a message, wherein the message is communicated from a first party to a second party via a third party in a decentralized communication network, wherein the first party, the second party, and the third party share a common trust architecture, wherein the decentralized network utilizes a naming scheme in which names of parties under which content is published are denoted by a context part concatenated to a self-certifying part, and wherein a self-certifying identifier of the first party is previously provided to the second party, the method comprising:
a) publishing, under a transitive on-behalf-of name for the first party, content including a non-transitive on-behalf-of name for the third party and public security information of the third party, wherein the transitive on-behalf-of name for the first party is a reserved transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the first party, and wherein the non-transitive on-behalf-of name for the third party is a reserved non-transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to a self-certifying identifier of the third party;
b) publishing, under a combination name for the first party and the third party, the message, wherein the published message is signed by the third party, and wherein the combination name for the first party and the third party is the reserved non-transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the third party concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the first party;
c) evaluating information published in step a) and step b) to extract the message by the second party as intended receiver of the message;
d) verifying a real-world-identity of the third party and/or the signature of the third party on the published message based on previously received trust information and/or based on the self-certifying identifier and the public security information of the third party, wherein a network-wide cryptographic hash function is used on the public security information of the third party to obtain the real-world-identity of the third party and/or the signature of the third party;
e) checking a trust information chain according to the common trust architecture from the second party to the third party, and
f) assessing the message based on the checked trust information chain,
wherein the self-certifying identifier of the first party and the self-certifying identifier of the third party are both provided as cryptographic information, and
wherein the public security information of the third party is used for identification of the third party within the common trust architecture.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a functional decentralized local node is queried for a real-world identity of the first party by the third party to determine the self-certifying identifier of the first party.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for obtaining the trust information chain one or more functional decentralized local nodes located within the decentralized communication network are queried, wherein a functional decentralized local node provides trust information.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein trust information is provided in a form of a web-of-trust file or a binding file comprising real-world-identity information associated with corresponding public security information.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the trust information is generated and updated by a functional decentralized local node in a part of the decentralized network to which the parties can connect.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein step e) includes evaluating a length of the trust information chain and/or a number of independent paths between the first party and the second party.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the trust information chain is obtained by using a double-side breadth search first algorithm on the trust information.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein trust information is revoked and/or updated upon a request of a party.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the trust information is compressed prior to storing.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the trust information is provided in a form of first real-world-identities listed sequentially, followed by a list of corresponding key-IDs in a same order.

11. A system for assessing a message, wherein the message is communicated from a first party to a second party via a third party in a decentralized communication network, wherein the first party, the second party, and the third party share a common trust architecture, wherein the decentralized network utilizes a naming scheme in which names of parties under which content is published are denoted by a context part concatenated to a self-certifying part, and wherein a self-certifying identifier of the first party is previously provided to the second party the system comprising:
the third party, operable to:
publish under a transitive on-behalf-of name for the first party, content including a non-transitive on-behalf-of name for the third party and public security information of the third party, wherein the transitive on-behalf-of name for the first party is a reserved transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the first party, and wherein the non-transitive on-behalf-of name for the third party is a reserved non-transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to a self-certifying identifier of the third party,
publish under a combination name for the first party and the third party, the message, wherein the published message is signed by the third party, and wherein the combination name for the first party and the third party is the reserved non-transitive on-behalf-of context part concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the third party concatenated to the self-certifying identifier of the first party; and

the second party, as intended receiver of the message, operable to:
evaluate information published by the third party to extract the published message,
verify a real-world-identity of the third party and/or a signature of the third party on the published message based on previously received trust information and/or based on the self-certifying identifier and the public security information of the third party, wherein a network-wide cryptographic hash function is used on the public security information of the third party to obtain the real-world-identity of the third party and/or the signature of the third party;
check a trust information chain according to the common trust architecture from the second party to the third party, and
assess the message based on the checked trust information chain,

wherein the self-certifying identifier of the first party and the self-certifying identifier of the third party are both provided as cryptographic information, and
wherein the public security information of the third party is used for identification of the third party within the common trust architecture.

Assignees

• Nec Europe Ltd
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Seedorf Jan
• Kutscher Dirk
• Schneider Fabian

Classifications

• H04L9/3265 Primary

  using certificate chains, trees or paths; Hierarchical trust model · CPC title

• H04L9/3247

  involving digital signatures · CPC title

• H04L2463/081

  applying self-generating credentials, e.g. instead of receiving credentials from an authority or from another peer, the credentials are generated at the entity itself · CPC title

• H04L63/0823

  using certificates (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263) · CPC title

• H04L63/126

  the source of the received data · CPC title