Chapter 14
Key Management and
Distribution
Key Distribution
Technique
• Term that refers to the means of delivering
a key to two parties who wish to exchange
data without allowing others to see the key
• For symmetric encryption to work, the two
parties to an exchange must share the
same key, and that key must be protected
from access by others
• Frequent key changes are desirable to limit
the amount of data compromised if an
attacker learns the key
Symmetric Key
Distribution
• A can select a key and
physically deliver it to
B
• A third party can
select the key and
Given physically deliver it to
parties A and A and B
• If A and B have
B, key previously and
distribution recently used a key,
one party can
can be transmit the new key
achieved in to the other,
encrypted using the
a number of old key
ways: • If A and B each has an
encrypted connection
to a third party C, C
can deliver a key on
the encrypted links to
A and B
Hierarchical Key
Control
• For communication among entities within the same
local domain, the local KDC is responsible for key
distribution
• If two entities in different domains desire a shared
key, then the corresponding local KDC’s can
communicate through a global KDC
• The hierarchical concept can be extended to three
or more layers
• Scheme minimizes the effort involved in master
key distribution because most master keys are
those shared by a local KDC with its local entities
• Limits the range of a faulty or subverted KDC to its
local area only
Session Key Lifetime
For connection-
oriented protocols one
choice is to use the A security
same session key for
manager must
the length of time
that the connection is balance competing
open, using a new considerations:
session key for each
new session
For a connectionless
protocol there is no The more The distribution of
explicit connection frequently session session keys
initiation or keys are delays the start of
termination, thus it is exchanged, the any exchange and
not obvious how often more secure they places a burden on
one needs to change are network capacity
the session key
Controlling Key
Usage
• The concept of a key hierarchy and the use
of automated key distribution techniques
greatly reduce the number of keys that
must be manually managed and distributed
• It also may be desirable to impose some
control on the way in which automatically
distributed keys are used
• For example, in addition to separating
master keys from session keys, we
may wish to define different types
of session keys on the basis of use
Key Controls
• Associate a tag with each key
• For use with DES and makes use of the extra 8
bits in each 64-bit DES key
• The eight non-key bits ordinarily reserved for
parity checking form the key tag
• Because the tag is embedded in the key, it is
encrypted along with the key when that key is
distributed, thus providing protection
Drawbacks:
• The tag length is limited to 8
bits, limiting its flexibility and
functionality
• Because the tag is not
transmitted in clear form, it can
be used only at the point of
decryption, limiting the ways in
which key use can be controlled
A Hybrid Scheme
• In use on IBM mainframes
• Retains the use of a key distribution center
(KDC) that shares a secret master key with
each user and distributes secret session keys
encrypted with the master key
• A public-key scheme is used to distribute the
master keys
• Performance
Rational • Backward
e: compatibility
Distribution of Public Keys
• Several
techniques
have been Public Publicly
proposed for announceme
nt
available
directory
the distribution
of public keys.
Virtually all
these proposals
can be grouped Public-key
authority
Public-key
certificates
into the
following
general
schemes: