We propose a system for the detection of unauthorized cloning of mobile agents by malicious hosts. The system can detect clones after the fact, identify the culprit, and then seek penalties. The agent migration protocol is offline (non-centralized). The itinerary of an agent is privacy-protected. Our scheme is based on Wong’s transferable extension [Won01] of Ferguson’s single-term offline untraceable e-cash [Fer93]. The main technique is to map the clone detection problem to the double-spending problem in transferable e-cash, and then adopt and adapt existing solutions from the latter field.
T. C. Lam, Victor K. Wei