Multicast Security: A Taxonomy and Some Efficient Constructions

Multicast communication is becoming the basis for a growing number of applications. It is therefore critical to provide sound security mechanisms for multicast communication. Yet, existing security protocols for multicast offer only partial solutions. We first present a taxonomy of multicast scenarios on the Internet and point out relevant security concerns. Next we address two major security problems of multicast communication: source authentication, and key revocation. Maintaining authenticity in multicast protocols is a much more complex problem than for unicast; in particular, known solutions are prohibitively inefficient in many cases. We present a solution that is reasonable for a range of scenarios. Our approach can be regarded as a `midpoint' between traditional Message Authentication Codes and digital signatures. We also present an improved solution to the key revocation problem.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Ran Canetti, Juan A. Garay, Gene Itkis, Daniele Micciancio, Moni Naor, Benny Pinkas
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 1999, Multicast, Multicast Communication, Security