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Improving the Secure Socket Layer Protocol by modifying its Authentication function | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Improving the Secure Socket Layer Protocol by modifying its Authentication function


Abstract:

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol widely used to make a secure connection to a Web server. SSL uses three interdependent cryptographic functions to pe...Show More

Abstract:

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol widely used to make a secure connection to a Web server. SSL uses three interdependent cryptographic functions to perform a secure connection. The first function is authentication. It is used to allow the client to identify the server and optionally allow the server to identify the client. The most common cryptographic algorithm used for this function is RSA. If we double the key length in RSA to have more secure communication, then it is known that the time needed for the encryption and decryption will be increased approximately eight times. In this paper, we propose a modification of RSA from the domain of integers to the domain of Gaussian arithmetic to be applied to the first function of SSL that would give more secure communication. This modification would use only double the time needed for the usual implementation of RSA with key size of 1024 bits.
Date of Conference: 24-26 July 2006
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 25 June 2007
Print ISBN:1-889335-33-9
Print ISSN: 2154-4824
Conference Location: Budapest, Hungary

I. Introduction

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol used to make secure communication between a client and a server [5]. Both the Netscape and Internet Explorer support versions of SSL and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has approved SSL as a standard. SSL is located between the TCP and HTTP protocols [4]. In this case, HTTP is modified to be HTTP(Secure) abbreviated by HTTPS, which is the standard encrypted communication mechanism on the World Wide Web. The SSL protocol is designed using three interdependent cryptographic functions [5]. Authentication is the first function found in SSL. Its goal is to perform identification and authentication of the parties involved in the communication. Authentication is achieved using public key encryption and a digital certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority [8]. There are many public key cryptographic algorithms that could be used to achieve authentication such as RSA, Diffie Hellman and ElGamal. RSA is the most common cryptographic algorithm used to achieve authentication. RSA keys are classified into three categories [1]:

Short Key whose range is less than 900 bits.

Medium key whose range is between 900 and 1250 bits.

Long Key which is greater than 1250 bits.

References

References is not available for this document.