Authenticity in a Reliable Protocol for Mobile Computing.

ABSTRACTWe consider a known protocol for reliable multicast in distributed mobile systems where mobile hosts communicate with a wired infrastructure by means of wireless technology. The original specification of the protocol does not take into consideration any notion of computer security: an adversary may eavesdrop on communications between hosts and inject packets over the wireless links. We suggest a secured version of the protocol providing authenticity and integrity of packets over the wireless links. The secure mechanisms introduced rely on two different techniques: secure wireless channels and 1-time signature schemes. Further, we outline the formal verification of part of the secured protocol.