Security protocols, constraint systems, and group theories

Stéphanie Delaune, Steve Kremer, and Daniel Pasaila. Security protocols, constraint systems, and group theories. In Proceedings of the 6th International Joint Conference on Automated Reasoning (IJCAR'12), pp. 164–178, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 7364, Springer, Manchester, UK, June 2012.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31365-3_15

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Abstract

When formally analyzing security protocols it is often important to express properties in terms of an adversary's inability to distinguish two protocols. It has been shown that this problem amounts to deciding the equivalence of two constraint systems, i.e., whether they have the same set of solutions. In this paper we study this equivalence problem when cryptographic primitives are modeled using a group equational theory, a special case of monoidal equational theories. The results strongly rely on the isomorphism between group theories and rings. This allows us to reduce the problem under study to the problem of solving systems of equations over rings. We provide several new decidability and complexity results, notably for equational theories which have applications in security protocols, such as exclusive or and Abelian groups which may additionally admit a unary, homomorphic symbol.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{DKP-ijcar12,
  abstract =      {When formally analyzing security protocols it is
                  often important to express properties in terms of an
                  adversary's inability to distinguish two
                  protocols. It has been shown that this problem
                  amounts to deciding the equivalence of two
                  constraint systems, i.e., whether they have
                  the same set of solutions. In this paper we study
                  this equivalence problem when cryptographic
                  primitives are modeled using a group equational
                  theory, a special case of monoidal equational
                  theories. The results strongly rely on the
                  isomorphism between group theories and rings. This
                  allows us to reduce the problem under study to the
                  problem of solving systems of equations over rings.
                  We provide several new decidability and complexity
                  results, notably for equational theories which have
                  applications in security protocols, such as
                  exclusive or and Abelian groups which may
                  additionally admit a unary, homomorphic symbol.},
  address =       {Manchester, UK},
  author =	  {Delaune, St{\'e}phanie and Kremer, Steve and Pasaila, Daniel},
  booktitle =     {{P}roceedings of the 6th {I}nternational {J}oint
                   {C}onference on {A}utomated {R}easoning ({IJCAR}'12)},
  DOI =           {10.1007/978-3-642-31365-3_15},
  editor =        {Gramlich, Bernhard and Miller, Dale and Sattler, Uli},
  month =         jun,
  pages =         {164-178},
  publisher =     {Springer},
  series =        {Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence},
  title =         {Security protocols, constraint systems, and group theories},
  volume =        {7364},
  year =          {2012},
  acronym =       {{IJCAR}'12},
  nmonth =        {6},
  url =           {https://members.loria.fr/skremer/files/Papers/CKP-ijcar12.pdf},
}