Blog

<p>We have been tasked to harden the M-Pin protocol against a “key-escrow” attacker, who has the authority to demand and be issued with all of the secrets from all of the distributed trust authorities (D-TAs) and the M-Pin server, and use them to try to create valid credentials in the identities of valid clients in order to impersonate them and gain access to their accounts on a remote server via the normal M-Pin authentication process. As a purely identity-based protocol M-Pin is open to this kind of attack. Our recommended response is to use ideas from so-called Certificateless cryptography, which is a standard and established response to the key-escrow property of pure identity-based schemes.</p>…

<p>M-Pin is a Multi-Factor identity based authentication protocol. Secret authentication keys are issued to clients from a Distributed Trusted Authority (DTA). Typically there are two DTAs, one belonging to the customer and the other to MIRACL.</p> <p><a href="geo.pdf" target="_blank">Download paper using M-Pin with Geo-location/Geo-fencing</a></p> <h3 id="1-introduction">1 Introduction</h3> <p>M-Pin is a Multi-Factor identity based authentication protocol. Secret authen-tication keys are issued to clients from a Distributed Trusted Authority (DTA). Typically there are two DTAs, one belonging to the customer and the other to MIRACL. Once the client has its secret, formed by adding the two components received from each DTA, it can use it to authenticate to an M-Pin server that has been issued by the DTAs with a single secret of its own. The client secret can be chopped up into individual factors, which are re-united only at the point where authentication is required.</p>…

<p>The non-interactive authenticated key exchange protocol known as SOK after its inventors Sakai, Oghishi and Kasahara, is one of the original pairing-based protocols. Like many such early protocols it was designed to work with a symmetric pairing. However now it is known that symmetric pairings are inefficient. So the issue arises of how to migrate it successfully to the setting of an efficient asymmetric pairing. In this short research note we consider the challenges and opportunities.</p>…

<p>M-Pin is a two-factor authentication protocol which has been proposed as an alternative to Username/Password, which works in conjunction with SSL/TLS. Here we derive a more complex M-Pin derivative called M-Pin-Full which also supplants the functionality of SSL/TLS.</p> <p><a href="/assets/pdf-downloads/mpinfull_3.1.pdf" target="_blank">Download Paper to learn about Full M-pin Technology</a></p> <h3 id="1-introduction">1 Introduction</h3> <p>M-Pin is a zero-knowledge authentication protocol which authenticates a client to a server. Its unique feature is that it allows a short PIN number to be extracted from the client secret to create a token+PIN combination, facilitating two factor authentication. The idea can easily be extended to support multifactor authentication.</p>…

<p>The M-Pin protocol has been proposed for use in a setting which uses multiple Trusted Authorities. One way to realise M-Pin is to use “early binding”. With early binding the client secret shares issued by each authority are combined immediately after they are issued to each client, inside of the client process. Here we consider the possibilities of “late binding” whereby client secret shares are kept distinct. Conceptually with early binding all of the client secret shares are added to create a single secret, which is used to authenticate. Unless all shares are present and correct the authentication will not succeed. With late binding multiple individual secrets are issued as before, but each is used to authenticate separately. Unless all authentications succeed the overall authentication will fail. So in both cases the outcome is the same. However here we argue that late binding, at some extra cost, results in a more flexible system.</p>…

<p>Here we introduce the M-Pin client-server protocol, which features two-factor client authentication as an alternative to Username/Password. Despite the mathematical complexity of the protocol we demonstrate that an M-Pin client can be implemented in an environment with limited computational capability.</p> <p><a href="/assets/pdf-downloads/mpin4.pdf" target="_blank">Download this paper on M-Pin Authentication Protocol</a></p> <h3 id="1-executive-summary">1 Executive Summary</h3> <p>The M-Pin protocol is intended to replace the well-known Username/Password authentication mechanism which is widely considered to be effectively broken. The main problem is the existence of a “password file” on the server, which is commonly stolen and hacked, revealing most user passwords.</p>…

<h3 id="dimension-data-signs-on-as-global-distribution-partner-to-capture-bradditional-share-of-4-billion-user-authentication--market"><em>Dimension Data Signs on as Global Distribution Partner to Capture <br>Additional Share of $4 Billion User Authentication & Market</em></h3> <img src="./Screen_Shot_2016-09-11_at_6.30.45_PM.png" alt="Screen_Shot_2016-09-11_at_6.30.45_PM.png"> <p><strong>LONDON, September 12 , 2016 —</strong> MIRACL, a leading internet cyber-­security company, announced today the launch of its disruptive multi­factor authentication platform that allows security solution and managed service providers to expand their businesses in the $4.0 billion user authentication market and immediately capture revenue from current and net new customers.</p>…

<p>With the elections looming in America, the issue of the security of electronic voting is back in the news. Both major parties are making serious allegations that the election may well be rigged. Its outcome may even be determined by interference from a foreign government. This extraordinary movie-plot possibility is made plausible by the widespread use of Electronic Voting machines – which are based on computers which may be vulnerable to undetectable hacking.</p>…

<h3 id="here-we-attempt-a-simple-explanation-of-the-blockchain-for-a-not-overly-technical-audience">Here we attempt a simple explanation of the blockchain for a not overly technical audience.</h3> <p><a href="./block.pdf" target="_blank">Download the Essence of the Blockchain PDF</a></p> <h3 id="1-introduction">1 Introduction</h3> <p>The blockchain is a testament to the power of a single cryptographic primitive – the hash function. Really nothing else is required, so if you can get your head around the hash function, you can understand the basics of the blockchain.</p> <h3 id="2-the-hash-function">2 The Hash Function</h3> <p>A cryptographic hash function takes one input and calculates one output. For example for the input “We hold these truths to be self-evident”, the well known hash function SHA256 produces the output</p>…

<p>We introduce a multi-lingual crypto library, specifically designed to support the Internet of Things.</p> <p><a href="/assets/pdf-downloads/amcl.pdf" target="_blank">Download this paper on The Apache Milagro Crypto Library</a></p> <h3 id="1-introduction">1 Introduction</h3> <p>There are many crypto libraries out there. Many offer a bewildering variety of cryptographic primitives, at different levels of security. Many use extensive assembly language in order to be as fast as possible. Many are very big, even bloated. Some rely on other external libraries. Many were designed by academics for academics, and so are not really suitable for commercial use. Many are otherwise excellent, but not written in our favourite language.</p>…

<p>You are a programmer that uses the Internet a lot. You don’t want to be one of those unfortunates that gets their password hacked, due to some asshole’s failure to properly protect the password file on a remote server. You don’t want to change the world, you just want to work securely with the world as it is. You haven’t the patience for elaborate procedures. You don’t want it to cost you. How can you live with the broken Username/Password system, and yet feel certain that while the rest of the world may be vulnerable, you will be OK?</p>…

<p><img src="./miracl-blog-computerlanguages.png" alt="Multiple Computer Languages"></p> <p>In this article we describe our experience in implementing a high performance cryptographic library in multiple Computer Languages</p> <p><a href="blog.pdf" target="_blank" class="cta_button hero-button hvr-radial-out">Download this paper on Another Computer Language Comparison</a></p> <h3 id="1-introduction">1 Introduction</h3> <p>Most people have a favourite language they like to program in. Or they may have two or three on a horses-for-courses basis. Maybe they like one language for high level scripting, and another for low level stuff. Me I have always liked C and C++, and have many years experience using them. In the past I couldn’t really comment on the competition, as I had no experience of them. Some I would have looked down on - Java was for people who can’t get their head around pointers, Rust for high falutin academic types. In fact I would have held all sorts of absurd prejudices, but all based on no actual experience whatsoever.</p>…