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Introduction

Identity-based public key encryption enables easy initiation of public key cryptography by enabling an

entitys public key to be obtained from a random identification element, such as an email address or a

name. The main sensible advantage of identity-based cryptography is in tremendously minimizing the need

for as well as dependence on, public key certificates. Whereas various fascinating identity-based systems

have been built in the past, there is none that is compatible with common public key encryption algorithms

like the El Gamal and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA). This restricts the service of identity-based

cryptography as an on-going stage to full-scale public key cryptography. Additionally, it is essential

challenging to resolve fine grained recall with identity-based cryptography.

Mediated RSA (mRSA) is an easy and realistic technique of sharing a RSA private key between the user

and a Security Mediator (SEM). None of the user or the SEM can deceive one another because each

cryptographic operation regardless of whether it the signature or decryption entails both elements. mRSA

permits rapid and fine-grained management of users security privileges. Nevertheless, mRSA nonetheless

depends on the conventional public key certificates to hold and communicate public keys.

Therefore a password is not needed in the subsequent attempts in Identity based Cryptosystem because in

an ordinary public key infrastructure (PKI) deployment, a users public key is specifically fixed in a public

key certificate which is, fundamentally, a combination between the certificate holders identity and the

requested public key. This standard form requires universal trust in certificate issuers that is Certification

Authorities (Joye & Neven, 2009).

Will identity based cryptosystem replace PKI

Looking at the current trends, it is almost certain that, Identity Based Cryptosystem (IBC) will replace Public

Key infrastructure (PKI). One noticeable drawback to extensive implementation of public-key cryptographyis its reliance on a public-key infrastructure that is split between its users. Prior to secure communications

can be initiated, both sender and receiver must produce encryption and signature matched up keys, send

certificate requests together with evidence of identity to a Certificate Authority (CA), and get CA-signed

certificates, which they can then make use of in authentication both ways and communicate encrypted

messages. This process can be slow as well as be subject to errors, and is particularly unfriendly to new

computer users.

In most instances, people who can receive encrypted email are also unable to transmit secure messages to

other people because of poor or no readiness, minimal interoperability, hardware limitations or insufficient

technical expertise on the receiving end. Putting into consideration the need to pass and receive

information and the intricacy of PKI-based cryptography, communication that can benefit from added

security is regularly carried out in the open. Therefore in essence Identity-based cryptosystem (IBC) tries to

minimize these obstacles by demanding no readiness on the receiving end. Although it offers various

advantages over PKI-based methods it does have its drawbacks.

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Some of the reasons why it is possible for identity based cryptosystem to replace PKI are that readiness is

needed on the receiving end of an encrypted message. This is essentially the most convincing element of

Identity-based cryptosystem. There is also no requirement to manage a public key infrastructure, including

CRL administration.

Identity-based cryptosystem inbuilt key escrow attribute implies that decryption and signature can happen

on the server. Whereas this is a disadvantage in Identity-based cryptosystem since it removes non-

negation most of the time, it also makes other particular attributes possible otherwise not attainable in PKI-

based systems in which the signer holds his/her private key.

Identity-based cryptosystem has enhanced user-friendliness by having the PKG deal with cryptographic

processes for the user and needing no client-side deployment. This can be particularly very strong in a

scenario where an organization wants to embrace a structure in which all the messages of certain

confidentiality degree are automatically encrypted and signed. The system administrator can indicate the

strategy that control if a message will be encrypted or signed by use of utilities such as keyword search ofthe message content, duration, or a common phrase match on the sender or recipient. Additionally if a user

does not have to receive his or her private key, it can be stored on the PKG, which in most case has

a much greater degree of security than a user's terminal (Dent & Zheng, 2010).

Can Identity based cryptosystem be used for general purpose authentication?

Cloud computing is a category of the emerging technologies, highly customizable distributed computing

infrastructure in which computing resources are provided in form of a service putting into consideration

parallel virtualization and Internet technologies. Some of the cloud-based services are Software-as-a-

Service (SaaS) as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS). Some examples are Amazons Elastic Compute

Cloud (EC2) and IBMs Blue Cloud. In relation to cloud computing Identity -Based Cryptosystems has latelygotten significant interest.

Through Identity-Based Cryptosystems, an identifier representing a user can be changed into his or her

public key and applied on-the-fly with no authenticity verification. The ability of Identity-Based

Cryptosystems to offer high flexibility to factors within a security infrastructure and its certificate-free

method could very well fit the vibrant qualities of cloud computing. In essence, it looks like the

enhancements in Identity-Based Cryptosystems can provide more easy and scalable significant application

and management methods within cloud security infrastructures than conventional public key

infrastructure(PKI) does. The application of Identity-Based Cryptosystems in cloud computing is an

emerging, promising and attractive development (Kizza, 2005).

What other supporting systems will be needed

Other supporting systems for Identity-Based Cryptosystems in future will be a new system infrastructure

with an unidentified private key generation protocol so that the Key Generation Center (KGC) can give a

private key to an verified user with no knowledge of the list of users identities. This also appropriately fits

the process that authentication should be carried out with the local registration authorities (CA) instead of

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the Key Generation Center (KGC). This idea can be regarded as moderating the key escrow difficult in a

different perspective as opposed to distributed KGCs approach (Fischer-Hubner, 2008).

Possible vulnerabilities and threats

Identity-Based Cryptosystems presumes the availability of a Trusted Third Party (TTP), known as Private

Key Generator (PKG), which is tasked with generating the matching user private key. Depending on a TTP

and applying an identity as the foundation of the scheme translates into various weaknesses on the

system, as the innate key escrow problem (www.igi-global.com). These systems allocate a specific

identifier to each user and object. Additionally, current assignment techniques allow an intruder to

cautiously choose user IDs and concurrently get several pseudo-identities, which eventually lead to the

capability of disrupting the peer to peer system in very calculated and risky ways (Bidgoli, 2006).

References

Anderson, R. (2008) Security Engineering: A guide to building Dependable Distributable Systems. 2nd ed.Indiana: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Bidgoli, H. (2006). Handbook of Information Security Volume 3. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Dent, A, & Zheng, Y 2010, Practical Signcryption [Electronic Book] / Alexander W. Dent, Yuliang Zheng,

Editors ; Foreword By Moti Yung, n.p.: Berlin ; Springer, c2010., University of Liverpool Catalogue,

EBSCOhost, viewed 7 April 2013.

Fischer-Hbner, S 2008, The Future Of Identity In The Information Society [Electronic Book] : Proceedings

Of The Third IFIP WG 9.2, 9.6/11.6, 11.7/FIDIS International Summer School On The Future Of Identity In

The Information Society, Karlstad University, Sweden, August 4-10, 2007 / Edited By Simone Fischer-

Hbner ... [Et Al.], n.p.: New York : Springer, c2008., University of Liverpool Catalogue, EBSCOhost,

viewed 7 April 2013.

Joye, M, & Neven, G 2009, Identity-Based Cryptography [Electronic Book] Edited By Marc Joye And

Gregory Neven, n.p.: Amsterdam ; IOS Press, c2009., University of Liverpool Catalogue, EBSCOhost,

viewed 7 April 2013.

Kizza, J 2005, Computer Network Security [Electronic Book] / By Joseph Migga Kizza, n.p.: Boston, MA :

Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 2005., University of Liverpool Catalogue, EBSCOhost, viewed 7

April 2013.