Computational Complexity, Efficiency and Accountability in Large Scale Teleprocessing Systems
Abstract
We have developed a digital signature system whose security rests primarily on the existence of a one-way function. Since many one-way functions are known, and since their existence is essential to even conventional authentication systems, the security of the new system is at least as good as in conventional authentication. The security of previously known digital signature systems depends on the difficulty of factoring and related problems and is open to more question. There is a penalty paid for this security in the increased time required to compute a signature, but recent modifications reduced this penalty to an acceptable level. The signature system uses a form of tree authentication, coupled with a one-way hash function to compress a large authentication file into a single number of approximately 100 bits. A patent disclosure has been filed and a paper will be submitted for publication. (KR)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA215162
Entities
People
- John T. Gill
- Martin E. Hellman
Organizations
- Stanford University