New scheme of a distributed conference key distribution and its implementation

Abstract

A distributed conference key distribution system is introduced. The system utilizes secure multi-party computation scheme by virtue of Feldman's (t+1, n) VSS to perform the conference key computation such that a key can be obtained in a distributed fashion in which any key of servers is required to perform the computation. By runing the protocal, every honest user of a given conference can get a common key, even if a minority of servers malfunction or misbehave. This scheme does not rely on any unproven cryptographic assumptions or on the availability of any tamper -proof hardware. By using zero knowledge proof, any corrupted information and incorrect results can be detected. And by distributing the sensitive security information across several servers and never reconstructing and key at a single location, the compromise of a few servers will not compromise the privacy of any key. The scheme is implemented in a distributed environment. By conducting a number of experiments in the fault-free case and various fault scenarios, it is shown that the scheme is practicable and efficient.