A

Seminar Report On

DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

Submitted By
ZAID WAHED - 111P023
SWEET RAMTEKE - 121P048
TABISH SHAIKH - 111P001

Under the guidance of

Prof. DINESH DEORE

Department of Computer Engineering

Rizvi College of Engineering
New Rizvi Educational Complex, Off-Carter Road,
Bandra(w), Mumbai - 400050

Affiliated to
University of Mumbai
 Rizvi College of Engineering
Department of Computer Engineering
New Rizvi Educational Complex, Off-Carter Road,
Bandra(w), Mumbai - 400050

CERTIFICATE
This is certify that

ZAID WAHED
SWEET RAMTEKE
TABISH SHAIKH
of Third Year Computer Engineering have completed the seminar work entitled Digital signature
algorithm under my supervision at Rizvi College of Engineering, Mumbai under the University of
Mumbai.

Prof. Dinesh Deore Prof. Dinesh B. Deore

Project Guide HOD, Computer Department

Internal Examiner External Examiner

Date:
 Acknowledgements

I am profoundly grateful to Prof. Dinesh B. Deore for his expert guidance and continuous encourage-
ment throughout to see that this report rights its target since its commencement to its completion.

I would like to express deepest appreciation towards Dr. Varsha Shah, Principal RCOE, Mumbai and
Prof. Dinesh B. Deore HOD Computer Department whose invaluable guidance supported me in com-
pleting this report.

At last I must express my sincere heartfelt gratitude to all the staff members of Computer Engineering
Department who helped me directly or indirectly during this course of work.

Zaid Wahed
Sweet Ramteke
Tabish Shaikh
 ABSTRACT

People have traditionally used signatures as a means of informing others that the signature has read and
understood a document. Digital signature in a document is bound to that document in such a way that
altering the signed document or moving the signature to a different document invalidates the signature.
This security eliminates the need for paper copies of documents and can speed the processes involving
documents that require signatures. Digital Signatures are messages that identify and authenticate a
particular person as the source of the electronic message, and indicate such persons approval of the
information contained in the electronic message. Emerging applications like electronic commerce and
secure communications over open networks have made clear the fundamental role of public key cryp-
tosystem as unique security solutions. On the other hand, these solutions clearly expose the fact, that
the protection of private keys is a security bottleneck in these sensitive applications. This problem is
further worsened in the cases where a single and unchanged private key must be kept secret for very
long time (such is the case of certification authority keys, and e-cash keys). They help users to achieve
basic security building blocks such as identification, authentication, and integrity.

Keywords : Digital, Hash-fuction, Public key,nonredundance

 I NDEX

1 Introdtion 1
1.1 INFORMAL DEFINITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 OBJECIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 DIGITAL SIGNATURE 3
2.1 Input to a digital signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDED BY A DIGITAL SIGNATURE 7

3.1 Message Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Message Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3 Nonrepudiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.4 confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Attacks on digital signature 10

4.1 Attack Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 Forgery Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.1 Existential Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.2 Selective Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5 DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM 12

5.1 RSA Digital Signature Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.1.1 Key generation: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.1.2 Encryption: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.1.3 Decryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2 ElGamal Digital Signature Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.1 Key generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.2 Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.3 Decryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6 APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES 16

6.1 APPLICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.1.1 SMART CARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.1.2 MITRENET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.1.3 ISDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.1.4 TIME STAMPED SIGNATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.1.5 BLIND SIGNATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.2 Benefits of digital signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.3 Drawbacks of digital signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.3.1 Non-repudiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7 Conclusion 19

References 20

APPENDICES 20

A Project Hosting 21
List of Figures

2.1 Digital signature process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2 Adding key to the digital signature process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Signing the digest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1 Using a trusted center for nonrepudiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.2 Adding confidentiality to a digital signature scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5.1 RSA digital signature scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5.2 The RSA signature on the message digest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3 ElGamal digital signature scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 1 Introdtion

Chapter 1

Introdtion

The Digital Signature Standard, created by the NIST, specifies DSA as the algorithm for digital signa-
tures and SHA-1 for hashing. DSA is for signatures only and is not an encryption algorithm, although
Schneier describes encryption mechanisms (ElGamel encryption and RSA encryption) based on DSA.
DSA is a public key algorithm; the secret key operates on the message hash generated by SHA-1; to
verify a signature, one recomputed the hash of the message, uses the public key to decrypt the signature
and then compare the results.
The key size is variable from 512 to 1024 bits which is adequate for current computing capabilities
as long as you use more than 768 bits. Signature creation is roughly the same speed as with RSA, but
is 10 to 40 times (Schneier) as slow for verification. However, these numbers depend partially on the
assumptions made by the bench marker. Since verification is more frequently done than creation, this is
an issue worth noting.
The only known cracks (forgery) areeasily circumvented by avoiding the particularmodule (prime
factor of p - 1 where p is the publickey) that lead to weak signatures. Schneier states that DSS is less
susceptible to attacks than RSA; the difference is that RSA depends on a secret prime while DSA de-
pends on a public prime the verifier can check that the prime number is not a fake chosen to allow
forgery. It is possible to implement the DSA algorithm such that a subliminal channel is created that
can expose key data and lead to forgeable signatures so one is warned not to used unexamined code.
A Digital Signature is a checksum which depends on the time period during which it was produced. It
depends on all the bits of a transmitted message, and also on a secret key, but which can be checked
without knowledge of the secret key. A major difference between handwritten and digital signatures is
that a digital signature cannot be a constant; it must be a function of the document that it signs. If this
were not the case then a signature, could be attached to any document. Furthermore, asignature must be
a function of the entire document; changing even a single bit should produce a different signature. Adig-
ital signature algorithm authenticates the integrity of the signed data and the identity of the signatory.
A digital signaturealgorithm may also be used in proving to a third party that data was actually signed
by the generator of the signature. Is intended for use in electronic mail, electronic data interchange,
software distribution, and other applications that require data integrity assurance and data origin authen-
tication.The wireless protocols, like HiperLAN and WAP have specified security layers and the digital
signature algorithm have been applied for the authentication purposes.

1.1 INFORMAL DEFINITION

Informally, a digital signature is a technique for establishing the origin of a particular message in order
to settle later disputes about what message (if any) was sent.
The purpose of a digital signature is thus for an entity to bind its identity to a message.

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Chapter 1 Introdtion

We use the term signer for an entity who creates a digital signature, and the term verifier for an entity
who receives a signed message and attempts to check whether the digital signature is correct or not.
Digital signatures have many attractive properties and it is very important to understand exactly what
assurances they provide and what their limitations are.
While data confidentiality has been the driver behind historical cryptography, digital signatures could
be the major application of cryptography in the years to come.

1.2 OBJECIVES
To define a digital signature
To define security services provided by a digital signature
To define attacks on digital signatures
To discuss some digital signature schemes, including RSA, ElGamal,
To describe some applications of digital signatures and some advantages and disadvantages

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Chapter 2 DIGITAL SIGNATURE

Chapter 2

DIGITAL SIGNATURE

The term digital signature encompasses a great many variety of signatures. Electronic signatures are
simply an electronic confirmation of identity. This definition is deliberately broad enough to encompass
all forms of electronic identification, from biometric signatures such as iris scans and fingerprints to
non-biometric signatures, such asdigital signatures.
Electronic signatures can be further subdivided into the highly secure and the insecure. Digital sig-
nature must serve the same essential functions that we expect of documents signed by handwritten
signatures, namely integrity, non repudiation, authentication and confidentiality. In the digital realm,
integrity means ensuring that a communication has not been altered in the course of transmission. It
is concerned with the accuracy and completeness of the communication. The recipient of an electronic
communication must be confident of a communications integrity before she can rely on and act on the
communication. Integrity is critical to ecommerce transactions, especially where contracts are formed
electronically. The process of digitally signing starts by taking a mathematical summary (called a hash
code) of the check. This hash code is a uniquely-identifying digital fingerprint of the check. If even
a single bit of the check changes, the hash code will dramatically change. The next step in creating a
digital signature is to sign the hash code with your private key. This signed hash code is then appended
to the check.
How is this a signature? Well, the recipient of your check can verify the hash code sent by you,
using your public key. At the same time, a new hash code can be created from the received check and
compared with the original signed hash code. If the hash codes match, then the recipient has verified
that the check has not been altered. The recipient also knows that only you could have sent the check
because only you have the private key that signed the original hash code.
Existing Techniques for Signing Flows:
Conceptually, a digital signature scheme is defined by functions for key generation, signing, and
verification. Thesigner (sender) uses the key generation function to create apair of keys, a signing key
and a verification key . Thesigner keeps the signing key private, and makes the verification key publicly
known to all verifiers (receivers).
To sign a message using signing key the signer calls the signing function which returns the signa-
ture of message. The signer then sends the signed message, consisting of message and its signature, to
verifiers. Having received the signed message, a verifier calls the verification function with key . If the
verification function returns true, then the verifier concludes that the signer did sign the message and
the message has not been altered. Moreover, the signer cannot deny having signed the message (nonre-
pudiation). In practice, a message digest function, such as MD5 [18], is first applied to the message to
generate a fixed-size message digest which is independent of message size. Signing a message means
signing the digest of the message. (MD5 message digests are 128 bits long.) Aflow is a sequence of
packets characterized by some attribute [16], [21]. Packets in a flow may be obtained from segmenting
the bit stream of digitized video, digitized audio, or a large file. They may also be related data items,

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Chapter 2 DIGITAL SIGNATURE

such as stock quotes, news, etc., generated by the same source. It is easy and efficient to sign an all-
or-nothing flow, that is, a flow whose entire content is needed before any part of it can be used, e.g., a
long file. In this case, the signer simply generates a message digest of the entire flow (file) and signs the
message digest.

2.1 Input to a digital signature

The message:
Since a digital signature needs to offer data origin authentication (and non-repudiation) it is clear
that the digital signature itself must be a piece of data that depends on the message, and cannot be a
completely separate identifier.
It may be sent as a separate piece of data to the message, but its computation must involve the
message. A secret parameter known only by the signer:
Since a digital signature needs to offer non-repudiation, its calculation must involve a secret param-
eter that is known only by the signer.
The only possible exception to this rule is if the other entity is totally trusted by all parties involved
in the signing and verifying of digital signatures.

Figure 2.1: Digital signature process

Digital signatures enable people to sign digital documents by providing the properties of a hand-
written signature. They must fulfill the five compelling attributes of handwritten signatures as listed by
(Schneier, 1996). He stated that the handwritten signatures are authentic, unforgivable, not reusable,
unalterable, and cannot be repudiated. In the case of handwritten signatures, both the signature and the
document are physical things, which makes it difficult for the signer to claim the signature is not their
own. In order to provide a secure electronic signature scheme, these attributes must be satisfied.
Electronic signature technologies include PINs, user identifications and passwords, digital signa-
tures, digitized signatures, and hardware and biometric tokens. Therefore, it is important to distinguish
between electronic and digital signatures. Digital signatures are a subset of electronic signature tech-
nologies that utilize keys and cryptographic algorithms for signing documents. Digital signatures can
be generated using various techniques; however, the only digital signature standard approved by Na-
tional Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) employs public key cryptography combined with
a one-way hash function. This infrastructure, commonly referred to as the Public Key Infrastructure
(PKI), requires each user to have a public-private key pair where the public key is available to the world
while the private key is only known by the user. Figure 1 illustrates the use of PKI for generating digital
signatures. The following is an example of a digital signature scenario. Bob (sender) wants to send
Alice (receiver) a text message with a digital signature. First, Bobreates the text message to be signed
and generates a hashed message using a message digest function (e.g., MD5, SHA1, etc.). A message

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Chapter 2 DIGITAL SIGNATURE

digest function is a mathematical function that generates a 162-bit hash of the original message; this
hash cannot be used to regenerate the original message. Therefore, thehashed message is secure and
unique. Once Bob has the hashed message, he uses the public key digital signature algorithm and his
private key to sign the hash to generate a digital signature for the specific document.
Once Alice receives the digital signature, and the corresponding text message, she will need to cal-
culate two separate values. First the hashed message of the received text is calculated using the same
hashing algorithm. Then, once she has the hash value, she can now use the decryption algorithm with
Bobs public key and digital signature to retrieve the signed hash. If she can decrypt the digital signature,
this implies that Bobs private key was used to encrypt the hashed message. The final step for Alice is
to compare thehash she calculated with the hash she retrieved from the decryption process. If these two
hashed messages match, this implies that she received the original message Bob signed (thus preserving
message integrity).Key generation and distribution are the biggest challenges in deploying PKI. The so-
lution is to use a trusted central authority called a Certification Authority (CA) in PKI. CA is a trusted
entity that accepts certificate applications from entities, authenticates applications, issues certificates to
users and devices in a PKI, and maintains and provides status information about the certificates. If a
CA is managing a large, geographically dispersed population, it may use Local Registration Authorities
(LRAs), who provide direct physical contacts with subjects. These LRAs are especially required if the
CA is issuing a high level of assurance for its certificates. Currently, there are four levels of assurance
defined in the evolving government standard (PEC Solutions, 2000): Rudimentary; Basic; Medium; and
High. Traditionally, PKI architectures fall into one of three configurations: a single CA, a hierarchy of
CAs, or a mesh of CAs. Each of the configurationsis determined by the fundamental attributes of the
PKI: the number of CAs in the PKI, where users of the PKI place their trust (known as a users trust
point), and the trust relationships between CAs within a multi-CA PKI (Polk and Hastings, 2000). The
most basic PKI architecture is one that contains a single CA, which provides the PKI services (certifi-
cates, certificate status information, etc.) for all the users of the PKI. All the users of the PKI place their
trust in the sole CA of the architecture. Isolated CAs can be combined to form larger PKIs in two basic
ways: using superior-subordinate relationships, or peer-to-peer relationships. In the former, which is
called a hierarchical PKI, all users trust a root CA. There is single point of trust. The latter, a mesh PKI,
connects CAs with a peer-to-peer relationship. A PKI constructed of peer-to-peer CA relationships is
called a web of trust. The Bridge Certification Authority (BCA) architecture was designed to address the
shortcomings of the two basic PKI architectures, and to link PKIs that implement different architectures.
Unlike a mesh PKI CA, the BCA does not issue certificates directly to users.

Figure 2.2: Adding key to the digital signature process

A digital signature needs a public-key system.

The signer signs with her private key; the verifier verifies with the signers public key.
A cryptosystem uses the private and public keys of the receiver: a digital signature uses

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Chapter 2 DIGITAL SIGNATURE

the private and public keys of the sender.

Figure 2.3: Signing the digest

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Chapter 3 SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDED BY A DIGITAL SIGNATURE

Chapter 3

SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDED BY A

DIGITAL SIGNATURE

We discussed several security services in Chapter 1 including message confidentiality, message authen-
tication, message integrity, and nonrepudiation. A digital signature can directly provide the last three;
for message confidentiality we still need encryption/decryption. the following points are here to discuss:

3.1 Message Authentication

A secure digital signature scheme, like a secure conventional signature can provide message authentica-
tion. electronic equivalent of a signature on a message an authenticator, signature, or message authen-
tication code (MAC) is sent along with the message the MAC is generated via some algorithm which
depends on both the message and some (public or private) key known only to the sender and receiver .the
message may be of any length the MAC may be of any length, but more often is some fixed size, requir-
ing the use of some hash function to condense the message to the required size if this is not achieved by
the authentication scheme need to consider replay problems with message and MAC require a message
sequence number, timestamp or negotiated random values .
EX.Authentication using Private-key Ciphers
if a message is being encrypted using a session key known only to the sender and receiver, then the
message may also be authenticated since only sender or receiver could have created it any interference
will corrupt the message (provided it includes sufficient redundancy to detect change) but this does not
provide non-repudiation since it is impossible to prove who created the message.

3.2 Message Integrity

The integrity of the message is preserved even if we sign the whole message because we cannot get the
same signature if the message is changed. Integrity is something very different. Integrity guarantees that
if you send an encrypted message, theres no way that the encrypted message could have been tampered
with after you encrypted it, without the recipient knowing it.
EX. MAC
A MAC is basically a hash-code: a short string appended to the message which in some waysumma-
rizes the message, so that if any part of the message was changed, the MAC will not match the message,
and so well know that the message was corrupted.

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Chapter 3 SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDED BY A DIGITAL SIGNATURE

3.3 Nonrepudiation
Regarding digital security, the cryptological meaning and application of non-repudiation shifts to
mean:
A service that provides proof of the integrity and origin of data.
An authentication that can be asserted to be genuine with high assurance.

Figure 3.1: Using a trusted center for nonrepudiation

Nonrepudiation can be provided using a trusted party. The ways in which a party may attempt
to repudiate a signature present a challenge to the trustworthiness of the signatures themselves. The
standard approach to mitigating these risks is to involve a trusted third party.

3.4 confidentiality
A digital signature does not provide privacy.
If there is a need for privacy, another layer of encryption/decryption must be applied.

When we talk about confidentiality of information, we are talking about protecting the informa-
tion from disclosure to unauthorized parties. Information has value, especially in todays world. Bank
account statements, personal information, credit card numbers, trade secrets, government documents.
Everyone has information they wish to keep a secret. Protecting such information is a very major part
of information security.
A very key component of protecting information confidentiality would be encryption. Encryption
ensures that only the right people (people who knows the key) can read the information. Encryption is
VERY widespread in todays environment and can be found in almost every major protocol in use. A
very prominent example will be SSL/TLS, a security protocol for communications over the internet that
has been used in conjunction with a large number of internet protocols to ensure security.

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Chapter 3 SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDED BY A DIGITAL SIGNATURE

Figure 3.2: Adding confidentiality to a digital signature scheme

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Chapter 4 Attacks on digital signature

Chapter 4

Attacks on digital signature

If the digital signing process is not secure, attackers can create fake signatures or misuse authentic sig-
natures, bringing the systemand potentially the organizationinto disrepute. Failure to maintain adequate
documentation and certification for policies and practices associated with digital signing and key man-
agement could result in signatures failing to be accepted in any given jurisdiction, thereby negating their
value to the organization. Some digital signing processes can be computationally intensive, slowing
down business processes and limiting their ability to scale.

4.1 Attack Types

Key-Only Attack: the attacker is only given the public verification key. Known-Message Attack: the
attacker is given valid signatures for a variety of messages known by the attacker but not chosen by
the attacker. Chosen-Message Attack: the attacker first learns signatures on arbitrary messages of the
attackers choice.

4.2 Forgery Types

4.2.1 Existential Forgery
Existential forgery is the creation (by an adversary) of any message/signature pair (m,), where was not
produced by the legitimate signer.

4.2.2 Selective Forgery

Selective forgery is the creation (by an adversary) of a message/signature pair (m,) where m has been
chosen by the adversary prior to the attack.

Obtain someone elses private signature key

In a digital signature scheme you are your private key.
This is one aspect of the problem of identity theft.
Persuade others that someone elses public verification key belongs to you.
Others will verify it and believe that the message was signed by you.
This is a particularly neat attack because you do not need to obtain that other persons signature key

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Chapter 4 Attacks on digital signature

examples:
An interesting variant of this attack for hand-written signatures arises if you steal someone elses mail
when a new credit card is sent out to them if you just sign this blank card then you can easily mas-
querade as them. There are other possible abuses to zero-knowledge proofs of identity, also discussed
in [485,120]. In some implementations, there is no check when an individual registers a public key.
Hence, Alice can have several private keys and, therefore, several identities. This can be a great help
if she wants to commit tax fraud. Alice can also commit a crime and disappear. First, she creates and
publishes several identities. One of them she doesnt use. Then, she uses that identity once and commits
a crime so that the person who identifies her is the witness. Then, she immediately stops using that
identity. The witness knows the identity of the person who committed the crime, but if Alice never uses
that identity againshes untraceable.

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Chapter 5 DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

Chapter 5

DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

A digital signature is computed using a set of parameters and authenticates the integrity of the signed data
and the identity of the signatory. An algorithm provides the capability to generate and verify signature.
Signature generation makes use of a private key to generate a digital signature. Signature verification
makes use of a public key, which corresponds to, but is not the same as, the private key. Each user
possesses a private and public key pair. Public keys are assumed to be known to the public in general.
Private keys are never shared. Anyone canverify the signature of a user by employing that user public
key. Only the possessor of the user private key can perform signature generation.
A hash function is used in the signature generation process to obtain a condensed version of data,
called a message digest. The message digest is then input to the digital signature algorithm to generate
the digital signature. The digital signature is sent to the intended verifier along with the message. The
verifier of the message and signature verifies the signature by using the senders public key.

5.1 RSA Digital Signature Algorithm

5.1.1 Key generation:
Key generation in the RSA digital signature scheme is exactly the same as key generation in the RSA.
RSA involves a public key and a private key. The public key can be known by everyone and is used for
encrypting messages. Messages encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted in a reasonable
amount of time using the private key.
The keys for the RSA algorithm are generated the following way:

CHOOSE two distinct prime numbers p and q. For security purposes, the integers p and q should
be chosen at random, and should be of similar bit-length. Prime integers can be efficiently found
using a primarily test.
COMPUTE n = pq. n is used as the modulus for both the public and private keys. Its length, usually
expressed in bits, is the key length.
COMPUTE (n) = (p)(q) = (p 1)(q 1) = n - (p + q -1), where is Eulers totient function.
CHOOSE an integer e such that 1 e (n) and gcd(e, (n)) = 1; i.e., e and (n) are co-prime. e is
released as the public key exponent. e having a short bit-length and small Hamming weight results
in more efficient encryption most commonly 216 + 1 = 65,537. However, much smaller values of
e (such as 3) have been shown to be less secure in some settings.[5]
Determine d as d e1 (mod (n)); i.e., d is the multiplicative inverse of e (modulo (n)). This is
more clearly stated as: solve for d given de 1 (mod (n)) This is often computed using the ex-

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Chapter 5 DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

tended Euclidean algorithm. Using the pseudo code in the Modular integers section, inputs a and n
correspond to e and (n), respectively. d is kept as the private key exponent.

5.1.2 Encryption:
Alice transmits her public key (n, e) to Bob and keeps the private key secret. Bob then wishes to send
message M to Alice. He first turns M into an integer m, such that 0 m n by using an agreed-upon
reversible protocol known as a padding scheme. He then computes the cipher text c corresponding to

This can be done quickly using the method of exponentiation by squaring. Bob then transmits c to
Alice. Note that at least nine values of m will yield a cipher text c equal to but this is very unlikely to
occur in practice.

Figure 5.1: RSA digital signature scheme

5.1.3 Decryption
Alice can recover m from c by using her private key exponent d via computing

Given m, she can recover the original message M by reversing the padding scheme.
Example:
As a trivial example, suppose that Alice chooses p = 823 and q = 953, and calculates n = 784319.
The value of f(n) is 782544. Now she chooses e = 313 and calculates d = 160009. At this point key
generation is complete. Now imagine that Alice wants to send a message with the value of M = 19070
to Bob. She uses her private exponent, 160009, to sign the message:

Alice sends the message and the signature to Bob. Bob receives the message and the signature. He
calculates

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Chapter 5 DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

accepts the message because he has verified Alices signature

Figure 5.2: The RSA signature on the message digest

When the digest is signed instead of the message itself, the susceptibility of the RSA digital signature
scheme depends on the strength of the hash algorithm.

5.2 ElGamal Digital Signature Algorithm

5.2.1 Key generation
The key generator works as follows:
Alice generates an efficient description of a cyclic group G of order q with generator g. See below
for a discussion on the required properties of this group.
Alice chooses a random x from (1,(q-1)).
Alice computes h=gx .
Alice publishes h, along with the description of G,p,g, as her public key. Alice retains x as her
private key which must be kept secret.

5.2.2 Encryption
The encryption algorithm works as follows: to encrypt a message to Alice under her public key(G,q,g,h),
Bob chooses a random x from1..,q-1, then calculates c1=gy .
Bob calculates the shared secret s=hy .
Bob converts his secret message m into an element m of G.
Bob calculates c2=m.s.
Bob sends the cipher text (c1,c2)= (gy ,m.hy )= (gy , m.(gx )y ) to Alice.
Note that one can easily find hy if one knows m. Therefore, a new y is generated for every message
to improve security. For this reason, is also called an ephemeral key.

5.2.3 Decryption
The decryption algorithm works as follows: to decrypt a cipher text with her private key x, Alice cal-
culates the shared secret s=c1x and then computes m=c2.s 1 which she then converts back into the
plaintext message m, wheres 1 is the inverse of s in the group G. (E.g. modular multiplicative inverse

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Chapter 5 DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

if G is a subgroup of a multiplicative group of integers modulo n). The decryption algorithm produces
the intended message, since m=c2.s 1=(m.hy .(gx y) 1)=(m.g xy.g( xy))

Figure 5.3: ElGamal digital signature scheme

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Chapter 6 APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES

Chapter 6

APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL
SIGNATURES

6.1 APPLICATIONS
Digital Signature is a process that guarantees that the contents of a message have not been altered in
transit. When you, the server, digitally sign a document, you add a one-way hash (encryption) of the
message content using your public and private key pair.Your client can still read it, but the process
creates a signature that only the servers public key can decrypt. The client, using the servers public
key, can then validate the sender as well as the integrity of message contents.
Whether its
an email
an online order
or a watermarked photograph on eBay
if the transmission arrives but the digital signature does not match the public key in the digital certifi-
cate, then the client knows that the message has not been altered.

6.1.1 SMART CARDS

Asmart card is a plastic card, the size and shape of a credit card, with an embedded computer chip. Its
an old ideathe first patents were filed 20 years agobut practical limitations made them feasible only five
or so years ago. Since then they have taken off, mostly in Europe. Many countries use smart cards for
pay telephones. There are also smart credit cards, smart cash cards, smart everything cards. The U.S.
credit-card companies are looking at the technology, and within a few years even backwards Americans
will have smart cards in their wallets.
Asmart card contains a small computer (usually an 8-bit microprocessor), RAM (about a quarter
kilobyte), ROM (about 6 or 8 kilobytes), and eitherEPROM or EEPROM (a few kilobytes). Future
generation smart cards will undoubtedly have more capacity, but some physical limitations on smart
cards make expansion difficult. The card has its own operating system, programs, and data. (What
it doesnt have is power; that comes when the card is plugged in to a reader.) And it is secure. In a
world where you might not trust someone elses computer or telephone or whatever, you can still trust
a card that you keep with you in your wallet. Smart cards can have different cryptographic protocols
and algorithms programmed into them. They might be configured as an electronic purse, and be able to
spend and receive digital cash. They maybe able to perform zero-knowledge authentication protocols;
they may have their own encryption keys. They might be able to sign documents, or unlock applications

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Chapter 6 APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES

on a computer. Some smart cards are assumed to be tamperproof; this often protects the institution that
issues the cards. A bank wouldnt want you to be able to hack their smart card to give yourself more
money.

6.1.2 MITRENET
One of the earliest implementations of public-key cryptography was the experimental system MEMO
(MITRE Encrypted Mail Office). MITRE is a DoD contractor, a government think tank, and an all-
around bunch of smart guys. MEMO was a secure electronic mail system for users in the MITRENET
network, using public-key cryptography for key exchange and DES for file encryption. In the MEMO
system, all public keys are stored in a Public Key Distribution Center, which is a separate node on
the network. They are stored in an EPROM to prevent anyone from changing them. Private keys are
generated by users or by the system. For a user to send secure messages, the system first establishes
a secure communications path with the Public Key Distribution Center. The user requestsa file of all
public keys from the Center. If the user passes an identification test using his private key, the Center
sends this list to the users workstation. The list is encrypted using DES to ensure file integrity.

6.1.3 ISDN
Bell-Northern Research developed a prototype secure Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) tele-
phone terminal [499, 1192, 493, 500]. As a telephone, it was never developed beyond prototype. The
resulting product was the Packet Data Security Overlay. The terminal uses Diffie-Hellman key exchange,
RSA digital signatures, and DES data encryption; it can transmit and receive voice and data at 64 kilobits
per second.

6.1.4 TIME STAMPED SIGNATURES

Sometimes a signed document needs to be time stamped to prevent it from being replaced by an adver-
sary. This is called time-stamped digital signature scheme.

6.1.5 BLIND SIGNATURES

Sometimes we have a document that we want to get signed without revealing the contents of the docu-
ment to the signer.

6.2 Benefits of digital signatures

These are common reasons for applying a digital signature to communications: Authentication
Although messages may often include information about the entity sending a message, that informa-
tion may not be accurate. Digital signatures can be used to authenticate the source of messages. When
ownership of a digital signature secret key is bound to a specific user, a valid signature shows that the
message was sent by that user. The importance of high confidence in sender authenticity is especially
obvious in a financial context. For example, suppose a banks branch office sends instructions to the
central office requesting a change in the balance of an account. If the central office is not convinced
that such a message is truly sent from an authorized source, acting on such a request could be a grave
mistake. Integrity
In many scenarios, the sender and receiver of a message may have a need for confidence that the
message has not been altered during transmission. Although encryption hides the contents of a message,

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Chapter 6 APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES

it may be possible to change an encrypted message without understanding it. (Some encryption algo-
rithms, known as nonmalleable ones, prevent this, but others do not.) However, if a message is digitally
signed, any change in the message will invalidate the signature. Furthermore, there is no efficient way
to modify a message and its signature to produce a new message with a valid signature, because this is
still considered to be computationally infeasible by most cryptographic hash functions.

6.3 Drawbacks of digital signatures

Although the digital signature technique is a very effective method of maintaining integrity and au-
thentication of data, there are some drawbacks associated with this method. They are discussed in this
section.
The private key must be kept in a secured manner. The loss of private key can cause severe damage
since, anyone who gets the private key can use it to send signed messages to the public key holders and
the public key will recognize these messages as valid and so the receivers will feel that the message was
sent by the authentic private key holder.
The process of generation and verification of digital signature requires considerable amount of time.
So, for frequent exchange of messages the speed of communication will reduce.
When the digital signature is not verified by the public key, then the receiver simply marks the mes-
sage as invalid but he does not know whether the message was corrupted or the false private key was
used.
For using the digital signature the user has to obtain private and public key, the receiver has to obtain
the digital signature certificate also. This requires them to pay additional amount of money.
If a user changes his private key after every fixed interval of time, then the record of all these changes
must be kept. If a dispute arises over a previously sent message then the old key pair needs to be referred.
Thus storage of all the previous keys is another overhead.
Although digital signature provides authenticity, it does not ensure secrecy of the data. To provide
the secrecy, some other technique such as encryption and decryption needs to be used.

6.3.1 Non-repudiation
In a cryptographic context, the word repudiation refers to the act of disclaiming responsibility for a mes-
sage. A messages recipient may insist the sender attach a signature in order to make later repudiation
more difficult, since the recipient can show the signed message to a third party (eg, a court) to reinforce
a claim as to its signatories and integrity. However, loss of control over a users private key will mean
that all digital signatures using that key, and so ostensibly from that user, are suspect. Nonetheless, a
user cannot repudiate a signed message without repudiating their signature key.
Digital signatures in real applications Increasingly, digital signatures are being used in secure e-
mail and credit card transactions over the Internet. The two most common secure e-mail systems using
digital signatures are Pretty Good Privacy and Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension. Both of
these systems support the RSA as well as the DSS-based signatures. The most widely used system for
the credit card transactions over the Internet is Secure Electronic Transaction (SET). It consists of a set
of security protocols and formats to enable prior existing credit card payment infrastructure to work on
the Internet. The digital signature scheme used in SET is similar to the RSA scheme.

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Chapter 7 Conclusion

Chapter 7

Conclusion

Digital signatures are in some senses a complimentary technology to public key encryption, offering
data origin authentication and non-repudiation of digital messages. Digital signatures have different
properties and offer different guarantees to hand-written signatures. The security of digital signatures
critically relies on the security of the keys that are used to create and verify them. the digital signa-
ture technology vastly used in modern life and technology. the digital signature algorithm are used
in various purposes such as internet protocols, business deals, software certification, mobile phones,
and internet websites etc. Digital signatures utilizing the public key cryptography system have every
potential to achieve the same level of legal recognition as handwritten signatures. However, the main
obstacle at present is in the functional element of non-repudiation. This element, unlike the other three
elements ofhandwrittensignatures discussed, cannot be achieved by technology alone. Assistance is re-
quired from the law to help it attain the functional element of nonrepudiation. Once non-repudiation
has been achieved, then and only then, can electronic commerce be expected to be successfully taken
up. A certification authority in turn can be validated by higher certification authorities, thus creating a
certificate chain. Hence, the trustworthiness of a certification authority may depend on its reputation in
traditional business transactions, or, it may be a subscriber of a higher certification authority, and use
the certificate of the higher certification authority to reassure subscribers and relying parties that it is not
a bogus certification authority. The certification authority atthe pinnacle of the certification authority
hierarchy is known as a root certification authority and it issues root certificates. The root certification
authority selfauthenticates for purposes of determining the validity of the certificates.

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 References

References

[1] Digital Signature Algorithm Based on Hash Round Function and Self-Certified Public Key Sys-
tem;Chen Hai-peng, Education Technology and Computer Science, 7-8 March 2009
[2] Comparison Research on Digital Signature Algorithms in Mobile Web Services; Zuguang Zuan,
Management and Service Science,20-22 Sept. 2009
[3] Somitra Kumar Sanadhya and Palash Sarkar. New collision attacks against up to 24-step SHA-2.
In Dipanwita Roy Chowdhury, Vincent Rijmen, and Abhijit Das, editors, IN- DOCRYPT, volume
5365 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 91103. Springer, 2008
[4] Dike, W., and Hellman, M. New directions in cryptography. IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory IT-22,
(Nov. 1976), 644-654.
[5] ISO/IEC 29192-3. Information technology Security techniques Lightweight cryptography Part 3:
Stream ciphers. International Organization for Standardization, 2012.
[6] Digital Signature Algorithm Based on Hash Round Function and Self-Certified Public Key System
Education Technology and Computer Science, 2009. ETCS 09. First International Workshop on
(Volume:2 ) Date of Conference:7-8 March 2009

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 Project Hosting

Appendix A

Project Hosting

The report is shared at Academia.edu. The complete report about the seminar is uploaded here for future
reference.

Report Link : http://www.academia.edu/attachments/6516122/download_file

QR CODE:

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