CAREER: Centralized Authorities in Internet Security: Risk Assessment, Mitigation, and New Architectures

为了应对困扰许多互联网核心协议的严重漏洞，在过去的二十年里，各种安全基础设施在最初不安全的协议之上分层（域名系统之上的DNSSEC，TCP之上的SSL及其公钥基础设施，域间路由之上的RPKI）。每一个的安全性都来自于集中的权威机构，这些权威机构被信任提供有关加密密钥或身份的信息。当权威机构行为正确时，每个安全基础设施都可以保护底层的不安全系统免受攻击。但是，如果权威机构滥用其权力，或者遇到故障，错误配置或外部攻击者的妥协，会发生什么？该项目基于这样的观察，即受危害的权威机构滥用的范围、影响和可见性是由安全基础设施的架构决定的（例如，等级制度的存在或不存在、当局权力的范围等）。 该项目找到了新的方法，既要为脆弱的不安全系统提供强有力的安全保障，又要限制中央机构对该系统的控制。为此，该项目将使用密码学和机制设计来设计架构，使滥用更容易检测或更难执行。 该项目对互联网一些最关键系统的安全有影响，还涉及向参与互联网系统标准化和采用的从业人员转让技术。

In response to serious vulnerabilities that plague many of the Internet's core protocols, the last two decades have seen various security infrastructures layered on top of originally insecure protocols (DNSSEC on top of the domain name system, SSL and its public key infrastructure on top of TCP, the RPKI on top of interdomain routing). The security of each is derived from centralized authorities that are trusted to provide information about cryptographic keys or identities. When authorities behave correctly, each security infrastructure protects the underlying insecure system from attack. However, what happens if an authority abuses its power, or experiences a malfunction, misconfiguration, or a compromise by an external attacker?This project is predicated on the observation that the scope, impact, and visibility of abuse by compromised authorities is determined by the architecture of a security infrastructure (e.g., the presence or absence of hierarchy, the scope of an authority's power, etc.). The project finds new ways to balance between the need to provide strong security guarantees for a vulnerable insecure system, and the need to limit the control that a centralized authority can exercise over that system. To do this, the project will use cryptography and mechanism design to design architectures that make abuse easier to detect, or harder to execute. The project has implications on the security of some of the Internet's most crucial systems, and also involves technology transfer to the practitioners involved in the standardization and adoption of Internet systems.