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Secure channel - Wikipedia

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class="vector-sitenotice-container"> <div id="siteNotice"><!-- CentralNotice --></div> </div> <div class="vector-column-start"> <div class="vector-main-menu-container"> <div id="mw-navigation"> <nav id="mw-panel" class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav id="mw-panel-toc" aria-label="Contents" data-event-name="ui.sidebar-toc" class="mw-table-of-contents-container vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-toc-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-toc" class="vector-toc vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-toc-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="toc-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-toc" > <h2 class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Contents</h2> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" 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vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button 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class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For the Microsoft Windows API, see <a href="/wiki/Security_Support_Provider_Interface#Providers" title="Security Support Provider Interface">Security Support Provider Interface §&#160;Providers</a>.</div> <div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">A means of data transmission that is resistant to overhearing</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1251242444">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-More_citations_needed plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This article <b>needs additional citations for <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Secure_channel" title="Special:EditPage/Secure channel">improve this article</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.<br /><small><span class="plainlinks"><i>Find sources:</i>&#160;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?as_eq=wikipedia&amp;q=%22Secure+channel%22">"Secure channel"</a>&#160;–&#160;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&amp;q=%22Secure+channel%22+-wikipedia&amp;tbs=ar:1">news</a>&#160;<b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?&amp;q=%22Secure+channel%22&amp;tbs=bkt:s&amp;tbm=bks">newspapers</a>&#160;<b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&amp;q=%22Secure+channel%22+-wikipedia">books</a>&#160;<b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Secure+channel%22">scholar</a>&#160;<b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Secure+channel%22&amp;acc=on&amp;wc=on">JSTOR</a></span></small></span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">January 2008</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Cryptography" title="Cryptography">cryptography</a>, a <b>secure channel</b> is a means of <a href="/wiki/Data_transmission" class="mw-redirect" title="Data transmission">data transmission</a> that is resistant to overhearing and tampering. A <b>confidential channel</b> is a means of data transmission that is resistant to overhearing, or eavesdropping (e.g., reading the content), but not necessarily resistant to tampering (i.e., manipulating the content). An <b>authentic channel</b> is a means of data transmission that is resistant to tampering but not necessarily resistant to overhearing. </p><p>In contrast to a secure channel, an <b>insecure channel</b> is <a href="/wiki/Unencrypted" class="mw-redirect" title="Unencrypted">unencrypted</a> and may be subject to <a href="/wiki/Eavesdropping" title="Eavesdropping">eavesdropping</a> and tampering. <a href="/wiki/Secure_communication" title="Secure communication">Secure communications</a> are possible over an insecure channel if the content to be communicated is encrypted prior to transmission. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Secure_channels_in_the_real_world">Secure channels in the real world</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secure_channel&amp;action=edit&amp;section=1" title="Edit section: Secure channels in the real world"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1251242444"><table class="box-Unreferenced_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Unreferenced" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>does not <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources">cite</a> any <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">sources</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Secure_channel" title="Special:EditPage/Secure channel">improve this section</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden_of_evidence" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">removed</a>.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">November 2024</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>There are no perfectly secure channels in the real world. There are, at best, only ways to make <a href="/wiki/Insecure_channel" class="mw-redirect" title="Insecure channel">insecure channels</a> (e.g., couriers, <a href="/wiki/Homing_pigeon" title="Homing pigeon">homing pigeons</a>, <a href="/wiki/Diplomatic_bag" title="Diplomatic bag">diplomatic bags</a>, etc.) less insecure: <a href="/wiki/Padlock" title="Padlock">padlocks</a> (between courier wrists and a briefcase), <a href="/wiki/Loyalty_test" class="mw-redirect" title="Loyalty test">loyalty tests</a>, security investigations, and guns for courier personnel, <a href="/wiki/Diplomatic_immunity" title="Diplomatic immunity">diplomatic immunity</a> for diplomatic bags, and so forth. </p><p>In 1976, two researchers proposed a key exchange technique (now named after them)—<a href="/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange" title="Diffie–Hellman key exchange">Diffie–Hellman key exchange</a> (D-H). This protocol allows two parties to generate a <a href="/wiki/Key_(cryptography)" title="Key (cryptography)">key</a> only known to them, under the assumption that a certain mathematical problem (e.g., the <a href="/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_problem" title="Diffie–Hellman problem">Diffie–Hellman problem</a> in their proposal) is computationally infeasible (i.e., very very hard) to solve, and that the two parties have access to an authentic channel. In short, that an eavesdropper—conventionally termed 'Eve', who can listen to all messages exchanged by the two parties, but who can not modify the messages—will not learn the exchanged key. Such a key exchange was impossible with any previously known cryptographic schemes based on <a href="/wiki/Symmetric_cipher" class="mw-redirect" title="Symmetric cipher">symmetric ciphers</a>, because with these schemes it is necessary that the two parties exchange a secret key at some prior time, hence they require a confidential channel at that time which is just what we are attempting to build. </p><p>Most cryptographic techniques are trivially breakable if keys are not exchanged securely or, if they actually were so exchanged, if those keys become known in some other way— burglary or extortion, for instance. An actually secure channel will not be required if an insecure channel can be used to securely exchange keys, and if burglary, bribery, or threat aren't used. The eternal problem has been and of course remains—even with modern key exchange protocols—how to know when an insecure channel worked securely (or alternatively, and perhaps more importantly, when it did not), and whether anyone has actually been bribed or threatened or simply lost a notebook (or a notebook computer) with key information in it. These are hard problems in the real world and no solutions are known—only expedients, <a href="/wiki/Jury_rig" class="mw-redirect" title="Jury rig">jury rigs</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Workaround" title="Workaround">workarounds</a>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Future_possibilities">Future possibilities</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secure_channel&amp;action=edit&amp;section=2" title="Edit section: Future possibilities"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1251242444"><table class="box-Unreferenced_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Unreferenced" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>does not <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources">cite</a> any <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">sources</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Secure_channel" title="Special:EditPage/Secure channel">improve this section</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden_of_evidence" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">removed</a>.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">November 2024</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>Researchers<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="white-space:nowrap;">&#91;<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch"><span title="The material near this tag possibly uses too-vague attribution or weasel words. (July 2014)">who?</span></a></i>&#93;</sup> have proposed and demonstrated <a href="/wiki/Quantum_cryptography" title="Quantum cryptography">quantum cryptography</a> in order to create a secure channel. </p><p>It is not clear whether the special conditions under which it can be made to work are practical in the real world of noise, dirt, and imperfection in which most everything is required to function. Thus far, actual implementation of the technique is exquisitely finicky and expensive, limiting it to very special purpose applications. It may also be vulnerable to attacks specific to particular implementations and imperfections in the optical components of which the quantum cryptographic equipment is built. While implementations of classical cryptographic algorithms have received worldwide scrutiny over the years, only a limited amount of public research has been done to assess security of the present-day implementations of quantum cryptosystems, mostly because they are not in widespread use as of 2014. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Modeling_a_secure_channel">Modeling a secure channel</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secure_channel&amp;action=edit&amp;section=3" title="Edit section: Modeling a secure channel"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Security definitions for a secure channel try to model its properties independently from its concrete instantiation. A good understanding of these properties is needed before designing a secure channel, and before being able to assess its appropriateness of employment in a cryptographic protocol. This is a topic of <a href="/wiki/Provable_security" title="Provable security">provable security</a>. A definition of a secure channel that remains secure, even when used in arbitrary cryptographic protocols is an important building block for <a href="/wiki/Universal_composability" title="Universal composability">universally composable</a> cryptography.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">&#91;<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (November 2024)">citation needed</span></a></i>&#93;</sup> </p><p>A universally composable authenticated channel can be built using <a href="/wiki/Digital_signatures" class="mw-redirect" title="Digital signatures">digital signatures</a> and a <a href="/wiki/Public_key_infrastructure" title="Public key infrastructure">public key infrastructure</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> </p><p>Universally composable confidential channels are known to exist under <a href="/wiki/Computational_hardness_assumptions" class="mw-redirect" title="Computational hardness assumptions">computational hardness assumptions</a> based on <a href="/wiki/Hybrid_encryption" class="mw-redirect" title="Hybrid encryption">hybrid encryption</a> and a <a href="/wiki/Public_key_infrastructure" title="Public key infrastructure">public key infrastructure</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secure_channel&amp;action=edit&amp;section=4" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cryptochannel" title="Cryptochannel">Cryptochannel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hybrid_encryption" class="mw-redirect" title="Hybrid encryption">Hybrid encryption</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Secure_communication" title="Secure communication">Secure communication</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secure_channel&amp;action=edit&amp;section=5" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Ran Canetti: Universally Composable Signatures, Certification, and Authentication. CSFW 2004, <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/239">http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/239</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Waka Nagao, Yoshifumi Manabe, Tatsuaki Okamoto: A Universally Composable Secure Channel Based on the KEM-DEM Framework. TCC 2005: 426-444</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <!-- NewPP limit report Parsed by mw‐api‐ext.codfw.main‐7556f8b5dd‐mjthz Cached time: 20241122161223 Cache expiry: 2592000 Reduced expiry: false Complications: [vary‐revision‐sha1, show‐toc] CPU time usage: 0.163 seconds Real time usage: 0.267 seconds Preprocessor visited node count: 916/1000000 Post‐expand include size: 28806/2097152 bytes Template argument size: 2130/2097152 bytes Highest expansion depth: 12/100 Expensive parser function count: 5/500 Unstrip recursion depth: 0/20 Unstrip post‐expand size: 7244/5000000 bytes Lua time usage: 0.081/10.000 seconds Lua memory usage: 2605734/52428800 bytes Number of Wikibase entities loaded: 0/400 --> <!-- Transclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template) 100.00% 239.802 1 -total 35.39% 84.858 1 Template:Refimprove 35.12% 84.209 3 Template:Ambox 19.99% 47.941 1 Template:Short_description 14.51% 34.802 1 Template:For 10.44% 25.035 1 Template:Reflist 9.48% 22.735 2 Template:Pagetype 9.48% 22.727 2 Template:Fix 7.59% 18.202 1 Template:Who 5.94% 14.252 4 Template:Main_other --> <!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki:pcache:idhash:592935-0!canonical and timestamp 20241122161223 and revision id 1258183711. 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