A Prototype Implementation for Public Key Infrastructure Based on Transport Layer Security

Abstract: Information security has to be given paramount importance in communication networks. Besides the ability to share documents, the networks should provide complete security measures in order to ensure that the documents are accessed by intended recipients with privacy and integrity. The common security requirements like authentication, confidentiality, privacy and non-repudiation are to be fulfilled in network. Public key infrastructure (PKI) has been around for digital signatures to ensure secure communications. The security primitives and components in the PKI can enforce trust among the communicating parties using digital signatures. In this paper we review the PKI and its applications in the real world besides implementing it practically. We have made experiments with a standalone prototype that demonstrates the proof of concept. The empirical results revealed that the PKI when implemented with care can provide fool proof security to communications over any network. Keywords: Digital signatures, public key infrastructure, TLS, certificate authority