The CROSSING Collaboration Award 2024 was given to the collaborators on the paper “Encrypted MultiChannel Communication (EMC2): Johnny should use secret sharing“ by the projects E4 (Gowri R Chandran and Kasra EdalatNejad from the ECRYPTO group at TU Darmstadt), and E7 (Sebastian Linsner and Kilian Demuth from the PEASEC group at TU Darmstadt).
Abstract
Nowadays, the problem of point-to-point encryption is solved by the wide adaptation of protocols like TLS. However, challenges persist for End-to-End Encryption (E2EE). Current E2EE solutions, such as PGP and secure messengers like Signal, suffer from issues like 1) low usability, 2) small user base, 3) dependence on central service providers, and 4) susceptibility to backdoors. Concerns over legally mandated backdoors are rising as the US and EU are proposing new surveillance regulations requiring chat monitoring. We present a new E2EE solution called Encrypted MultiChannel Communication, based on n-out-of-n secret sharing. EMC2 splits messages into multiple secret shares and sends them through independent channels. We show that multiple independent channels exist between users and EMC2 provides E2EE with no single point of trust, no setup, and is understandable by the general public. Our solution complements existing tools and aims to strengthen the argument against legally enforced backdoors by demonstrating their ineffectiveness.
Link to the paper
Encrypted MultiChannel Communication (EMC2): Johnny should use secret sharing.
The paper has been presented at the 23. Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES’24) in October 2024.
Press release on the topic
Secure texting through distributed messages (30 Oct. 2024)
Contact
Project E4, Project E7
CROSSING Collaboration Award
The CROSSING Collaboration Award is presented for excellent internal collaborative work and outstanding progress in research collaborations within CROSSING, for which all members of the CRC are eligible. It is awarded annually by the CROSSING directorate.
Eligible for the Award is any collaboration between projects, for example joint publications, contributions to CogniCrypt, joint software tools or demonstrators or joint bachelor or master thesis.
Winners of the Collaboration Award get a trophy and certificate, and each collaborator receives funds for conference or workshop participation (travel, accommodation, conference fee), freely selectable by the price winners.
