A METHODOLOGY FOR MECHANICALLY VERIFYING PROTOCOLS USING AN AUTHENTICATION LOGIC Munna

This paper describes a methodology that can be used for rigorously developing authentication protocols for distributed systems. It is based on the logic of authentication proposed by Lampson et al. We implemented the logic of authentication using Higher Order Logic (HOL) as the theorem prover. Based on this implementation, a methodology was developed for analyzing authentication protocols for distributed systems, and was utilized to analyze published authentication protocols. This methodology took into consideration the prudent engineering practices for cryptographic protocol design, proposed by Abadi and Needham. It was observed that formalizing the steps in a protocol let the aws in the design be easily noticeable. The methodology developed assists in systematically checking for known types of vulnerabilities in authentication protocols.