Trusted computing to increase security and privacy in eID authentication

Abstract

Smart cards are popular devices for storing authentication credentials, because they are easily (trans)portable and offer a secure way for storing these credentials. They have, however, a few disadvantages. First, most smart cards do not have a user interface. Hence, if the smart card requires a PIN, users typically have to enter it via an untrusted workstation. Second, smart cards are resource constrained devices which impedes the adoption of advanced privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as anonymous credentials. This paper presents a new solution that addresses these issues. It allows users to enter their PIN via the workstation and securely transfer it to the smart card. The solution further extends existing smart card assisted authentication technology based on X.509 credentials with privacy-preserving features such as multi-show unlinkability and selective disclosure. The system can, hence, be used to improve the privacy properties of these rolled-out infrastructures. The solution relies on a secure execution environment running on the workstation. We have put our solution into practice and implemented a prototype.