An improved e-commerce protocol for fair exchange

Abstract

In this paper, an improved fair exchange protocol for e-commerce has been presented. The new protocol builds upon a previously published one by Ray & Ray [12]. After discussing the protocol and related fairness, four weaknesses have been found, viz., Fairness Problem: Advantage Merchant, Fairness Problem: Advantage Customer, Possibility of Man in the Middle Attack and Possibility of Malicious Bank. Our modified fair exchange e-commerce protocol is able to handle these weaknesses. The proposed protocol does not involve third party to ensure the fairness.