Progressive verification: The case of message authentication. (Extended abstract)

Abstract

We introduce the concept of progressive verification for cryptographic primitives like message authentication codes, signatures and identification. This principle overcomes the traditional property that the verifier remains oblivious about the validity of the verified instance until the full verification procedure is completed. Progressive verification basically says that the more work the verifier invests, the better can the verifier approximate the decision. In this work we focus on message authentication. We present a comprehensive formal framework and describe several constructions of such message authentication codes, called pv-MACs (for progressively verifiable MACs). We briefly discuss implications to other areas like signatures and identification but leave it as an open problem to find satisfactory solutions for these primitives. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.