Secure Coprocessors in Electronic Commerce Applications

Authors: 

Bennett Yee, Microsoft Corporation; J.D. Tygar, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract: 

Many researchers believe electronic wallets (secure storage devices that maintain account balances) are the solution to electronic commerce challenges. This paper argues for a more powerful model --- a secure coprocessor --- that can run a small operating system, run application programs, and also keep secure storage for cryptographic keys and balance information.

We have built a system called Dyad, on top of a port of the Mach 3.0 microkernel to the IBM Citadel secure coprocessor. This paper describes the abstract architecture of Dyad and a general discussion of secure coprocessor implementations of a variety of electronic commerce applications:

  • Copy protection for software
  • Electronic cash (including a critique of proposed solutions for point-of-sale electronic wallet systems)
  • Electronic contracts
  • Secure postage
BibTeX
@inproceedings {260368,
author = {Bennett Yee and J.D. Tygar},
title = {Secure Coprocessors in Electronic Commerce Applications},
booktitle = {First USENIX Workshop on Electronic Commerce ( First USENIX Workshop on Electronic Commerce)},
year = {1995},
address = {New York, NY},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/first-usenix-workshop-electronic-commerce/secure-coprocessors-electronic-commerce},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = jul
}
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Links

Paper: 
http://usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/ec95/full_papers/yee.ps