Paper 2025/023
Cryptography is Rocket Science: Analysis of BPSec
, King's College London, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Postgraduate School, University of SheffieldAbstract
Space networking has become an increasing area of development with the advent of commercial satellite networks such as those hosted by Starlink and Kuiper, and increased satellite and space presence by governments around the world. Yet, historically such network designs have not been made public, leading to limited formal cryptographic analysis of the security offered by them. One of the few public protocols used in space networking is the Bundle Protocol, which is secured by Bundle Protocol Security (BPSec), an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard. We undertake a first analysis of BPSec under its default security context, building a model of the secure channel security goals stated in the IETF standard, and note issues therein with message loss detection. We prove BPSec secure, and also provide a stronger construction, one that supports the Bundle Protocol's functionality goals while also ensuring destination awareness of missing message components.
Note: To appear in Volume 1, Issue 4 of Communications in Cryptography
Metadata
- Available format(s)
-
PDF
- Category
- Cryptographic protocols
- Publication info
- Published by the IACR in CIC 2024
- Keywords
- BPSecBundle ProtocolSpace System SecuritySatellite Security
- Contact author(s)
-
benjamin dowling @ kcl ac uk
britta hale @ nps edu
xisen tian1 @ nps edu
b m wimalasiri @ sheffield ac uk - History
- 2025-01-07: approved
- 2025-01-06: received
- See all versions
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2025/023
- License
-
CC BY
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/023,
author = {Benjamin Dowling and Britta Hale and Xisen Tian and Bhagya Wimalasiri},
title = {Cryptography is Rocket Science: Analysis of {BPSec}},
howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/023},
year = {2025},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/023}
}
