Title: Towards an authentication service for Peer-to-Peer based Massively Multiuser Virtual Environments

Authors: Arno Wacker, Gregor Schiele, Sebastian Schuster, Torben Weis

Addresses: University of Duisburg-Essen, Distributed Systems, Bismarckstr. 90, 47057 Duisburg, Germany. ' University of Mannheim, Information Systems II, Schloss, 68131 Mannheim, Germany. ' University of Duisburg-Essen, Distributed Systems, Bismarckstr. 90, 47057 Duisburg, Germany. ' University of Duisburg-Essen, Distributed Systems, Bismarckstr. 90, 47057 Duisburg, Germany

Abstract: In this paper we propose a distributed authentication service for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) based massively multiuser virtual environments. Such a service is necessary to provide security, e.g., preventing a user|s account being stolen or the user being impersonated. We describe two variants of our authentication service. The first uses certificates and a central certification authority to ensure the validity of user-generated public keys. These keys are then used to sign messages sent by the users| peers. The second variant distributes the users| public keys in the P2P network and uses quorums to verify them.

Keywords: MMVE; massively multiuser virtual environments; P2P networks; peer-to-peer; security; distributed authentication; authentication services; central certification authority; public keys; quorums.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMC.2008.022221

International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication, 2008 Vol.2 No.4, pp.364 - 379

Published online: 23 Dec 2008 *

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