Identifier-Based Encryption

Jan 22, 2003

Abstract

We give a "notably different" approach to public key cryptography which
allows an arbitrary identifier, chosen by the sender rather than the
recipient, to be used as a public key, to which the private complement
can be generated (possibly after the encrypted message has been
received) by a third-party Trust Authority (also chosen by the
sender). Signature analogues also exist. We skip gazelle-like over
the details of the elliptic-curve-point-pairing basis for the more
computationally efficient variant, and concentrate on the contrast in
key management and key certification this approach has as compared with
RSA-based public key systems.