9 IJA June 2016
9 IJA June 2016
9 IJA June 2016
10(72)2016
ABSTRACT
Short message service (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) are a very popular and
easy to use communications technology for mobile phone devices. Originally, these services were not
designed to transmit secured data, so the security was not an important issue during its design. Yet today, it
is widely used to exchange sensitive information between communicating parties i.e. HelloCash, Ethio
Gebeta, Lehulu, CBE M-banking, 8100, 8400 and so much more. Due to the vulnerable nature of SMS and
USSD this paper proposes an alternative solution that provides a client-server SMS and USSD security
protocol that guarantees provision of confidentiality, authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, and file
compression security services. A hybrid cryptographic scheme is used which combines the Identity Based
Encryption (IBE) and AES-Rijndael algorithms without key distribution servers and certificate authorities to
achieve more robust functionality. HMAC-SHA256 hashing algorithm will be used to generate a message
digest. IBE will be used to digitally sign the message and to encrypt the encryption key used on AES. LZW
compression will be used to compress the SMS. Unlike any previous works that involve certificate authority
and key management, this protocol is proposed to be used in mobile banking and payment once a user
successfully subscribes to the service.
Keywords: USSD, HelloCash, IBE, HMAC-SHA256.
foundation in proven technologies such as data can be used to counteract the security attacks are
encryption, authentication, and authorization. The discussed below.
growing number of programmers and hackers has
b. Cryptographic Security Mechanisms
led to the raise of the following serious problems.
First, several mobile applications are distributed to Cryptography can be defined as the conversion of
steal mobile money without the consent of the users. data into a scrambled code and then sending it to the
Second, lack of confidence on the transactions as a recipient; the scrambled code can be decrypted to
result of the insecure mobile banking services in retrieve the original data once it is received. It has
Ethiopia. two main forms for encrypting data; symmetric and
asymmetric encryption. Beside these two
Therefore, this paper primarily aims to study the cryptography techniques there are several security
current SMS banking encryption techniques and technologies and mechanisms discussed below
devise strong security protocol for secure transaction
1. Symmetric key cryptography: which is also called
in mobile banking in Ethio-Telecom and other private
secret key cryptography. It is a type of cryptography
and governmental companies. Additionally, by
where the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt
blocking attackers everywhere from Stealing user’s
the message.
mobile money, modifying packet on transmission
this project plans to increase confidence of users and 2. ID-based encryption, or identity-based
entrepreneurs on mobile banking. encryption (IBE): is an important primitive of ID-
based cryptography. As such it is a type of public-key
2. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORKS encryption in which the public key of a user is some
The contents of SMS and USSD are visible to and unique information about the identity of the user
monitored by anyone who tapped to the packets as (e.g. a user's email address).
they are transmitted as a plain text. The network 3. Message authentication: is concerned with:
provider itself i.e. Ethio Telecom which is generally protecting the integrity of a message, validating
regarded as insecure stores messages temporarily in identity of originator and non-repudiation of origin
servers until delivery making the contents and (dispute resolution). An authenticator, signature, or
addresses vulnerable to ISP attacks. A hacker can message authentication code (MAC) is sent along
easily hack the SMS center, base stations, and GSM with the message. Private Key ciphers or hash
servers and read what the SMS contains and what the function can be used to generate an authenticator.
USSD code is. We will now discuss the security
4. Hashing functions: are used to condense an
attacks, available security mechanisms and security
arbitrary length message to a fixed size, usually for
constraints. Most of the security attacks reside to the
subsequent signature by a digital signature
following four type of threats
algorithm. They are one-way functions so that
a. Security threats messages are not disclosed by their signatures.
1. Man-in-middle Attack: the attacker can use a false 5. Message digests. Coupled with message
BTS with the same mobile network code as the authentication codes, a technology that ensures the
subscriber's legitimate network to impersonate integrity of your message.
himself and perform a man-in-the-middle attack.
6. Digital signatures: Only the owner of the private-
This also include masqueraders.
key can create the digital signature, hence it can be
2. Message Disclosure: SMS and USSD are sent as
used to verify who created a message anyone
plain text which allows full disclosure of the contents
knowing the public key can verify the signature
to outsider.
(provided they are confident of the identity of the
3. Denial of Service (DOS) Attacks: DOS attacks
owner of the public key - the key distribution
are made possible by sending repeated messages to
problem). Usually a hash of the message is signed
a target mobile phone, making the victim's mobile
instead of the whole message, because signing the
phone inaccessible.
whole message would mean doubling the size of
4. SMS Tapping: The attacker can tap an SMS in
information exchanged. Let’s proceed to what types
different places including from radio broadcast or
of security constraints should be achieved that will
base transceiver station (BTS). If the attacker has an
help our goals. All the security services mentioned
access to the BTS or other parts of the GSM network,
above are used independently and with one another
then the tapping is easy. The security services that
to satisfy the following vital security requirements.
Why not PGP (pretty good service) This solution is novel not only because it achieves all
PGP combines the advantages of both asymmetric the four constraints, but also it uses phone numbers
and symmetric encryption, while also downplaying as a public key and uses a one-time subscription in
the disadvantages of both. PGP parties have each 2 order to get a corresponding private key eliminating
keys one public and the other session or private. The the need for CA (certificate authorities) and key
session key is used to encrypt the message while the management and distribution issues, replacing all
public key is used to encrypt the session key [8]. Even this by a trusted authorities (TA), accessed only by a
PGP will not guarantee non-repudiation or message new user to own a valid key pair. Key exchange
integrity. Despite the failure to meet the criteria’s set, session is also removed by appending session key
PGP has problems with administering conflicting into the ciphered text before generating a message
versions and compatibility Issues, complexity of use digest. A user has no clue of encryption because it is
(requires training), no recovery of any lost data or done behind the user interface of the client
password, and more. application, so it is easy and familiar to use. The basic
algorithms are discussed here.
3. PROPOSED SOLUTION
a. Boneh–Franklin ID-PKC
In order to achieve all the goals set and stated earlier
Identity-based systems allow any party to generate a
this paper proposes the introduction of an
public key from a known identity value such as an
independent Ethio telecom mobile application, only
ASCII string. A trusted third party, called the Private
for smartphones who involve in the E-commerce that
Key Generator (PKG), generates the corresponding
Ethio Telecom has setup, which will serve as a secure
private keys. To operate, the PKG first publishes a
SMS sending agent that encrypts and sends any SMS
master public key, and retains the corresponding
or USSD that involves any transfer of money. At the
master private key (referred to as master key). Given
server side the decryption algorithm will be installed.
the master public key, any party can compute a
The system uses encrypted messaging protocol with
public key corresponding to the identity ID by
deniability guarantees and message-level forward
combining the master public key with the identity
secrecy. Therefore, no other intruder will be able to
value. To obtain a corresponding private key, the
read the SMS or access any of the information sent,
party authorized to use the identity ID contacts the
leaving both sending and receiving parties confident
PKG, which uses the master private key to generate
on the transaction. In order to achieve this it will
the private key for identity ID.As a result, parties
require the usage of Symmetric encryption and
may encrypt messages (or verify signatures) with no
identity based encryption.
prior distribution of keys between individual
Unlike, the security solutions mentioned and
participants. This is extremely useful in cases where
suggested by other researchers, which require
pre-distribution of authenticated keys is inconvenient
certificate authorities (CA), key exchange sessions,
or infeasible due to technical restraints. However, to
key revocation and generating authorities, and even
decrypt or sign messages, the authorized user must
so they all fail to consider the cost of using multiple
obtain the appropriate private key from the PKG [9].
SMS on a GSM network for single transaction. The
proposed solution uses the advantages we get from b. AES rijandeal symmetric key cryptograaphy
using both the symmetric cryptography and Identity AES is based on a design principle known as a
based encryption to achieve more robust substitution-permutation network, combination of
functionality. Even though, we have several both substitution and permutation, and is fast in both
algorithm choices on each encryption type, AES software and hardware.[10] Unlike its predecessor
rijandeal is chosen for symmetric encryption and DES, AES does not use a Feistel network. AES is a
Boneh–Franklin has been selected as our IBE public variant of Rijndael which has a fixed block size of 128
key encryption. In addition, the proposed solution bits, and a key size of 128, 192, or 256 bits. By
will use HMAC message authentication function to contrast, the Rijndael specification per se is specified
generate message digest and IBE public key with block and key sizes that may be any multiple of
cryptography to digitally sign the message digest. 32 bits, both with a minimum of 128 and a maximum
LZW file compression algorithm will also be used to of 256 bits and calculations are done in a special finite
compress the ciphered text incase a message reaches field.
GSM’s character limit (i.e. 160 characters).