Challenge Overview
Introduction
Welcome to the NASA Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) project. DTN is an approach to computer network architecture that seeks to address the technical issues in heterogeneous networks that may lack continuous network connectivity. Examples of such networks are those operating in mobile or extreme terrestrial environments, or planned networks in space. Disruption may occur because of the limits of wireless radio range, sparsity of mobile nodes, energy resources, attack, and noise. The goal of this contest is to create a game plan, and not to locate a copilot.
Project Background
NASA is developing Disruption Tolerant Networking techniques in collaboration with industry and academia. DTN is designed to provide reliable end-to-end delivery of information between nodes and to do so in an environment that experiences frequent connectivity disruptions and topology changes. Such a capability will directly support human and robotic space exploration, as well as have wide applicability to land-mobile and airborne terrestrial communications.
Part of the reality of modern networks is the need to provide robust security capabilities through the use of an architecture that does not overly constrain user operability. A major factor in such security architectures is the mechanism by which cryptographic keys are initialized, distributed and validated among members of a network in order to provide trusted and secure communications supporting confidentiality, authentication and integrity. Most key management approaches in use today rely on either pre-shared secrets (pre-shared public keys or pre-loaded private key pairs), or rely on knowledge of the network connectivity and topology to enable a trusted third party (certificate authority) to authenticate and mediate a “handshake” between two previously unknown nodes.
In a connection disrupted network made up of nodes that come and go at random, it is very hard to base a key management approach on previous knowledge of trusted entities, communication paths, or pre-shared secrets. Trusted network paths come and go (or disappear entirely). Nodes enter and leave the network at random. Pre-shared secrets may be distributed and “expire” before connections are reliably established to verify the credential is valid. These problems drive the need for a new approach to key management and key exchange.
Copilot Contest Requirements
The goal of this contest is to create a game plan, and not to locate a copilot. The final submission must include the following:
- A list of "preparation" contests & test contests
- A definition of the "main" contest with a description of how it would work (i.e., the final contest specification).
Submission Deliverables
1. Create a game plan that addresses the following problem statement:
Devise a method by which cryptographic keys can be exchanged among peers in a DTN network suffering from network connectivity disruptions and random topology changes. The method must function in the absence of previous knowledge of network members or pre-shared secrets.
2. Create a game plan that addresses the following requirements:
- Provide a method (logical / mathematical algorithm) for distribution of symmetric key pairs among previously unknown and un-validated network nodes in a disrupted network environment.
- Provide a method (logical / mathematical algorithm) for generation, validation, distribution and authentication of asymmetric keys (public/private key pairs) in a disrupted network environment.
- Provide a method (logical / mathematical algorithm) for detecting and protecting against invalid or malicious manipulation, intrusion, and / or interception of keys during the exchange and validation process.
- Keys and processes must be of sufficient complexity and cryptographic strength to meet the U.S. Federal Information Processing Standards (NIST/FIPS).
- Provide a method by which multiple, federated, key exchange and management domains can co-exist in the same network.
- Provide a method by which keys and cryptographic messages of multiple classifications (low, medium, high) or multiple compartments (A, B, C) can co-exist in the same network.
For full details, please see the resource section. Specifically:
- Security Key Challenge Overview – (attached to contest spec). This contains the full project requirements and overview.
- RFC5050 - http://www.rfc-base.org/rfc-5050.html
Selection Criteria and Other Conditions
- The goal of this contest is to create a game plan, and not to locate a copilot.
- We may or may not select the winning submitter as the copilot for this contest. We are primarily interested in a game plan that will describe the activities/tasks as specified above.
- We may award the 1st place prize to one submitter, but choose another for copiloting; the best submission will win this contest, but the winner is not guaranteed to be selected as the copilot.
- Software and Algorithm Ratings, and Copilot experience of each submitter will be considered
- Winner(s) will be selected by the NASA DTN teams.
Resources
- Security Key Challenge Overview – (attached to contest spec). This contains the full project requirements and overview.
- Code – to download the code, please visit the following Source Forge links and download the latest project archives:
- DTN2 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/dtn
- ION-DTN - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ion-dtn
- Glossary - http://apps.topcoder.com/wiki/display/projects/NASA+DTN#NASADTN-Glossary
- AWS EC2 – Please send a request to rsial@topcoder.com
- RFC5050 - http://www.rfc-base.org/rfc-5050.html
- Supporting Documents & Reference (attached to contest spec)
- Security Threats Against Space Missions
- Space Mission Key Management Concepts
- Authentication and Integrity Algorithm Issues Survey
- Rationale Scenarios and Requirements for DTN In Space
- DTN Security Activity - elements