| Abstract: | The standard Kripke semantics of epistemic logics has been applied successfully to reasoning communication protocols under the assumption that the network is not hostile. This paper introduces a natural semantics of Kripke semantics called knowledge structure and, by this kind of Kripke semantics, analyzes communication protocols over hostile networks, especially on authentication protocols. Compared with BAN-like logics, the method is automatically implementable because it operates on the actual definitions of the protocols, not on some difficult-to-establish justifications of them. What is more, the corresponding tool called SPV (Security Protocol Verifier) has been developed. Another salient point of this approach is that it is justification-oriented instead of falsification-oriented, i.e. finding bugs in protocols. |
