Cross Platform Chat Application Using ID Based Encryption

Abstract

Over the last few years, instant messaging and group chat applications have gained enormous popularity among recreational users. But with increase in popularity, the chat applications have simultaneously witnessed an abrupt rise in security threats from across the globe. Coping up with the various security requirements has always been challenging. To provide a secure communication, many researchers have designed chat applications under the canopy of public key infrastructure (PKI). But public key infrastructure poses a major drawback which may increase the communication overhead. In order to communicate using a PKI based chat application, a user must have a valid certificate signed by a valid Certificate Authority. This overhead will get costlier as more users register in to the chat system. To overcome this problem, a new security system for cross platform chat application based on Identity Based Encryption (IBE) is discussed in this paper. Here, we show how a suitable Chat Server and Client application can be developed utilizing Boneh-Franklin scheme of pairing based cryptography. The application is cross platform in nature. An analysis shows that this approach can resist security threats which the previous schemes are vulnerable to.