In this paper, we present results on the authentication capacity region for the two-user arbitrarily-varying multipleaccess channel. We first consider a standard definition of authentication, in which the receiver may discard both messages if an adversary is detected. For this setting, we show that an extension of the arbitrarily-varying channel condition overwritability characterizes the authentication capacity region. We then define γ-correcting authentication, where we require that at least a γ fraction of the users' messages be correctable, even in the presence of an adversary. We give necessary conditions for the γ-correcting authentication capacity region to have nonempty interior, and show that positive rate pairs are achievable over a particular channel that satisfies these conditions.
We study authenticated communication over two-user multiple access channels (MAC) where one of the users is possibly adversarial. When both users behave non-adversarially, we want their messages to be decoded reliably. However, we also want to ensure that an adversarial user cannot cause an undetected error on the other (honest) user's message. We show that the following three-phase scheme is rate-optimal: a standard MAC code is first used to achieve unauthenticated communication; this is followed by two authentication phases where each user authenticates their message treating the other user as a possible adversary. We show that the authentication phases can be very short since this form of authentication itself, when possible, can be achieved for message sets whose size grow doubly exponentially in blocklength. This leads to our result that the authenticated communication capacity region of a discrete memoryless MAC is either zero or the (unauthenticated) MAC capacity region itself. This also, arguably, explains the similar nature of authenticated communication capacity of a discrete memoryless point-to-point adversarial channel recently found by Kosut and Kliewer (ITW, 2018). We also obtain analogous results for additive Gaussian noise channels.
We consider keyless authentication for point-to-point communication in the presence of a myopic adversary. In particular, the adversary has access to a non-causal noisy version of the transmission and uses this knowledge to choose the state of an arbitrarily-varying channel between legitimate users. The receiver succeeds by either decoding accurately or correctly detecting adversarial interference. We introduce a single-letter channel condition called
U-distribution overwritability, and show that as long as the channel does not satisfy this condition, the authentication capacity with stochastic coding is positive and equals the no-adversary channel capacity. Our encoding scheme relies on authentication tags that allow verifying the correctness of a message that has already been received. We provide multi-letter extensions of
U-distribution overwritability and show that the infinite letter limit yields exact characterization for positivity of authentication capacity. Noting that this characterization may, in general, be uncomputable, we next provide a single-letter channel condition called
U-overwritability and show that it is a sufficient condition for zero authentication capacity. When restricted to deterministic codes, we show that when the channel is not
I-overwritable, the authentication capacity is strictly positive. Further, when the channel to the legitimate receiver is degraded with respect to the channel to the adversary,
I-overwritability is also a sufficient condition for the deterministic authentication capacity to equal zero. Lastly, we give examples demonstrating that the various notions of overwritability presented in this paper differ from each other. Our results also show that stochastic encoders are necessary for positive authentication capacity in some cases. Illustrating this, we examine in detail a binary adversarial channel that illustrates this necessity.
Keyless authentication is considered in an adversarial point-to-point channel. Namely, a legitimate transmitter and receiver aim to communicate over a noisy channel that may or may not also contain an active adversary, capable of transmitting an arbitrary signal into the channel. If the adversary is not present, then the receiver must successfully decode the message with high probability; if it is present, then the receiver must either decode the message or detect the adversary's presence. Thus, whenever the receiver decodes, it can be certain that the decoded message is authentic. The exact authentication capacity is characterized for discrete-memoryless adversary channels, where the adversary is assumed to know the code but not the message. The authentication capacity is shown to be either zero or equal to the no-adversary capacity, depending on whether the channel satisfies a condition termed overwritability.
In unsecured communications settings, ascertaining the trustworthiness of received information, called authentication, is paramount. We consider keyless authentication over an arbitrarily-varying channel, where channel states are chosen by a malicious adversary with access to noisy versions of transmitted sequences. We have shown previously that a channel condition termed U-overwritability is a sufficient condition for zero authentication capacity over such a channel, and also that with a deterministic encoder, a sufficiently clear-eyed adversary is essentially omniscient. In this paper, we show that even if the authentication capacity with a deterministic encoder and an essentially omniscient adversary is zero, allowing a stochastic encoder can result in a positive authentication capacity. Furthermore, the authentication capacity with a stochastic encoder can be equal to the no-adversary capacity of the underlying channel in this case. We illustrate this for a binary channel model, which provides insight into the more general case.
We study communication over a Multiple Access Channel (MAC) where users can possibly be adversarial. The receiver is unaware of the identity of the adversarial users (if any). When all users are non-adversarial, we want their messages to be decoded reliably. When a user behaves adversarially, we require that the honest users’ messages be decoded reliably. An adversarial user can mount an attack by sending any input into the channel rather than following the protocol. It turns out that the 2-user MAC capacity region follows from the point-to-point Arbitrarily Varying Channel (AVC) capacity. For the 3-user MAC in which at most one user may be malicious, we characterize the capacity region for deterministic codes and randomized codes (where each user shares an independent random secret key with the receiver). These results are then generalized for the
k-user MAC where the adversary may control all users in one out of a collection of given subsets.
We introduce the problem of determining the identity of a byzantine user (internal adversary) in a communication system. We consider a two-user discrete memoryless multiple access channel where either user may deviate from the prescribed behaviour. Owing to the noisy nature of the channel, it may be overly restrictive to attempt to detect all deviations. In our formulation, we only require detecting deviations which impede the decoding of the non-deviating user's message. When neither user deviates, correct decoding is required. When one user deviates, the decoder must either output a pair of messages of which the message of the non-deviating user is correct or identify the deviating user. The users and the receiver do not share any randomness. The results include a characterization of the set of channels where communication is feasible, and an inner and outer bound on the capacity region.