A Security Architecture for Fault-Tolerant Systems

Abstract

Process groups are a common abstraction for fault-tolerant computing in distributed systems. We present a security architecture that extends the process group into a security abstraction. Integral parts of this architecture are services that securely and fault-tolerantly support cryptographic key distribution using novel techniques. We detail the design and implementation of these services and the secure process group abstraction they support. We also give performance figures for some common group operations.