A search-based approach to the automated design of security protocols

Security protocols play an important role in modern communications. However, security protocol development is a delicate task; experience shows that computer security protocols are notoriously difficult to get right. Recently, Clark and Jacob provided a framework for automatic protocol generation based on combinatorial optimisation techniques and the symmetric key part of BAN logic. This paper shows how such an approach can be further developed to encompass the full BAN logic without loss of efficiency and thereby synthesise public key protocols and hybrid protocols.