Language, Semantics, and Methods for Cryptographic Protocols

Abstract

In this report we present a process language for security protocols together
with an operational semantics and an alternative semantics in terms of sets
of events. The denotation of process is a set of events, and as each event specifies
a set of pre- and postconditions, this denotation can be viewed as a Petri net.
This Petri-net semantics has a strong relation to both Paulson's inductive set
of rules [Pau98] and strand spaces [THG98c]. By means of an example we
illustrate how the Petri-net semantics can be used to prove properties such as
secrecy and authentication.