DID Link: Authentication in TLS with Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials

TL;DR

DID Link introduces a decentralized authentication scheme for TLS 1.3 using self-issued X.509 certificates with ledger-anchored DIDs, enhancing security and trustworthiness by removing reliance on centralized CAs.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel TLS authentication method leveraging Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials, replacing traditional CA-issued certificates with ledger-anchored, self-issued ones.

Findings

Comparable handshake durations with caching

Reasonable delays when verifying from ledger

Significant speed improvement over DID-based protocols

Abstract

Authentication in TLS is predominately carried out with X.509 digital certificates issued by certificate authorities (CA). The centralized nature of current public key infrastructures, however, comes along with severe risks, such as single points of failure and susceptibility to cyber-attacks, potentially undermining the security and trustworthiness of the entire system. With Decentralized Identifiers (DID) alongside distributed ledger technology, it becomes technically feasible to prove ownership of a unique identifier without requiring an attestation of the proof's public key by a centralized and therefore vulnerable CA. This article presents DID Link, a novel authentication scheme for TLS 1.3 that empowers entities to authenticate in a TLS-compliant way with self-issued X.509 certificates that are equipped with ledger-anchored DIDs instead of CA-issued identifiers. It facilitates the exchange of tamper-proof and 3rd-party attested claims in the form of DID-bound Verifiable Credentials after the TLS handshake to complete the authentication with a full identification of the communication partner. A prototypical implementation shows comparable TLS handshake durations of DID Link if verification material is cached and reasonable prolongations if it is obtained from a ledger. The significant speed improvement of the resulting TLS channel over a widely used, DID-based alternative transport protocol on the application layer demonstrates the potential of DID Link to become a viable solution for the establishment of secure and trustful end-to-end communication links with decentrally managed digital identities.