In general, certificate status validation is a critical operation but it is particularly complex in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). MANET users require solutions to manage both the lack of fixed infrastructure inside the network and the possible absence of connectivity to trusted authorities when the certification validation has to be performed. However, certificate validation implies checking the validity of certificates in realtime, that is, when a particular certificate is going to be used. In such MANET environments, a node might be disconnected from the status data source when queries are required. Proposals in the literature suggest the use of caching mechanisms so that the node itself or a neighbor node has some status checking material. In this paper, we analyze how to deploy a certificate status checking PKI service for MANET. Besides, it is proposed a novel criteria that is much more appropriate and absolute than time. This criteria takes into account the revocation process and is based on risk to evaluate cached status data.

Peer Reviewed