Encryption as an abstract data-type: An extended abstract

At the Dolev-Yao level of abstraction, security protocols can be specified using multisets rewriting. Such rewriting can be modeled naturally using proof search in linear logic. The linear logic setting also provides a simple mechanism for generating nonces and session and encryption keys via eigenvariables. We illustrate several additional aspects of this direct encoding of protocols into logic. In particular, encrypted data can be seen naturally as an abstract data-type. Entailments between security protocols as linear logic theories can be surprisingly strong. We also illustrate how the well-known connection in linear logic between bipolar formulas and general formulas can be used to show that the asynchronous model of communication given by multiset rewriting rules can be understood, more naturally as asynchronous process calculus (also represented directly as linear logic formulas).