Real-Time Video Authentication using the
Double Ratchet Algorithm

This project addresses a shortcoming present in many other authentication solutions in international arms control and safeguards: key management and security, which is the critical lynchpin in any data authentication scheme and a significant challenge. The protocol presented in this paper is unique in that encryption keys are updated with every message generated through an initial key agreement protocol, the Diffie-Helman key exchange protocol, and a hash function to create new keys. Current authentication approaches rely on secret or public key encryption, both of which have strengths and weaknesses. The encryption key update with every message exchange means that a compromised key cannot be used to decrypt previous or future messages. This capability is why the protocol is termed “self-healing”. Future remote verification activities will generate lots of data, which is central to generating evidence of treaty compliance, and therefore it is important that the data be trusted. “Self-healing” encryption, used within the Signal and WhatsApp secure messaging apps, can greatly increase the confidence in and security of future verification equipment, for both attended and remote regimes. This paper will present ongoing research towards the implementation of a surveillance system using this approach, to demonstrate a proof-of-concept solution for near or real-time data authentication capability.