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September 2004
Black
A team led by John Black,
working with graduate student Martin Cochran
and undergraduate Ryan Gardner,
spent part of the summer conducting a security analysis of a popular online
chess club called
The Internet Chess Club.
The ICC boasts over 30,000 members, including many of the world's top
chess players.
The team uncovered several security flaws related to how time is measured per
player and how encryption works between client and server. Problems were
described at each level of the security protocol from the blockcipher to the
key exchange mechanism. The research identified methods for improving the
site's security in a variety of ways and also led to questions ripe for further
research.
The project was partly sponsored by an NSF REU cybersecurity grant which allows
undergraduates from around the country to come to Boulder for a summer to gain
exposure to research in computer and network security. This summer six students
from around the U.S. worked with six Computer Science faculty on various
security projects. Summer 2005 will be the final year for this activity.
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