(Dis)trust Certification Model for Large Access in Pervasive Environment

International audienceThe challenge of pervasive computing consists inoffering access to computing services anywhere and anytime withany devices. However, before it becomes a reality, the problemsof access control and authentication have to be solved, amongothers. Existing solutions are inadequate without adaptation tothis specific environment. Among the promising approaches, thetrust paradigm seems to be more flexible than others. We basethis proposal on this paradigm to implement a distrust model,so-called APC (Access Pass Certificate). The main objective ofthis model is to enable authorized user to roam and to accesstrusted sites though they are not known locally. A user can claimtwo kinds of APCs provided by two kinds of sites: the home site(where the user has an account) and the trusted site (that truststhe user). Using these certificates, the user can progressivelyextend her access scope. This model implements a decentralizedmapping policy, where the correspondence between the user’shome profile and her rights in the trusted sites is determinedby the trusted site. This distrust model and its implementationare presented in this article where we exhibit its importance forlarge but controlled access in pervasive environment