document: Merkle tree authentication of HTTP responses We propose extensions to existing web protocols that allow proofs of authenticity of HTTP server responses , whether or not the HTTP server is under the control of the publisher . These extensions protect users from content that may be substituted by malicious servers , and therefore have immediate applications in improving the security of web caching , mirroring , and relaying systems that rely on untrusted machines ( 2,4 ) . Our proposal relies on Merkle trees to support 200 and 404 response authentication while requiring only a single cryptographic hash of trusted data per repository . While existing web protocols such as HTTPS can provide authenticity guarantees ( in addition to confidentiality ) , HTTPS consumes significantly more computational resources , and requires that the hosting server act without malice in generating responses and in protecting the publisher 's private key .
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