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Scenario: I have to protect the integrity of some files that will be exchanged between entities $A$, $B$, $C$. Entity $A$ creates the file (e.g. configuration) and sends it to $B$ and $C$. Entities $A$ and $B$ are considered trusted but entity $C$ is semi-trusted (by default it is trusted but we assume it could be compromised at some point). The communication channel between $A \leftrightarrow B \leftrightarrow C$ is considered secure (e.g. VPN).

Now, I obviously cannot rely on HMAC since I would have to share a secret with potentially compromised $C$. But I would prefer to avoid implementing a PKI and digital signatures for this purpose. Is there any way around a PKI that will protect the integrity of my files?

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    $\begingroup$ Any wrong with two symmetric keys K0 K1, with K0 known to A and B only, and K1 shared between A B C; and protecting messages with two MACs with these keys, except when originating from C which uses K1 only? $\endgroup$ – fgrieu Aug 6 '14 at 9:31
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    $\begingroup$ I don't see the big argument against PKI. In this case you could just distribute/trust the public keys and validate the messages directly. Creation of a black list would be trivial. No need for CA's etc. (or at least not more need than required for a symmetric scheme). $\endgroup$ – Maarten Bodewes♦ Aug 6 '14 at 12:56
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    $\begingroup$ It sounds like you are saying the assumptions are that A,B,and C trust each other, but want to protect against compromise. That's more a problem of building an infrastructure that supports non-repudiation, logging, and audit trail, not just encryption/decryption. $\endgroup$ – Jeff-Inventor ChromeOS Aug 7 '14 at 2:15
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As owlstead wrote in the comments, you don't need a real public key infrastructure to use public key signatures for this. You can have A create a key-pair, then distribute the public key to B and C in advance, before any communications start.

A symmetric setup isn't much more complex either. You need two secrets, one between A and B, one between A and C. Calculate two MACs for each file, with either key. B can verify one, C the other. Even if E gets the secret key from C modifies a file, they can only calculate one of the MACs for modified messages.

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