Cryptanalysis and security enhancement of a ‘more efficient & secure dynamic ID-based remote user authentication scheme’

Remote user authentication is a method, in which remote server verifies the legitimacy of a user over an insecure communication channel. Currently, smart card-based remote user authentication schemes have been widely adopted due to their low computational cost and convenient portability for the authentication purpose. Recently, Wang et al. proposed a dynamic ID-based remote user authentication scheme using smart cards. They claimed that their scheme preserves anonymity of user, has the features of strong password chosen by the server, and protected from several attacks. However, in this paper, we point out that Wang et al.’s scheme has practical pitfalls and is not feasible for real-life implementation. We identify that their scheme: does not provide anonymity of a user during authentication, user has no choice in choosing his password, vulnerable to insider attack, no provision for revocation of lost or stolen smart card, and does provide session key agreement. To remedy these security flaws, we propose an enhanced authentication scheme, which covers all the identified weaknesses of Wang et al.’s scheme and is more secure and efficient for practical application environment.     

An anonymous mobile user authentication protocol using self-certified public keys based on multi-server architectures

As a smart phone becomes a daily necessity, mobile services are springing up. A mobile user should be authenticated and authorized before accessing these mobile services. Generally, mobile user authentication is a method which is used to validate the legitimacy of a mobile login user. As the rapid booming of computer networks, multi-server architecture has been pervasive in many network environments. Much recent research has been focused on proposing password-based remote user authentication protocols using smart cards for multi-server environments. To protect the privacy of users, many dynamic identity based remote user authentication protocols were proposed. In 2009, Hsiang and Shih claimed their protocol is efficient, secure, and suitable for the practical application environment. However, Sood et al. pointed out Hsiang et al.’s protocol is susceptible to replay attack, impersonation attack and stolen smart card attack. Moreover, the password change phase of Hsiang et al.’s protocol is incorrect. Thus, Sood et al. proposed an improved protocol claimed to be practical and computationally efficient. Nevertheless, Li et al. found that Sood et al.’s protocol is still vulnerable to leak-of-verifier attack, stolen smart card attack and impersonation attack and consequently proposed an improvement to remove the aforementioned weaknesses. In 2012, Liao et al. proposed a novel pairing-based remote user authentication protocol for multi-server environment, the scheme based on elliptic curve cryptosystem is more secure and efficient. However, through careful analyses, we find that Liao et al.’s protocol is still susceptible to the trace attack. Besides, Liao et al.’s protocol is inefficient since each service server has to update its ID table periodically. In this paper, we propose an improved protocol to solve these weaknesses. By enhancing the security, the improved protocol is well suited for the practical environment.     

An enhanced smart card based remote user password authentication scheme

Smart card based password authentication is one of the simplest and efficient authentication mechanisms to ensure secure communication in insecure network environments. Recently, Chen et al. have pointed out the weaknesses of some password authentication schemes and proposed a robust smart card based remote user password authentication scheme to improve the security. As per their claims, their scheme is efficient and can ensure forward secrecy of the session key. However, we find that Chen et al.'s scheme cannot really ensure forward secrecy, and it cannot detect the wrong password in login phase. Besides, the password change phase of Chen et al.'s scheme is unfriendly and inefficient since the user has to communicate with the server to update his/her password. In this paper, we propose a modified smart card based remote user password authentication scheme to overcome the aforementioned weaknesses. The analysis shows that our proposed scheme is user friendly and more secure than other related schemes.     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of a robust smart card secured authentication scheme on SIP using elliptic curve cryptography

The session initiation protocol (SIP) has been receiving a lot of attention to provide security in the Voice over IP (VoIP) in Internet and mobility management. Recently, Yeh et al. proposed a smart card-based authentication scheme for SIP using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). They claimed that their scheme is secure against known security attacks. However, in this paper, we indicate that Yeh et al.’s scheme is vulnerable to off-line password guessing attack, user impersonation attack and server impersonation attack, in the case that the smart card is stolen and the information stored in the smart card is disclosed. As a remedy, we also propose an improved smart card-based authentication scheme which not only conquers the security weaknesses of the related schemes but also provides a reduction in computational cost. The proposed scheme also provides the user anonymity and untraceability, and allows a user to change his/her password without informing the remote server. To show the security of our protocol, we prove its security the random oracle model.     

对两个基于智能卡的口令认证协议的安全性分析

身份认证是确保信息系统安全的重要手段,基于智能卡的口令认证协议由于实用性较强而成为近期研究热点。采用基于场景的攻击技术,对最近新提出的两个基于智能卡的口令认证协议进行了安全性分析。指出“对Liao等身份鉴别方案的分析与改进”(潘春兰,周安民,肖丰霞,等.对Liao等人身份鉴别方案的分析与改进.计算机工程与应用,2010,46(4):110-112)中提出的认证协议无法实现所声称的抗离线口令猜测攻击;指出“基于双线性对的智能卡口令认证改进方案”(邓粟,王晓峰.基于双线性对的智能卡口令认证改进方案.计算机工程,2010,36(18):150-152)中提出的认证协议无法抗拒绝服务(DoS)攻击和内部人员攻击,且口令更新阶段存在设计缺陷。分析结果表明,这两个口令认证协议都存在严重安全缺陷,不适合安全需求较高的应用环境。     

Improvement of Chien et al.'s remote user authentication scheme using smart cards

In 2000, Sun proposed an efficient remote user authentication scheme using smart cards. Later, Chien et al. pointed out that Sun's scheme does not provide the mutual authentication between the user and the server and allow users to freely choose password themselves. Chien et al. further proposed a new efficient and practical solution to solve the problems. However, Hsu showed that Chien et al.'s scheme is vulnerable to the parallel session attack. This paper proposes an improved scheme to overcome the weakness while maintaining the advantages of Chien et al.'s scheme.     

一种增强的智能卡口令认证方案

Hwang等人提出了基于ElGamal算法的智能卡口令认证方案,其安全性依赖于计算有限域上离散对数的难度。Chan等人分析了该方案的安全缺陷,并进行了改进。最近,Awasthi等人指出了改进方案中的安全缺陷,并提出了一种新方案,但新方案仍然存在缺陷。针对新方案的缺陷,基于“一次一密”和“动态口令”,提出了一种增强的智能卡口令认证方案。该方案允许用户自由选择口令,能够抵御重放攻击、内部攻击,能双向认证,具备强安全修复性。     

Weaknesses and improvement of Wang et al.'s remote user password authentication scheme for resource-limited environments

Recently, Wang et al. showed that two new verifier-free remote user password authentication schemes, Ku-Chen's scheme and Yoon et al.'s scheme, are vulnerable to an off-line password guessing attack, a forgery attack, and a denial-of-service attack, and then proposed an improved scheme for the real application in resource-limited environments. Unfortunately, we find that Wang et al.'s scheme is still vulnerable to an impersonation attack and an off-line password guessing attack. In addition, Wang et al.'s scheme is not easily reparable and is unable to provide perfect forward secrecy. Finally, we propose an improved scheme with better security strength.     

An efficient two-factor user authentication scheme with unlinkability for wireless sensor networks

User authentication with unlinkability is one of the corner stone services for many security and privacy services which are required to secure communications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Recently, Xue et al. proposed a temporal-credential-based mutual authentication and key agreement scheme for WSNs, and claimed that their scheme achieves identity and password protection, and the resiliency of stolen smart card attacks. However, we observe that Xue et al.’s scheme is subject to identity guessing attack, tracking attack, privileged insider attack and weak stolen smart card attack. In order to fix the drawbacks, we propose an enhanced authentication scheme with unlinkability. Additionally, the proposed scheme further cuts the computational cost. Therefore, the proposed scheme not only remedies its security flaws but also improves its performance. It is more suitable for practical applications of WSNs than Xue et al.’s scheme.     

A user friendly mutual authentication and key agreement scheme for wireless sensor networks using chaotic maps

Spread of wireless network technology has opened new doors to utilize sensor technology in various areas via Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Many authentication protocols for among the service seeker users, sensing component sensor nodes (SNs) and the service provider base-station or gateway node (GWN) are available to realize services from WSNs efficiently and without any fear of deceit. Recently, Li et al. and He et al. independently proposed mutual authentication and key agreement schemes for WSNs. We find that both the schemes achieve mutual authentication, establish session key and resist many known attacks but still have security weaknesses. We show the applicability of stolen verifier, user impersonation, password guessing and smart card loss attacks on Li et al.’s scheme. Although their scheme employs the feature of dynamic identity, an attacker can reveal and guess the identity of a registered user. We demonstrate the susceptibility of He et al.’s scheme to password guessing attack. In both the schemes, the security of the session key established between user and SNs is imperfect due to lack of forward secrecy and session-specific temporary information leakage attack. In addition both the schemes impose extra computational load on resource scanty sensor-nodes and are not user friendly due to absence of user anonymity and lack of password change facility. To handle these drawbacks, we design a mutual authentication and key agreement scheme for WSN using chaotic maps. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose an authentication scheme for WSN based on chaotic maps. We show the superiority of the proposed scheme over its predecessor schemes by means of detailed security analysis and comparative evaluation. We also formally analyze our scheme using BAN logic.     

An efficient and security dynamic identity based authentication protocol for multi-server architecture using smart cards

Generally, if a user wants to use numerous different network services, he/she must register himself/herself to every service providing server. It is extremely hard for users to remember these different identities and passwords. In order to resolve this problem, various multi-server authentication protocols have been proposed. Recently, Sood et al. analyzed Hsiang and Shih's multi-server authentication protocol and proposed an improved dynamic identity based authentication protocol for multi-server architecture. They claimed that their protocol provides user's anonymity, mutual authentication, the session key agreement and can resist several kinds of attacks. However, through careful analysis, we find that Sood et al.'s protocol is still vulnerable to leak-of-verifier attack, stolen smart card attack and impersonation attack. Besides, since there is no way for the control server CS to know the real identity of the user, the authentication and session key agreement phase of Sood et al.'s protocol is incorrect. We propose an efficient and security dynamic identity based authentication protocol for multi-server architecture that removes the aforementioned weaknesses. The proposed protocol is extremely suitable for use in distributed multi-server architecture since it provides user's anonymity, mutual authentication, efficient, and security.     

改进的基于智能卡的远程异步认证协议

远程认证协议允许远程服务器和用户通过不安全信道实现相互认证。唐宏斌等指出Chen等方案的基于智能卡的远程认证协议存在着一些安全问题,如丢失智能卡攻击,重放攻击等,并且提出一种基于智能卡的远程认证协议,为了抵抗重放攻击而引入时间戳机制。提出一种改进的基于智能卡的远程异步认证方案,在能抵抗提到的所有攻击条件下,不需要考虑时钟同步问题而能抵抗重放攻击,使操作更简单且未增加计算性能代价。     

增强的基于智能卡的远程用户认证协议

基于智能卡的远程用户认证协议比基于口令的安全协议能提供更好的安全性。2011年Chen等提出一种对Hsiang-Shih方案改进的基于智能卡的远程认证协议,并称解决了相关方案中存在的各种攻击问题。指出Chen等方案仍然存在着内部攻击、丢失智能卡攻击、重放攻击和身份冒充攻击,并针对基于口令和智能卡的远程认证协议类存在的离线口令猜测攻击提出一种基于智能卡和椭圆曲线离散对数问题的认证协议。该协议能抵抗提到的所有攻击,在登陆和认证阶段只需要一个点乘运算。     

Dynamic ID-based remote user password authentication schemes using smart cards: A review

Remote user authentication is a mechanism, in which the remote server verifies the legitimacy of a user over an insecure communication channel. Until now, there have been ample of remote user authentication schemes published in the literature and each published scheme has its own merits and demerits. A common feature among most of the published schemes is that the user's identity (ID) is static in all the transaction sessions, which may leak some information about that user and can create risk of identity theft during the message transmission. To overcome this risk, many researchers have proposed dynamic ID based remote user authentication schemes. In this paper, we have defined all the security requirements and all the goals an ideal password authentication scheme should satisfy and achieve. We have presented the results of our survey through six of the currently available dynamic ID based remote user authentication schemes. All the schemes are vulnerable to guessing attack except Khan et al.'s scheme, and do not meet the goals such as session key agreement, secret key forward secrecy. In the future, we hope an ideal dynamic ID based password authentication scheme, which meets all the security requirements and achieves all the goals can be developed.     

Efficient multi-server authentication scheme based on one-way hash function without verification table

Following advances in network technologies, an increasing number of systems have been provided to help network users via the Internet. In order to authenticate the remote users, password-based security mechanisms have been widely used. They are easily implemented, but these mechanisms must store a verification table in the server. If an attacker steals the verification table from the server, the attacker may masquerade as a legal user. To solve the verification table stolen problem, numerous single server authentication schemes without verification tables have been proposed. These single authentication schemes suffer from a shortcoming. If a remote user wishes to use numerous network services, they must register their identity and password in these servers. In response to this problem, numerous related studies recently have been proposed. These authentication schemes enable remote users to obtain service from multiple servers without separately registering with each server. This study proposes an alternative multi-server authentication scheme using smart cards. The proposed scheme is based on the nonce, uses one-way hash function, and does not need to store any verification table in the server and registration center. The proposed scheme can withstand seven well known network security attacks.     

An enhanced lightweight anonymous biometric based authentication scheme for TMIS

In recent past, Mir and Nikooghadam presented an enhanced biometrics based authentication scheme using lightweight symmetric key primitives for telemedicine networks. This scheme was introduced in an anticipation to the former biometrics based authentication system proposed by Yan et al. Mir and Nikooghadam declared that their scheme is invincible against potential attacks while providing user anonymity. Our study and in-depth analysis unveil that Mir and Nikooghadam’s authentication scheme is susceptible to smart card stolen attack, moreover anonymity violation is still possible despite the claim of Mir and Nikooghadam. We have utilized the random oracle model in order to perform security analysis. The analysis endorses that the proposed scheme is robust enough to provide protection against all potential attacks specially smart card stolen attack and user anonymity violation attack. Analysis is further substantiated through an automated software application ProVerif. The analysis also shows that proposed scheme is computationally efficient than Mir and Nikooghadam’s scheme.     

Efficient and secure two-factor dynamic ID-based password authentication scheme with provable security

Password-based remote user authentication schemes using smart cards are designed to ensure that only a user who possesses both the smart card and the corresponding password can gain access to the remote servers. Despite many research efforts, it remains a challenging task to design a secure password-based authentication scheme with user anonymity. The author uses Kumari et al.’s scheme as the case study. Their scheme uses non-public key primitives. The author first presents the cryptanalysis of Kumari et al.’s scheme in which he shows that their scheme is vulnerable to user impersonation attack, and does not provide forward secrecy and user anonymity. Using the case study, he has identified that public-key techniques are indispensable to construct a two-factor authentication scheme with security attributes, such as user anonymity, unlinkability and forward secrecy under the nontamper resistance assumption of the smart card. The author proposes a password-based authentication scheme using elliptic curve cryptography. Through the informal and formal security analysis, he shows that proposed scheme is secure against various known attacks, including the attacks found in Kumari’s scheme. Furthermore, he verifies the correctness of mutual authentication using the BAN logic.     

An improved remote user authentication scheme with key agreement

In distributed systems, user authentication schemes based on password and smart card are widely used to ensure only authorized access to the protected services. Recently, Chang et al. presented an untraceable dynamic-identity-based user authentication scheme with verifiable-password-update. In this research, we illustrate that Chang et al.’s scheme violates the purpose of dynamic-identity contrary to authors’ claim. We show that once the smart card of an arbitrary user is lost, passwords of all registered users are at risk. Using information from an arbitrary smart card, an adversary can impersonate any user of the system. In addition, its password change phase has loopholes and is misguiding. The scheme has no provision for session key agreement and the smart card lacks any verification mechanism. Then we come-up with an improved remote user authentication scheme with the session key agreement, and show its robustness over related schemes.     

基于相互认证和3DES加密的智能卡远程支付系统认证方案

针对现有基于智能卡支付系统的安全方案存在密码暴露、信息泄露和身份认证等问题,提出一种新的基于相互认证和3DES加密的智能卡远程支付系统认证方案。分析基于二次剩余的支付认证方案的不足,在注册、登录、身份认证和密码更改阶段对其进行改进,避免密码暴露攻击,提高密码更改阶段的安全性,同时结合3DES加密算法对支付信息进行加密处理。性能分析表明,该方案能有效抵御多种攻击,且用户能够自由地修改密码,同时可对用户信息进行匿名保护。与现有智能卡支付认证方案相比,该方案提高了支付系统的安全性能且具有较小的计算复杂度。     

A privacy preserving three-factor authentication protocol for e-Health clouds

E-Health clouds are gaining increasing popularity by facilitating the storage and sharing of big data in healthcare. However, such an adoption also brings about a series of challenges, especially, how to ensure the security and privacy of highly sensitive health data. Among them, one of the major issues is authentication, which ensures that sensitive medical data in the cloud are not available to illegal users. Three-factor authentication combining password, smart card and biometrics perfectly matches this requirement by providing high security strength. Recently, Wu et al. proposed a three-factor authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptosystem which attempts to fulfill three-factor security and resist various existing attacks, providing many advantages over existing schemes. However, we first show that their scheme is susceptible to user impersonation attack in the registration phase. In addition, their scheme is also vulnerable to offline password guessing attack in the login and password change phase, under the condition that the mobile device is lost or stolen. Furthermore, it fails to provide user revocation when the mobile device is lost or stolen. To remedy these flaws, we put forward a robust three-factor authentication protocol, which not only guards various known attacks, but also provides more desired security properties. We demonstrate that our scheme provides mutual authentication using the Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic.