A simple three‐party password‐based key exchange protocol

In three‐party password‐based key exchange (3PAKE) protocol, a client is allowed to share a human‐memorable password with a trusted server such that two clients can agree on a secret session key for secure connectivity. Recently, many 3PAKE protocols have been developed. However, not all of them can simultaneously achieve security and efficiency. Without any server's public key, this article will propose a simple three‐party password‐based authenticated key exchange scheme. Compared with the existing schemes, the proposed scheme is not only more efficient, but also is secure. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis and enhancements of efficient three‐party password‐based key exchange scheme

In this paper, we first showed that Lou and Huang's three‐party password‐based key exchange protocol is still vulnerable to offline dictionary attacks. Thereafter, we proposed an enhanced protocol that can defeat the attack described and yet is efficient. Finally, we provided the rigorous proof of the security for it. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient three‐party password‐based key exchange scheme

In three‐party password‐based key exchange protocol, a client is allowed to share a human‐memorable password with a trusted server such that two clients can negotiate a session key to communicate with each other secretly. Recently, many three‐party password‐based key exchange protocols have been developed. However, these proposed schemes cannot simultaneously achieve security and efficiency. Based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), this paper will propose a new simple three‐party password‐based authenticated key exchange scheme. The proposed method not only reduces computation cost for remote users and a trusted server but also is more efficient than previously proposed schemes. It is better suited for resource constrained devices, such as smart cards or mobile units. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis of an efficient three‐party password‐based key exchange scheme

Three‐party password‐authenticated key exchange (3PAKE) protocols allow entities to negotiate a secret session key with the aid of a trusted server with whom they share a human‐memorable password. Recently, Lou and Huang proposed a simple 3PAKE protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography, which is claimed to be secure and to provide superior efficiency when compared with similar‐purpose solutions. In this paper, however, we show that the solution is vulnerable to key‐compromise impersonation and offline password guessing attacks from system insiders or outsiders, which indicates that the empirical approach used to evaluate the scheme's security is flawed. These results highlight the need of employing provable security approaches when designing and analyzing PAKE schemes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis of a simple three‐party password‐based key exchange protocol

In order to secure communications between two clients with a trusted server's help in public network environments, a three‐party authenticated key exchange (3PAKE) protocol is used to provide the transaction confidentiality and the efficiency. In 2009, Huang proposed a simple three‐party password‐based authenticated key exchange (HS‐3PAKE) protocol without any server's public key. By analysis, Huang claimed that the proposed HS‐3PAKE protocol is not only secure against various attacks, but also more efficient than previously proposed 3PAKE protocols. However, this paper demonstrates that HS‐3PAKE protocol is vulnerable to undetectable online password guessing attacks and off‐line password guessing attacks by any other user. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of a three‐party password‐based authenticated key exchange protocol with user anonymity using extended chaotic maps

Three‐party password‐authenticated key exchange (3PAKE) protocols allow two clients to agree on a secret session key through a server via a public channel. 3PAKE protocols have been designed using different arithmetic aspects including chaotic maps. Recently, Lee et al. proposed a 3PAKE protocol using Chebyshev chaotic maps and claimed that their protocol has low computation and communication cost and can also resist against numerous attacks. However, this paper shows that in spite of the computation and communication efficiency of the Lee et al. protocol, it is not secure against the modification attack. To conquer this security weakness, we propose a simple countermeasure, which maintains the computation and communication efficiency of the Lee et al. protocol. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Universally composable three‐party password‐authenticated key exchange with contributiveness

Three‐party password‐authenticated key exchange (3PAKE) allows two clients, each sharing a password with a trusted server, to establish a session key with the help of the server. It is a quite practical mechanism for establishing secure channels in a large communication network. However, most current 3PAKE protocols are analyzed in security models that do not adequately address protocol composition problem. In this paper, an ideal functionality for 3PAKE within the universal composability framework is defined, which not only provides security guarantees under arbitrary composition with other protocols but also achieves contributiveness and explicit authentication. Moreover, we propose a generic construction of contributory 3PAKE protocol and prove that it securely realizes the ideal functionality in the static corruption model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of ‘a robust smart‐card‐based remote user password authentication scheme’

With the use of smart card in user authentication mechanisms, the concept of two‐factor authentication came into existence. This was a forward move towards more secure and reliable user authentication systems. It elevated the security level by requiring a user to possess something in addition to know something. In 2010, Sood et al. and Song independently examined a smart‐card‐based authentication scheme proposed by Xu et al. They showed that in the scheme of Xu et al., an internal user of the system can turn hostile to impersonate other users of the system. Both of them also proposed schemes to improve the scheme of Xu et al. Recently, Chen et al. identified some security problems in the improved schemes proposed by Sood et al. and Song. To fix these problems, Chen et al. presented another scheme, which they claimed to provide mutual authentication and withstand lost smart card attack. Undoubtedly, in their scheme, a user can also verify the legitimacy of server, but we find that the scheme fails to resist impersonation attacks and privileged insider attack. We also show that the scheme does not provide important features such as user anonymity, confidentiality to air messages, and revocation of lost/stolen smart card. Besides, the scheme defies the very purpose of two‐factor security. Furthermore, an attacker can guess a user's password from his or her lost/stolen smart card. To meet these challenges, we propose a user authentication method with user anonymity. We show through analysis and comparison that the proposed scheme exhibits enhanced efficiency in contrast to related schemes, including the scheme of Chen et al. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Verifiable three-party secure key exchange protocol based on eigenvalue

In order to solve the problem that the traditional key exchange protocol,which was not flexible enough and flawed in security,cannot provide the function of three-party key negotiation,firstly,a simple and flexible three-party key exchange scheme that can resist man-in-the-middle attacks was proposed with the help of secret matrix eigenvalues.However,the validity of key exchange cannot be verified by the scheme,and counterfeiting by middlemen can’t be prevented.Then based on it,the secret matrix was reconstructed,where the matrix order was a large even number,and all the eigenvalues appeared in pairs,similar to the diagonal matrix.Based on the special secret matrix,the verification part which can be used to verify the legitimacy of the communication party was introduced to the scheme,and the verifiable three-party key exchange protocol based on the eigenvalue was given.The protocol not only solved the problem of three-party key exchange,but also verified identity legitimacy.It is proved that it’s feasible to design a three-party key exchange protocol by the eigenvalue.The final protocol is both secure and efficient.     

A lightweight password‐based authentication protocol using smart card

With its simplicity and feasibility, password‐based remote user authentication becomes a popular way to control remote access to network. These years, numerous password‐based authentication schemes have been proposed. Recently, Maitra et al proposed a smart card–based scheme which claims to be resistant to various attacks. Unfortunately, we found some important flaws in this scheme. Therefore, in this paper, we will demonstrate that the scheme of Maitra et al is not secure enough as claimed: neither resisting against off‐line password guessing attack and insider attack nor preserve forward secrecy. To overcome those flaws, we put forward an improved new scheme which not only is resistant to all known attacks but also provides many attractive attributes, such as user revocation and re‐register. Also, we compared the scheme with other related schemes, the result proved the superiority of our scheme. Particularly, we show a new way (beyond the conventional Deffie‐Hellman approach) to achieve forward secrecy. Furthermore, we put some efforts into exploring the design principle of authentication schemes.     

A secure and efficient password‐authenticated group key exchange protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Password‐authenticated group key exchange protocols enable communication parties to establish a common secret key (a session key) by only using short secret passwords. Such protocols have been receiving significant attention. This paper shows some security weaknesses in some recently proposed password‐authenticated group key exchange protocols. Furthermore, a secure and efficient password‐authenticated group key exchange protocol in mobile ad hoc networks is proposed. It only requires constant round to generate a group session key under the dynamic scenario. In other words, the overhead of key generation is independent of the size of a total group. Further, the security properties of our protocol are formally validated by a model checking tool called AVISPA. Security and performance analyses show that, compared with other related group key exchange schemes, the proposed protocol is also efficient for real‐world applications in enhancing the security over wireless communications. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis of an identity‐based authenticated key exchange protocol

Authenticated key exchange protocols represent an important cryptographic mechanism that enables several parties to communicate securely over an open network. Elashry, Mu, and Susilo proposed an identity‐based authenticated key exchange (IBAKE) protocol where different parties establish secure communication by means of their public identities.The authors also introduced a new security notion for IBAKE protocols called resiliency, that is, if the secret shared key is compromised, the entities can generate another shared secret key without establishing a new session between them. They then claimed that their IBAKE protocol satisfies this security notion. We analyze the security of their protocol and prove that it has a major security flaw, which renders it insecure against an impersonation attack. We also disprove the resiliency property of their scheme by proposing an attack where an adversary can compute any shared secret key if just one secret bit is leaked.     

An improved password‐based authentication scheme for session initiation protocol using smart cards without verification table

Authentication schemes have been widely deployed access control and mobility management in various communication networks. Especially, the schemes that are based on multifactor authentication such as on password and smart card come to be more practical. One of the standard authentication schemes that have been widely used for secure communication over the Internet is session initiation protocol (SIP). The original authentication scheme proposed for SIP was vulnerable to some crucial security weaknesses. To overcome the security problems, various improved authentication schemes have been developed, especially based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). Very recently, Zhang et al . proposed an improved authentication scheme for SIP based on ECC using smart cards to overcome the security flaws of the related protocols. Zhang et al . claimed that their protocol is secure against all known security attacks. However, this paper indicates that Zhang et al . protocol is still insecure against impersonation attack. We show that an active attacker can easily masquerade as a legal server to fool users. As a remedy, we also improve Zhang et al . protocol by imposing a little extra computation cost. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient chaos‐based 2‐party key agreement protocol with provable security

Key agreement protocol is an important cryptographic primitive, which allows 2 parties to establish a secure session in an open network environment. A various of key agreement protocols were proposed. Nowadays, there still exists some other security flaws waiting to be solved. Owing to reduce the computational and communication costs and improve the security, chaotic map has been studied in‐depth and treated as a good solution. Recently, Liu et al proposed a chaos‐based 2‐party key agreement protocol and demonstrated that it can defend denial‐of‐service attack and replay attack. We found, however, it cannot resist off‐line password‐guessing attack, and it also has some other security flaws. In this paper, we propose an improved chaos‐based 2‐party key agreement protocol. The results prove that the protocol can solve the threats of off‐line password‐guessing attack and other security flaws in the security proof section. What is more, performance analysis shows that the computational cost of the improved protocol is lower than Liu et al protocol.     

MaTRU‐KE revisited: CCA2‐secure key establishment protocol based on MaTRU

Quantum attack–resistant cryptosystems are required for secure communication since there is a big demand to have quantum computers. Lattice‐based cryptography is one of the quantum‐secure families due to its key/ciphertext sizes and performance. NTRU‐based cryptosystems, a member of lattice‐based cryptosystems, have received much more attention. MaTRU, a noncommutative version of NTRU with some matrix properties, is used to obtain a key exchange protocol in 2018. In this paper, we focus on MaTRU‐based key exchange protocols having CCA2 properties. We propose CCA2‐secure versions of MaTRU‐KE and then provide a security analysis of CCA2‐secure key establishment protocols. We also provide a comparison with the previous ones.     

A novel and efficient lattice‐based authenticated key exchange protocol in C‐K model

Key exchange protocols play an important role in securing the network communication over an insecure channel. In literature, a large number of key exchange schemes exist. The security of most of them is based on the Diffie‐Hellman (DH) problems over a group. But these types of DH problems are solvable in the presence of quantum computers. Thus, we require a non‐DH type key exchange scheme that resists to the quantum computers and new modern technologies. In this paper, 2 novel lattice‐based authenticated key exchange (LB‐AKE) protocols, (1) using a signature‐based authenticator and (2) using a signcryption‐based authenticator, are devised in Canetti‐Krawczyk proof model. The security of proposed protocols depends on the hardness of small integer solutions on the lattice. An extensive proof of security to our claim is given. The proposed AKEs characterize faster computation speed and resistance to the modern complex computers.     

A robust ElGamal‐based password‐authentication protocol using smart card for client‐server communication

Smart card‐based client‐server authentication protocol is well popular for secure data exchange over insecure and hostile networks. Recently, Lee et al. put forward an authentication protocol by utilizing ElGamal cryptosystem and proved that it can withstand known security threats. This article evinces that the protocol of Lee et al. is unwilling to protect various important security vulnerabilities such as forgery attack and off‐line password‐guessing attack. To vanquish these loopholes, this article presents a robust authentication protocol for client‐server communication over any insecure networks. The security explanation of our protocol has done through the formal and informal mechanism and its outcome makes sure that the designed protocol is strong enough to resist the known vulnerabilities. In addition, we have simulated our protocol using ProVerif online software and its results certify that our protocol is safe against private information of the client and server. This paper also has made performance estimation of the presented protocol and others, and the outcome favors the presented protocol.     

Improvement of robust smart‐card‐based password authentication scheme

Smart‐card‐based password authentication scheme is one of the commonly used mechanisms to prevent unauthorized service and resource access and to remove the potential security threats over the insecure networks and has been investigated extensively in the last decade. Recently, Chen et al. proposed a smart‐card‐based password authentication scheme and claimed that the scheme can withstand offline password guessing attacks even if the information stored in the smart card is extracted by the adversary. However, we observe that the scheme of Chen et al. is insecure against offline password guessing attacks in this case. To remedy this security problem, we propose an improved authentication protocol, which inherits the merits of the scheme of Chen et al. and is free from the security flaw of their scheme. Compared with the previous schemes, our improved scheme provides more security guarantees while keeping efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An anonymous and untraceable password‐based authentication scheme for session initiation protocol using smart cards

Recently, Zhang et al. proposed a password‐based authenticated key agreement for session initiation protocol (Int J Commun Syst 2013, doi:10.1002/dac.2499). They claimed that their protocol is secure against known security attacks. However, in this paper, we indicate that the protocol by Zhang et al. is vulnerable to impersonation attack whereby an active adversary without knowing the user's password is able to introduce himself/herself as the user. In addition, we show that the protocol by Zhang et al. suffers from password changing attack. To overcome the weaknesses, we propose an improved authentication scheme for session initiation protocol. The rigorous analysis shows that our scheme achieves more security than the scheme by Zhang et al. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.