Recursive protocol for group-oriented authentication with key distribution

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software 2008-07, Vol.81 (7), p.1227-1239
• Main Authors: Wu, Tzong-Chen, Huang, Thsia-Tzu, Hsu, Chien-Lung, Tsai, Kuo-Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Authentication protocols; BAN logic; Cryptography; Group-oriented authentication; Key exchange; Logic programming; One-way hash function; Protocol; Recursive protocol; Studies; Systems design
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2007.08.037

The authors propose a recursive protocol for group-oriented authentication with key exchange, in which a group of n entities can authenticate with each other and share a group session key. The proposed protocol has the following characteristics: First, it requires O( n) rounds of messages, O(log n) completion time, O(log n) waiting time, and O( n log n) communication overhead in average for the completion of the recursion. Second, it not only meets the five principles suggested by Diffie et al. [Diffie, W., van Oorschot, P.C., Wiener, M.J., 1992. Authentication and authenticated key exchange. Designs, Codes, and Cryptography 2 (2), 107–125] on the design of a secure key exchange protocol, but also achieves the properties of nondisclosure, independency, and integrity addressed by Janson and Tsudik [Janson, P., Tsudik, G., 1995. Secure and minimal protocols for authenticated key distribution. Computer Communications 18 (9), 645–653] for the authentication of the group session key. Third, we describe the beliefs of trustworthy entities involved in our authentication protocol and the evolution of these beliefs as a consequence of communication by using BAN logic. Finally, it is practical and efficient, because only one-way hash function and exclusive-or (XOR) operations are used in implementation.