Universally composable hierarchical hybrid authenticated key exchange
Password-based authenticated key exchange protocols are more convenient and practical, since users employ human-memorable passwords that are simpler to remember than cryptographic secret keys, or public/private keys. Abdalla, Fouque, and Pointcheval proposed the password-based authenticated key exchange protocol in a 3-party model (GPAKE) in which clients trying to establish a secret do not share a password between themselves but only with a trusted server. On the other hand, Canetti presented a general framework, which is called universally composable (UC) framework, for representing cryptographic protocols and analyzing their security. In this framework, the security of protocols is maintained under a general protocol composition operation called universal composition. Canetti also proved a UC composition theorem, which states that the definition of UC-security achieves the goal of concurrent general composition. A server must manage all the passwords of clients when the 3-party password-based authenticated key exchange protocols are realized in large-scale networks. In order to resolve this problem, we propose a hierarchical hybrid authenticated key exchange protocol (H2AKE). In H2AKE, forwarding servers are located between each client and a distribution server, and the distribution server sends the client an authentication key via the forwarding servers. In H2AKE, public/private keys are used between servers, while passwords are also used between clients and forwarding servers. Thus, in H2AKE, the load on the distribution server can be distributed to the forwarding servers concerning password management. In this paper, we define hierarchical hybrid authenticated key exchange functionality. H2AKE is the universal form of the hierarchical (hybrid) authenticated key exchange protocol, which includes a 3-party model, and it has the characteristic that the construction of the protocol can flexibly change according to the situation. We also prove that H2AKE is secure in the UC framework with the security-preserving composition property.
universal composability authenticated key exchange password diffie-hellman hierarchical hybrid construction mac (message authentication code)