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Types

Password-authenticated key agreement generally encompasses methods such as:

• Balanced password-authenticated key exchange
• Augmented password-authenticated key exchange
• Password-authenticated key retrieval
• Multi-server methods
• Multi-party methods

In the most stringent password-only security models, there is no requirement for the user of the method to remember any secret or public data other than the password.

Password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) is a method in which two or more parties, based only on their knowledge of a shared password,¹ establish a cryptographic key using an exchange of messages, such that an unauthorized party (one who controls the communication channel but does not possess the password) cannot participate in the method and is constrained as much as possible from brute-force guessing the password. (The optimal case yields exactly one guess per run exchange.) Two forms of PAKE are balanced and augmented methods.²

Balanced PAKE

Balanced PAKE assumes the two parties in either a client-client or client-server situation use the same secret password to negotiate and authenticate a shared key.³ Examples of these are:

• Encrypted Key Exchange (EKE)
• PAK and PPK⁴
• SPEKE (Simple password exponential key exchange)
• Dragonfly – IEEE Std 802.11-2012, RFC 5931, RFC 6617
• CPace⁵
• SPAKE1⁶ and SPAKE2⁷
• SESPAKE⁸
• J-PAKE (Password Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling) – ISO/IEC 11770-4 (2017), RFC 8236
• ITU-T Recommendation X.1035
• "Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication"⁹

Augmented PAKE

Augmented PAKE is a variation applicable to client/server scenarios, in which the server does not store password-equivalent data. This means that an attacker that stole the server data still cannot masquerade as the client unless they first perform a brute force search for the password. Some augmented PAKE systems use an oblivious pseudorandom function to mix the user's secret password with the server's secret salt value, so that the user never learns the server's secret salt value and the server never learns the user's password (or password-equivalent value) or the final key.¹⁰

Examples include:

• AMP
• Augmented-EKE
• B-SPEKE
• PAK-X¹¹
• SRP¹²
• AugPAKE¹³
• OPAQUE¹⁴¹⁵
• AuCPace¹⁶
• SPAKE2+¹⁷
• "Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication"¹⁸

Key retrieval

Password-authenticated key retrieval is a process in which a client obtains a static key in a password-based negotiation with a server that knows data associated with the password, such as the Ford and Kaliski methods. In the most stringent setting, one party uses only a password in conjunction with N (two or more) servers to retrieve a static key. This is completed in a way that protects the password (and key) even if N − 1 of the servers are completely compromised.

Brief history

The first successful password-authenticated key agreement methods were Encrypted Key Exchange methods described by Steven M. Bellovin and Michael Merritt in 1992. Although several of the first methods were flawed, the surviving and enhanced forms of EKE effectively amplify a shared password into a shared key, which can then be used for encryption and/or message authentication. The first provably-secure PAKE protocols were given in work by M. Bellare, D. Pointcheval, and P. Rogaway (Eurocrypt 2000) and V. Boyko, P. MacKenzie, and S. Patel (Eurocrypt 2000). These protocols were proven secure in the so-called random oracle model (or even stronger variants), and the first protocols proven secure under standard assumptions were those of O. Goldreich and Y. Lindell (Crypto 2001) which serves as a plausibility proof but is not efficient, and J. Katz, R. Ostrovsky, and M. Yung (Eurocrypt 2001) which is practical.

The first password-authenticated key retrieval methods were described by Ford and Kaliski in 2000.

A considerable number of alternative, secure PAKE protocols were given in work by M. Bellare, D. Pointcheval, and P. Rogaway, variations, and security proofs have been proposed in this growing class of password-authenticated key agreement methods. Current standards for these methods include IETF RFC 2945, RFC 5054, RFC 5931, RFC 5998, RFC 6124, RFC 6617, RFC 6628 and RFC 6631, IEEE Std 1363.2-2008, ITU-T X.1035 and ISO-IEC 11770-4:2006.

PAKE selection process for use in internet protocols

On request of the internet engineering task force IETF, a PAKE selection process has been carried out in 2018 and 2019 by the IRTF crypto forum research group (CFRG). The selection process has been carried out in several rounds.¹⁹ In the final round in 2019 four finalists AuCPace, OPAQUE (augmented cases) and CPace, SPAKE2 (balanced PAKE) prevailed. As a result of the CFRG selection process, two winner protocols were declared as "recommended by the CFRG for usage in IETF protocols": CPace and OPAQUE.²⁰

See also

• Cryptographic protocol
• IEEE P1363
• Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
• Outline of cryptography
• Zero-knowledge password proof

Further reading

• Bellare, M.; D. Pointcheval; P. Rogaway (2000). "Authenticated Key Exchange Secure against Dictionary Attacks". Advances in Cryptology — EUROCRYPT 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1807. Springer-Verlag. pp. 139–155. doi:10.1007/3-540-45539-6_11. ISBN 978-3-540-67517-4.
• Bellovin, S. M.; M. Merritt (May 1992). "Encrypted key exchange: Password-based protocols secure against dictionary attacks". Proceedings 1992 IEEE Computer Society Symposium on Research in Security and Privacy. Oakland. pp. 72–84. doi:10.1109/RISP.1992.213269. ISBN 978-0-8186-2825-2. S2CID 16063466.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Ford, W.; B. Kaliski (14–16 June 2000). "Server-assisted generation of a strong secret from a password". Proceedings IEEE 9th International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WET ICE 2000). Gaithersburg MD: NIST. pp. 176–180. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.17.9502. doi:10.1109/ENABL.2000.883724. ISBN 978-0-7695-0798-9. S2CID 1977743.
• Goldreich, O.; Y. Lindell (2001). "Session-Key Generation Using Human Passwords Only". Advances in Cryptology — CRYPTO 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 2139. Springer-Verlag. pp. 408–432. doi:10.1007/3-540-44647-8_24. ISBN 978-3-540-42456-7.
• IEEE Std 1363.2-2008: IEEE Standard Specifications for Password-Based Public-Key Cryptographic Techniques. IEEE. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7381-5806-8. OCLC 319883358.
• Katz, J.; R. Ostrovsky; M. Yung (2001). "Efficient Password-Authenticated Key Exchange Using Human-Memorable Passwords" (PDF). International Association for Cryptologic Research. Springer-Vergal.
• Wu, T. (September 2000). "The SRP Authentication and Key Exchange System". RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/rfc2945. RFC 2945.
• Taylor, D.; Wu, T.; Mavrogiannopoulos, N.; Perrin, T. (November 2007). "Using the Secure Remote Password (SRP) Protocol for TLS Authentication". RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/rfc5054. RFC 5054.
• Harkins, D.; Zorn, G. (August 2010). "Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Authentication Using Only a Password". RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/rfc5931. RFC 5931.
• Sheffer, Y.; Zorn, G.; Tschofenig, H.; Fluhrer, S. (February 2011). "An EAP Authentication Method Based on the Encrypted Key Exchange (EKE) Protocol". RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/rfc6124. RFC 6124.
• Harkins, D. (June 2012). "Secure Pre-Shared Key (PSK) Authentication for the Internet Key Exchange Protocol (IKE)". RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/rfc6617. RFC 6617.
• ISO/IEC 11770-4:2006 Information technology—Security techniques—Key management—Part 4: Mechanisms based on weak secrets.
• IEEE Std 802.11-2012: IEEE Standard for Information Technology – Part 11 Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specification. IEEE. 2012. ISBN 978-0-7381-8469-2. OCLC 1017978449.
• Jarecki, Stanislaw; Krawczyk, Hugo; Xu, Jiayu (2018). "OPAQUE: An Asymmetric PAKE Protocol Secure Against Pre-computation Attacks". Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2018 (PDF). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 10822. pp. 456–486. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78372-7_15. ISBN 978-3-319-78371-0. S2CID 4046378.
• Smyshlyaev, Stanislav; Oshkin, Igor; Alekseev, Evgeniy; Ahmetzyanova, Liliya (2015). "On the Security of One Password Authenticated Key Exchange Protocol" (PDF). Cryptology ePrint Archive (Report 2015/1237).

External links

• IEEE P1363 Working Group
• IEEE Std 1363.2-2008: IEEE Standard Specifications for Password-Based Public-Key Cryptographic Techniques
• David Jablon's links for password-based cryptography
• Simple Password-Based Encrypted Key Exchange Protocols Abdalla et al 2005
• Manual and interactive exchange of complex passwords

References

1. Hao, Feng; Ryan, Peter Y. A. (2011). "Password Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling". In Christianson, Bruce; Malcolm, James A.; Matyas, Vashek; Roe, Michael (eds.). Security Protocols XVI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 6615. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 159–171. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22137-8_23. ISBN 978-3-642-22137-8. 978-3-642-22137-8 ↩

2. Hao, Feng; Ryan, Peter Y. A. (2011). "Password Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling". In Christianson, Bruce; Malcolm, James A.; Matyas, Vashek; Roe, Michael (eds.). Security Protocols XVI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 6615. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 159–171. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22137-8_23. ISBN 978-3-642-22137-8. 978-3-642-22137-8 ↩

3. Hao, Feng; Ryan, Peter Y. A. (2011). "Password Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling". In Christianson, Bruce; Malcolm, James A.; Matyas, Vashek; Roe, Michael (eds.). Security Protocols XVI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 6615. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 159–171. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22137-8_23. ISBN 978-3-642-22137-8. 978-3-642-22137-8 ↩

4. Boyko, V.; P. MacKenzie; S. Patel (2000). "Provably Secure Password-Authenticated Key Exchange Using Diffie-Hellman". Advances in Cryptology — EUROCRYPT 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1807. Springer-Verlag. pp. 156–171. doi:10.1007/3-540-45539-6_12. ISBN 978-3-540-67517-4. 978-3-540-67517-4 ↩

5. Haase, Björn; Hesse, Julia; Abdalla, Michel (2021). "OPAQUE: An Asymmetric PAKE Protocol Secure Against Pre-computation Attacks" (PDF). Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 10822. pp. 456–486. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78372-7_15. ISBN 978-3-319-78371-0. S2CID 4046378. 978-3-319-78371-0 ↩

6. Abdalla, M.; D. Pointcheval (2005). "Simple Password-Based Encrypted Key Exchange Protocols". Topics in Cryptology – CT-RSA 2005 (PDF). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 3376. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 191–208. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.59.8930. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30574-3_14. ISBN 978-3-540-24399-1. 978-3-540-24399-1 ↩

7. Ladd, Watson (September 2023). Kaduk, Benjamin (ed.). "RFC 9382: SPAKE2, a Password-Authenticated Key Exchange". IETF. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9382 ↩

8. Alekseev, Evgeny; Oshkin, Igor; Popov, Vladimir (March 2017). Smyshlyaev, Stanislav (ed.). "RFC 8133: The Security Evaluated Standardized Password-Authenticated Key Exchange (SESPAKE) Protocol". IETF. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8133 ↩

9. US11025421B2, Fay, Bjorn, "Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication", issued 2021-06-01 https://patents.google.com/patent/US11025421B2/en?oq=11025421 ↩

10. Matthew Green. "Let's talk about PAKE". 2018. https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2018/10/19/lets-talk-about-pake/ ↩

11. Boyko, V.; P. MacKenzie; S. Patel (2000). "Provably Secure Password-Authenticated Key Exchange Using Diffie-Hellman". Advances in Cryptology — EUROCRYPT 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1807. Springer-Verlag. pp. 156–171. doi:10.1007/3-540-45539-6_12. ISBN 978-3-540-67517-4. 978-3-540-67517-4 ↩

12. Designed to be not encumbered by patents.[9] ↩

13. Shin, SeongHan; Kobara, Kazukuni (June 2012). "Efficient Augmented Password-Only Authentication and Key Exchange for IKEv2". Internet Engineering Task Force. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. https://archive.today/20210511200146/https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6628 ↩

14. Tatiana Bradley (2020-12-08). "OPAQUE: The Best Passwords Never Leave your Device". The Cloudflare Blog. https://blog.cloudflare.com/opaque-oblivious-passwords/ ↩

15. Bourdrez, Daniel; Krawczyk, Hugo; Lewi, Kevin; Wood, Christopher A. (2023-06-12). "The OPAQUE Asymmetric PAKE Protocol (Internet Draft)". IETF. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-irtf-cfrg-opaque ↩

16. Haase, Björn; Labrique, Benoît (August 2010). "AuCPace: Efficient verifier-based PAKE protocol tailored for the IIoT" (PDF). TCHES: 1–48. doi:10.13154/tches.v2019.i2.1-48. S2CID 4603454. https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/286.pdf ↩

17. Taubert, T.; Wood, C. (September 2023). "SPAKE2+, an Augmented Password-Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) Protocol". IETF. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9383 ↩

18. US11025421B2, Fay, Bjorn, "Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication", issued 2021-06-01 https://patents.google.com/patent/US11025421B2/en?oq=11025421 ↩

19. Repository for the CFRG Pake selection process https://github.com/cfrg/pake-selection ↩

20. Results of the CFRG PAKE selection process https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/interim-2020-cfrg-01/materials/slides-interim-2020-cfrg-01-sessa-results-of-the-pake-selection-process-00 ↩