Abstract
Group key transfer protocols allow multiple parties to share a common secret key. They rely on a mutually trusted key generation center (KGC) that selects the key and securely distributes it to the authorized participants. Recently, Sun et al. proposed an authenticated group key transfer protocol based on secret sharing that they claim to be secure. We show that this is false: the protocol is susceptible to insider attacks and violates known key security. Finally, we propose a countermeasure that maintains the benefits of the original protocol.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blakley, G.: Safeguarding cryptographic keys. In: Proceedings of the 1979 AFIPS National Computer Conference, pp. 313–317. AFIPS Press (1979)
Blom, R.: An Optimal Class of Symmetric Key Generation Systems. In: Beth, T., Cot, N., Ingemarsson, I. (eds.) EUROCRYPT 1984. LNCS, vol. 209, pp. 335–338. Springer, Heidelberg (1985)
Blundo, C., De Santis, A., Herzberg, A., Kutten, S., Vaccaro, U., Yung, M.: Perfectly-Secure Key Distribution for Dynamic Conferences. In: Brickell, E.F. (ed.) CRYPTO 1992. LNCS, vol. 740, pp. 471–486. Springer, Heidelberg (1993)
Diffie, W., Hellman, M.E.: New directions in cryptography. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 22(6), 644–654 (1976)
Fiat, A., Naor, M.: Broadcast Encryption. In: Stinson, D.R. (ed.) CRYPTO 1993. LNCS, vol. 773, pp. 480–491. Springer, Heidelberg (1994)
Harn, L., Lin, C.: Authenticated group key transfer protocol based on secret sharing. IEEE Trans. Comput. 59(6), 842–846 (2010)
Hsu, C., Zeng, B., Cheng, Q., Cui, G.: A novel group key transfer protocol. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2012/043 (2012)
Ingemarsson, I., Tang, D.T., Wong, C.K.: A conference key distribution system. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 28(5), 714–719 (1982)
Li, C.H., Pieprzyk, J.: Conference Key Agreement from Secret Sharing. In: Pieprzyk, J.P., Safavi-Naini, R., Seberry, J. (eds.) ACISP 1999. LNCS, vol. 1587, pp. 64–76. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Nam, J., Kim, M., Paik, J., Jeon, W., Lee, B., Won, D.: Cryptanalysis of a Group Key Transfer Protocol Based on Secret Sharing. In: Kim, T.-h., Adeli, H., Slezak, D., Sandnes, F.E., Song, X., Chung, K.-i., Arnett, K.P. (eds.) FGIT 2011. LNCS, vol. 7105, pp. 309–315. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Needham, R.M., Schroeder, M.D.: Using encryption for authentication in large networks of computers. Commun. ACM 21(12), 993–999 (1978)
Pieprzyk, J., Li, C.H.: Multiparty key agreement protocols. In: IEEE Proceedings - Computers and Digital Techniques, pp. 229–236 (2000)
Sáez, G.: Generation of key predistribution schemes using secret sharing schemes. Discrete Applied Mathematics 128(1), 239–249 (2003)
Shamir, A.: How to share a secret. Commun. ACM 22(11), 612–613 (1979)
Sun, Y., Wen, Q., Sun, H., Li, W., Jin, Z., Zhang, H.: An authenticated group key transfer protocol based on secret sharing. Procedia Engineering 29, 403–408 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Olimid, R.F. (2013). On the Security of an Authenticated Group Key Transfer Protocol Based on Secret Sharing. In: Mustofa, K., Neuhold, E.J., Tjoa, A.M., Weippl, E., You, I. (eds) Information and Communication Technology. ICT-EurAsia 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7804. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36818-9_44
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36818-9_44
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36817-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36818-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)