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IEEE/ACS International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA)

Integration and formal security analysis of a quantum key distribution scheme within CHAP protocol

Aymen Ghilen, Mostafa Azizi, Ridha Bouallègue

Published Nov 1, 2015• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In a security context, to render a cryptosystem more resistant against man-in-the-middle and impersonation attacks, an authentication mechanism has to be considered. CHAP protocol (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) is among the most widely spread authentication technique used within Local Area Networks. To offer greater robustness and privacy, we intend through our present paper to introduce a new quantum extension of CHAP that integrates quantum cryptography and takes advantage of its benefits such as eavesdropping detection, random secret key generation and unconditional security. A new scheme using a previously shared entangled qubits pairs with quantum unitary operators to ensure key agreement and mutual authentication is performed. To analyze the security of the proposed protocol, we use the PRISM tool as a model checker. We particularly focus on the security property of minimizing the quantity of information about the key that an enemy can obtain from applying a “man in the middle” attack. If we act on the parameters of the channel and the eavesdropper, we prove that this security property is affected by varying the efficiency of the channel as well as the power of the enemy. More interestingly, we show that the enemy could never be able to retrieve the value of the key.

DOI
10.1109/aiccsa.2015.7507129

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In a security context, to render a cryptosystem more resistant against man-in-the-middle and impersonation attacks, an authentication mechanism has to be considered. CHAP protocol (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) is among the most widely spread authentication technique used within Local Area Networks. To offer greater robustness and privacy, we intend through our present paper to introduce a new quantum extension of CHAP that integrates quantum cryptography and takes advantage of its benefits such as eavesdropping detection, random secret key generation and unconditional security. A new scheme using a previously shared entangled qubits pairs with quantum unitary operators to ensure key agreement and mutual authentication is performed. To analyze the security of the proposed protocol, we use the PRISM tool as a model checker. We particularly focus on the security property of minimizing the quantity of information about the key that an enemy can obtain from applying a “man in the middle” attack. If we act on the parameters of the channel and the eavesdropper, we prove that this security property is affected by varying the efficiency of the channel as well as the power of the enemy. More interestingly, we show that the enemy could never be able to retrieve the value of the key.
Abstract In this paper, we review a previous research paper presenting a scheme for quantum key distribution that performs authentication using only quantum means. The authentication mechanism in the protocol runs along with an eavesdropping checking approach. To upgrade security properties, especially against man‐in‐the‐middle attack, we propose a revised and enhanced scheme, so that the probability of detecting eavesdropping is distinctly improved. We use prism tool as a model checker to analyze the security of the quantum system and to emphasize the extent of our contribution. We particularly focus on two security features: (i) the capability of the participants in the protocol to detect any eavesdropping attempt and (ii) any valid knowledge gained on the shared key must be minimized. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The extensive deployment of wireless networks has led to a significant progress in security approaches that aim to protect confidentiality. The current method for exchanging a secret key within 'extensible authentication protocol-transport layer security' (EAP-TLS) protocol is based on public key infrastructure (PKI). Although this technique remains one of the most widely implemented solution to authenticate users and to ensure secure data transmission, its security is only computational. In other words, by the emergence of the quantum computer, the existing cryptosystems will become completely insecure. Improving the contemporary cryptographic schemes by integrating quantum cryptography becomes a much more attractive prospect since its technology does not rely on difficult mathematical problems such as factoring large integers or computing discrete logarithms. Thus, we propose a quantum extension of EAP-TLS that allows exchanging a cryptographic key and authenticating a remote client with unconditional security, ensured by the laws of quantum physics. PRISM tool is applied as a probabilistic model checker to verify specific security properties for the new scheme.
Quantum cryptography offers a way of key agreement, which is unbreakable by any external adversary. Authentication is of crucial importance, as perfect secrecy is worthless if the identity of the addressee cannot be ensured before sending important information. Message authentication has been studied thoroughly, but no approach seems to be able to explicitly counter meet-in-the-middle impersonation attacks. The goal of this paper is the development of an authentication scheme being resistant against active adversaries controlling the communication channel. The scheme is built on top of a key-establishment protocol and is unconditionally secure if built upon quantum cryptographic key exchange. In general, the security is the same as for the key-agreement protocol lying underneath.
By relying upon the laws of quantum physics, quantum cryptography is reaching an extremely high level of security guarantee. It allows establishing a secret and perfectly random key material between two network nodes. It improves the contemporary cryptographic methods based only on computational security by integrating a quantum cryptographic solution. Since quantum technology becomes an attractive prospect, our overriding objective is to provide a quantum key agreement scheme that properly authenticates users in 802.11i networks. In this paper, we introduce a quantum scheme, for mutual authentication and key establishment for the integration within IEEE 802.11 networks towards absolute communication security. The key issued from the quantum algorithm authenticates the two endpoints and will be used for building the pairwise key and the group key hierarchies. To analyze the security of our approach, a formal verification of some security properties is performed using PRISM as a model checker tool.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method using some properties of quantum mechanics to create a secret shared cryptographic key even if an eavesdropper has access to unlimited computational power. All QKD protocols require that the parties have access to an authentic channel. Otherwise, QKD is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. This paper studies QKD from this point of view, emphasizing the necessity and sufficiency of using unconditionally secure authentication in QKD. In this work, a new technique of using unconditionally secure authentication is proposed for quantum cryptosystems. This technique is based on a hybrid of normal application of authentication codes and the so-called “counter-based” authentication method such that to achieve a better trade-off between security and efficiency (in terms of the required size of initially shared secret data). Based on this strategy, an authenticated version of a typical QKD protocol (the well-known BB84 protocol) is described. Some advantages of our protocol in comparison to other proposals are also highlighted.
In the existing study of third party authentication, for message transformation has less security against attacks such as man-in-the-middle, efficiency and so on. In this approach, we at hand give a Quantum Key Distribution Protocol (QKDP) to safeguard the security in larger networks, which uses the combination of merits of classical cryptography and quantum cryptography. Two three-party QKDPs, one implemented with implicit user authentication and the other with explicit mutual authentication, which include the following: 1. Security against such attacks as the man-in-themiddle, eavesdropping and replay. 2. Efficiency is improved as the proposed protocols contain the fewest number of communication rounds among the existing QKDPs. 3. Two parties can share and use a long-term secret (repeatedly). To prove the security of the proposed schemes, this work also presents a new primitive called the Unbiased-Chosen Basis (UCB) assumption.