A security solution for IEEE 802.11's ad hoc mode: password-authentication and group DiffieHellman key exchange. (30th May 2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bresson, Emmanuel; Chevassut, Olivier; Pointcheval, David
• Is Part Of: International journal of wireless and mobile computing. Volume 2:Number 1(2007)
• Page Start: 4
• Page End: 13
• Publication Date: 2007-05-30
• Subjects: password authentication -- group key exchange -- DiffieHellman -- provable security -- network security -- ad hoc networks -- IEEE 80211 -- wireless networks -- cryptography -- mobile networks -- dictionary attacks -- random oracles; Mobile computing -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Periodicals; 004.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-1084

Abstract

IEEE 802 standards ease the deployment of networking infrastructures and enable employers to access corporate networks while travelling. These standards provide two modes of communication called infrastructure and ad hoc modes. A security solution for the IEEE 802.11's infrastructure mode took several years to reach maturity and firmware is still been upgraded, yet a solution for the ad hoc mode needs to be specified. This paper is a first attempt in this direction. It leverages the latest developments in the area of password-based authentication and (group) DiffieHellman key exchange to develop a provably secure key-exchange protocol for IEEE 802.11's ad hoc mode. The protocol allows users to securely join and leave the wireless group at time, accommodates either a single-shared password or pairwise-shared passwords among the group members or at least with a central server; achieves security against dictionary attacks in the ideal-hash model (i.e. random oracles). This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first such protocol to appear in the cryptographic literature.