A new architecture for user authentication and key exchange using password for federated enterprises

Abstract

The rapid rise of federated enterprises entails a new way of trust management by the fact that an enterprise can account for partial trust of its affiliating organizations. On the other hand, password has historically been used as a main means for user authentication because of operational simplicity. We are thus motivated to explore the use of short password for user authentication and key exchange in the context of federated enterprises. Exploiting the special structure of a federated enterprise, our proposed new architecture comprises an external server managed by each affiliating organization and a central server managed by the enterprise headquarter. We are concerned with the development of an efficient authentication and key exchange protocol using password, built over the new architecture. The architecture together with the protocol well addresses off-line dictionary attacks initiated at the server side, a problem rarely considered in prior effort. Copyright © 2005 by International Federation for Information Processing.