On the security of an authenticated group key transfer protocol based on secret sharing

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. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.