SIGMA: The 'SIGn-and-MAc' approach to authenticated Diffie-Hellman and its use in the IKE protocols

Abstract

We present the SIGMA family of key-exchange protocols and the "SIGn-and-MAc" approach to authenticated Diffie-Hellman underlying its design. The SIGMA protocols provide perfect forward secrecy via a Diffie-Hellman exchange authenticated with digital signatures, and are specifically designed to ensure sound cryptographic key exchange while providing a variety of features and trade-offs required in practical scenarios (such as optional identity protection and reduced number of protocol rounds). As a consequence, the SIGMA protocols are very well suited for use in actual applications and for standardized key exchange. In particular, SIGMA serves as the cryptographic basis for the signature-based modes of the standardized Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol (versions 1 and 2). This paper describes the design rationale behind the SIGMA approach and protocols, and points out to many subtleties surrounding the design of secure key-exchange protocols in general, and identity-protecting protocols in particular. We motivate the design of SIGMA by comparing it to other protocols, most notable the STS protocol and its variants. In particular, it is shown how SIGMA solves some of the security shortcomings found in previous protocols. © International Association for Cryptologic Research 2003.