Efficient Anonymous Password-Authenticated Key Exchange Scheme Using Smart Cards

Abstract

Anonymous authentication is designed to hide the user’s identity from any verifiers during an authentication session. Since passwords prevail in many authentication systems, anonymous password-authenticated key exchange (APAKE) has become a candidate technique for privacy-enhancing applications. Recently, Shin and Kobara proposed an improved APAKE protocol using general devices such as public directories. However, we find that their scheme is vulnerable to a credential forgery attack. Then, we propose an efficient protocol using tamper resistant smart cards. The security and efficiency analysis shows that our protocol obtains high security and efficiency.