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Needham Schroeder Symmetric Key

Author(s): Roger Needham and Michael Schroeder  (1978)

Summary: Distribution of a shared symmetric key by a trusted server and mutual authentification. Symmetric key cryptography with server.

Protocol specification (in common syntax)

A, B, S :   principal
Na, Nb :   nonce
Kas, Kbs, Kab :   key
dec :   nonce -> nonce

1.   A -> S :   A, B, Na
2.   S -> A :   {Na, B, Kab, {Kab, A}Kbs}Kas
3.   A -> B :   {Kab,A}Kbs
4.   B -> A :   {Nb}Kab
5.   A -> B :   {dec(Nb)}Kab

Description of the protocol rules

This protocol establishes the fresh shared symmetric key Kab.

Messages 1-3 perform the distribution of the fresh shared symmetric key Kab and messages 4-5 are for mutual authentification of A and B.

The operator dec is decrementation.

Requirements

The protocol must guaranty the secrecy of Kab: in every session, the value of Kab must be known only by the participants playing the roles of A, B and S in that session.

If the participant playing B accepts the last message 5, then Kab has been sent in message 3. by A (whose identity is included in the cipher of message 3).

References

[NS78].

Claimed attacks

Authentication attack by Denning and Sacco [DS81]. Assume that I has recorded the session i and that Kab is compromised. After the session ii, B is convinced that he shares the secret key Kab only with A.
i.1.   A -> S :   A, B, Na
i.2.   S -> A :   {Na, B, Kab, {Kab, A}Kbs }Kas
i.3.   A -> I(B) :   {Kab,A}Kbs
          assume that Kab is compromised
ii.3.   I(A) -> B :   {Kab,A}Kbs
ii.4.   B -> I(A) :   {Nb}Kab
ii.5.   I(A) -> B :   {dec(Nb)}Kab

See also

Amended Needham Schroeder Symmetric Key, Denning-Sacco shared key, Kerberos V5.

Citations

[DS81]
D. Denning and G. Sacco. Timestamps in key distributed protocols. Communication of the ACM, 24(8):533--535, 1981.

[NS78]
R. Needham and M. Schroeder. Using encryption for authentication in large networks of computers. Communications of the ACM, 21(12), December 1978.
last modified 08/11/2002.
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