Internet Research Task Force D. Harkins, Ed.
Internet-Draft Aruba Networks
Intended status: Informational February 24, 2013
Expires: August 28, 2013
Dragonfly Key Exchange
draft-irtf-cfrg-dragonfly-01
Abstract
This document specifies a key exchange using discrete logarithm
cryptogprahy that is authenticated using a password or passphrase.
It is resistant to active attack, passive attack, and off-line
dictionary attack.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may not be modified,
and derivative works of it may not be created, except to format it
for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on August 28, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.1. Notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.2. Resistance to Dictionary Attack . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Discete Logarithm Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Elliptic Curve Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Finite Field Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. The Dragonfly Key Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1. Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. Derviation of the Password Element . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.1. Hunting and Pecking with ECC Groups . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.2. Hunting and Pecking with MODP Groups . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3. The Commit Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.4. The Confirm Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
1. Introduction
Passwords and passphrases are the predominant way of doing
authentication in the Internet today. Many protocols that use
passwords and passphrases for authentication exchange password-
derived data as a proof-of-knowledge of the password (for example,
[RFC5996], and [RFC5433]). This opens the exchange up to an off-line
dictionary attack where the attacker gleans enough knowledge from
either an active or passive attack on the protocol to run through a
pool of potential passwords and compute verifiers until it is able to
match the password-derived data.
This protocol employs discrete logarithm cryptography to perform an
efficient exchange in a way that performs mutual authentication using
a password but is resistant to an off-line dictionary attack.
1.1. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
1.2. Definitions
1.2.1. Notations
The following notations are used in this memo
password
A shared, secret and potentially low-entropy word, phrase, code
or key used as a credential to mutually authenticate the peers.
It is not restricted to characters in a human language.
a | b
denotes concatenation of string "a" with string "b".
len(a)
indicates the length in bits of the string "a".
LSB(a)
returns the least-significant bit of the bitstring "a".
min(a,b)
returns the lexicographical minimum of strings a and b, or zero
(0) if a equals b.
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
max(a,b)
returns the lexicographical maximum of strings a and b, or zero
(0) if a equals b.
The convention for this memo to represent an element in a finite
cyclic group is to use an upper-case letter or acronym, while a
scalar is indicated with a lower-case letter or acronym. An element
that represents a point on an elliptic curve has an implied composite
nature-- i.e. it has both an x- and y-coordinate.
1.2.2. Resistance to Dictionary Attack
Resistance to dictionary attack means that any advantage an adversary
can gain must be directly related to the number of interactions she
makes with an honest protocol participant and not through
computation. The adversary will not be able to obtain any
information about the password except whether a single guess from a
protocol run is correct or incorrect.
2. Discete Logarithm Cryptography
Dragonfly uses discrete logarithm cryptography to achieve
authentication and key agreement (see [SP800-56A]). Each party to
the exchange derives ephemeral keys with respect to a particular set
of domain parameters (referred to here as a "group"). A group can be
based on Finite Field Cryptography (FFC) or Elliptic Curve
Cryptography (ECC).
Three operations are defined for both types of groups:
o "scalar operation"-- takes a scalar and an element in the group
to produce another element-- Z = scalar-op(x, Y).
o "element operation"-- takes two elements in the group to produce
a third-- Z = element-op(X, Y).
o "inverse operation"-- takes an element and returns another
element such that the element operation on the two produces the
identity element of the group-- Y = inverse(X).
2.1. Elliptic Curve Cryptography
Domain parameters for the ECC groups used by dragonfly are:
o A prime, p, determining a prime field GF(p). The cryptographic
group will be a subgroup of the full elliptic curve group that
consists of points on an elliptic curve -- elements from GF(p)
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
that satisfy the curve's equation -- together with the "point at
infinity" that serves as the identity element. The group
operation for ECC groups is addition of points on the elliptic
curve.
o Elements a and b from GF(p) that define the curve's equation. The
point (x, y) in GF(p) x GF(p) is on the elliptic curve if and only
if (y^2 - x^3 - a*x - b) mod p equals zero (0).
o A point, G, on the elliptic curve, which serves as a generator for
the ECC group. G is chosen such that its order, with respect to
elliptic curve addition, is a sufficiently large prime.
o A prime, q, which is the order of G, and thus is also the size of
the cryptographic subgroup that is generated by G.
An (x,y) pair is a valid ECC element if: 1) the x- and y-coordinates
are both greater than zero (0) and less than the prime defining the
underlying field; and, 2) the x- and y-coordinates satisfy the
equation for the curve and produce a valid point on the curve that is
not the point at infinity. If either one of those conditions do not
hold the (x,y) pair is not a valid element.
The scalar operation is multiplication of a point on the curve by
itself a number of times. The point Y is multiplied x-times to
produce another point Z:
Z = scalar-op(x, Y) = x*Y
The element operation is addition of two points on the curve. Points
X and Y are summed to produce another point Z:
Z = element-op(X, Y) = X + Y
The inverse function is defined such that the sum of an element and
its inverse is "0", the point-at-infinity of an elliptic curve group:
R + inverse(R) = "0"
Elliptic curve groups require a mapping function, q = F(Q), to
convert a group element to an integer. The mapping function used in
this memo returns the x-coordinate of the point it is passed.
scalar-op(x, Y) can be viewed as x iterations of element-op() by
defining:
Y = scalar-op(1, Y)
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
Y = scalar-op(x, Y) = element-op(Y, scalar-op(x-1, Y)), for x > 1
A definition of how to add two points on an elliptic curve (i.e.
element-op(X, Y)) can be found in [RFC6090].
Note: There is another elliptic curve domain parameter, a co-factor,
h, that is defined by the requirement that the size of the full
elliptic curve group (including "0") be the product of h and q.
Elliptic curve groups used with dragonfly authentication MUST have a
co-factor of one (1).
2.2. Finite Field Cryptography
Domain parameters for the FFC groups used in dragonfly are:
o A prime, p, determining a prime field GF(p), the integers modulo
p. The FFC group will be a subgroup of GF(p)*, the multiplicative
group of non-zero elements in GF(p). The group operation for FFC
groups is multiplication modulo p.
o An element, G, in GF(p)* which serves as a generator for the FFC
group. G is chosen such that its multiplicative order is a
sufficiently large prime divisor of ((p-1)/2).
o A prime, q, which is the multiplicative order of G, and thus also
the size of the cryptographic subgroup of GF(p)* that is generated
by G.
A number is a valid element in an FFC group if: 1) it is between one
(1) and one (1) less than the the prime, p, exclusive (i.e. 1 <
element < p-1); and, 2) if modular exponentiation of the element by
the group order, q, equals one (1). If either one of those
conditions do not hold the number is not a valid element.
The scalar operation is exponentiation of a generator modulo a prime.
An element Y is taken to the x-th power modulo the prime returning
another element, Z:
Z = scalar-op(x, Y) = Y^x mod p
The element operation is modular multiplication. Two elements, X and
Y, are multiplied modulo the prime returning another element, Z:
Z = element-op(X, Y) = (X * Y) mod p
The inverse function for a MODP group is defined such that the
product of an element and its inverse modulo the group prime equals
one (1). In other words,
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
(R * inverse(R)) mod p = 1
3. The Dragonfly Key Exchange
There are two parties to the Dragonfly exchange named, for
convenience and by convention, Alice and Bob. The two parties have a
shared password that was established in an out-of-band mechanism and
they both agree to use a particular domain parameter set (either ECC
or FFC).
Prior to beginning the Dragonfly exchange, the two peers MUST derive
a secret element in the chosen domain parameter set. Two "hunting-
and-pecking" techniques to determine a secret element, one for ECC
and one for FFC, are described in Section 3.2 but any secure,
determinstic method that is agreed up on can be used. For instance,
the technique described in [hash2ec] can be used for ECC groups.
The Dragonfly exchange consists of two message exchanges, a "Commit
Exchange" in which both sides commit to a single guess of the
password, and a "Confirm Exchange" in which both sides confirm
knowledge of the password. A side effect of running the Dragonfly
exchange is an authenticated, shared, and secret key whose
cryptographic strength is set by the agreed-upon group.
Dragonfly uses a random function, H(), a mapping function, F(), and a
key derivation function, KDF().
3.1. Assumptions
The Dragonfly protocol achieves security under some basic
assumptions:
1. Function H is a "random oracle" (see [RANDOR]) that maps a binary
string of indeterminate length onto a fixed binary string that is
x bits in length.
H: {0,1}^* --> {0,1}^x
Given knowledge of the input to H, an adversary is unable to
distinguish the output of H from a random data source.
2. Function F is an injective mapping function that takes an element
in a group and returns an integer. For ECC groups function F()
returns the x-coordinate of the element (which is a point on the
elliptic curve), for FFC groups function F() is the identity
function (since all elements in an FFC group are already integers
less than the prime):
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
ECC: x = F(P), where P=(x,y)
FFC: x = F(x)
3. Function KDF is a key derivation function (see, for instance,
[SP800-108]) that takes a key to stretch, k, a label to bind to
the key, label, and an indication of the desired output, n:
stretch = KDF-n(k, label)
so that len(stretch) equals n.
4. The discrete logarithm problem for the chosen group is hard.
That is, given g, p, and y = g^x mod p, it is computationally
infeasible to determine x. Similarly, for an ECC group given the
curve definition, a generator G, and Y = x * G, it is
computationally infeasible to determine x.
5. There exists a pool of passwords from which the password shared
by the two peers is drawn. This pool can consist of words from a
dictionary, for example. Each password in this pool has an equal
probability of being the shared password. All potential
attackers have access to this pool of passwords.
6. The peers have to ability to produce quality random numbers.
3.2. Derviation of the Password Element
Prior to beginning the exchange of information, the peers MUST derive
a secret element, called the Password Element (PE), in the group
defined by the chosen domain parameter set. From the point-of-view
of an attacker who does not know the password, PE will be a random
element in the negotiated group. Two examples are described here for
completeness but any method of deterministically mapping a secret
string into an element in a selected group can be used, for instance
the technique in [hash2ec] for ECC groups. If a different technique
than the ones described here is used, the secret string SHOULD
include the identities of the peers.
To fix PE, both peers MUST have a common view of the password. If
either side wants to store a salted version of the password it will
be necessary to convey the salt to the other side prior to commensing
the exchange.
The determinstic process to select the PE begins with choosing a
secret seed and then performing a group-specific hunting-and-pecking
technique-- one for FFC groups and another for ECC groups.
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
To thwart side channel attacks which attempt to determine the number
of iterations of the "hunting-and-pecking" loop are used to find PE
for a given password, a security parameter, k, is used to ensure that
at least k iterations are always performed. The probability that one
requires more than "n" iterations of the "hunting-and-pecking" loop
to find an ECC PE is roughly (q/2p)^n and to find an FFC PE is
roughly (q/p)^n, both of which rapidly approach zero (0) as "n"
increases. The security parameter, k, SHOULD be set sufficiently
large such that the probability that finding PE would take more than
k iterations is sufficiently small (see Section 6).
First, an 8-bit counter is set to one (1) and a secret base is
computed using the negotiated one-way function with the identities of
the two participants, Alice and Bob, the secret password and the
counter:
base = H((max(Alice,Bob) | min(Alice,Bob) | password | counter)
The base is then stretched using the key derivation function, KDF, to
the length of the prime from the group's domain parameter set:
seed = KDF-n(base, "Dragonfly Hunting and Pecking")
where n = len(p). The string bound to the derived seed is for
illustrative purposes only. Implementations of the dragonfly key
exchange SHOULD use a usage specific label with the KDF.
The seed is then passed to the group-specific hunting and pecking
technique.
Note that if the protocol performing the dragonfly exchange has the
ability to exchange random nonces those SHOULD be added to the
computation of base to ensure that each run of the protocol produces
a different PE.
3.2.1. Hunting and Pecking with ECC Groups
The ECC specific hunting and pecking technique entails looping until
a valid point on the elliptic curve has been found. If the seed is
not a quadratic residue modulo p, then the counter is incremented, a
new base and new seed are generated and the hunting and pecking
continues. If the seed is a quadratic residue modulo p, then the
seed is used as the x-coordinate with the equation of the curve to
solve for a y-coordinate. An ambiguity exists since two values for
the y-coordinate would be valid and the low-order bit of the base is
used to unambiguously determine the correct y-coordinate. The
resulting (x,y) pair becomes the Password Element, PE.
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
Algorithmically, the process looks like this:
found = 0
counter = 1
n = len(p)
do {
base = H(max(Alice,Bob) | min(Alice,Bob) | password | counter)
seed = KDF-n(seed, "Dragonfly Hunting And Pecking")
if (seed < p)
then
x = seed
if ( (x^3 + ax + b) is a quadratic residue mod p)
then
y = sqrt(x^3 + ax + b)
if (LSB(y) == LSB(base))
then
PE = (x,y)
else
PE = (x,p-y)
fi
found = 1
fi
fi
counter = counter + 1
} while ((found == 0) || (counter <= k))
Figure 1: Fixing PE for ECC Groups
3.2.2. Hunting and Pecking with MODP Groups
The MODP specific hunting and pecking technique entails finding a
random element which, when used as a generator, will create a group
with the same order as the group created by the generator from the
domain parameter set. The secret generator is found by
exponentiating the seed to the value ((p-1)/q), where p is the prime
and q is the order from the domain parameter set. If that value is
greater than one (1) it becomes PE, otherwise the counter is
incremented, a new base and seed are generated, and the hunting and
pecking continues.
Algorithmically, the process looks like this:
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
found = 0
counter = 1
n = len(p)
do {
base = H(max(Alice,Bob) | min(Alice,Bob) | password | counter)
seed = KDF-n(base, "Dragonfly Hunting And Pecking")
if (seed < p)
then
PE = seed ^ ((p-1)/q) mod p
if (PE > 1)
then
found = 1
fi
fi
counter = counter + 1
} while ((found == 0) || (counter <= k))
Figure 2: Fixing PE for MODP Groups
3.3. The Commit Exchange
In the Commit Exchange both sides commit to a single guess of the
password. The peers generate a scalar and an element, exchange them
with each other, and process the other's scalar and element to
generate a common and shared secret.
First each peer generates two random numbers, private and mask.
These two secrets, the Password Element, and the order from the
selected domain parameter set are then used to construct the scalar
and element:
scalar = (private + mask) modulo q
Element = inverse(scalar-op(mask, PE))
If the scalar is less than two (2), the private and mask MUST be
thrown away and new values generated. Once a valid scalar and
Element are generated, the mask is no longer needed and MUST be
irretrievably destroyed.
The peers exchange their scalar and Element and validate the peer's
scalar and Element, deemed peer-scalar and Peer-Element. For the
peer-scalar to be valid, it MUST be between 1 and q exclusive.
Validation of the Peer-Element depends on the type of cryptosystem--
validation of an (x,y) pair as an ECC element is specified in
Section 2.1 and validation of a number as an FFC element is specified
in Section 2.2. If either the peer-scalar or Peer-Element fail
validation then the exchange MUST be terminated and authentication
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
fails. If both the peer-scalar and Peer-Element are valid, they are
used with the Password Element to derive a shared secret, ss:
ss = F(scalar-op(private,
element-op(peer-Element,
scalar-op(peer-scalar, PE))))
To enforce key separation and crypto hygiene, the shared secret is
stretched into two subkeys, a key confirmation key, KCK, and a master
key, MK. Each of the subkeys SHOULD be at least the length of the
prime used in the selected group.
KCK | MK = KDF-n(ss, "Dragonfly Key Derivation")
where n = len(p)*2.
3.4. The Confirm Exchange
In the Confirm Exchange both sides confirm that they derived the same
secret, and therefore, are in possession of the same password.
The Commit Exchange consists of an exchange of data that is the
output of the random function, H(), the key confirmation key, and the
two scalars and two elements exchanged in the Commit Exchange. The
order of the scalars and elements are, scalars before elements, and
sender's value before recipient's value. So from each peer's
perspective, it would generate:
confirm = H(KCK | scalar | peer-scalar |
Element | Peer-Element)
The two peers exchange these confirmations and verify the correctness
of the other peer's confirmation that they receive. If the other
peer's confirmation is valid, authentication succeeds; if the other
peer's confirmation is not valid, authentication fails.
If authentication fails, all ephemeral state created as part of the
particular run of the dragonfly exchange MUST be irretrievabley
destroyed. If authentication does not fail, MK can be exported as an
authenticated and secret key that can be used by another protocol,
for instance IPsec, to protect other data.
4. Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Kevin Igoe and David McGrew, chairmen
of the Crypto Forum Research Group (CFRG) for agreeing to accept this
memo as a CFRG work item. Additional thanks go to Scott Fluhrer and
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
Hideyuki Suzuki for discovering attacks against earlier versions of
this key exchange and suggesting fixes to address them. Lily Chen
provided helpful discussions on hashing into an elliptic curve. Rich
Davis suggested the validation steps used on received elements.
Dylan Clarke and Feng Hao discovered a dictionary attack against
dragonfly if those validation steps are not performed. Martin Rex,
Peter Gutmann, Marsh Ray, Rene Struik and Kevin Igoe discussed the
possibility of a side-channel attack against the hunting-and-pecking
loop and motivated the addition of the security parameter, k.
5. IANA Considerations
This memo includes no request to IANA.
6. Security Considerations
The dragonfly exchange requires both participants to have an
identical representation of the password. Salting of the password
merely generates a new credential-- the salted password-- which must
be identically represented on both sides. If an adversary is able to
gain access to the database of salted passwords, she would be able to
impersonate one side to the other, even if she was unable to
determine the underlying, unsalted, password.
Resistance to dictionary attack means that an adversary must launch
an active attack to make a single guess at the password. If the size
of the dictionary from which the password was extracted was "d", and
each password in the dictionary has an equal probability of being
chosen, then the probability of success after a single guess is 1/d.
After "x" guesses, and removal of failed guesses from the pool of
possible passwords, the probability becomes 1/(d-x). As "x" grows,
so does the probability of success. Therefore, it is possible for an
adversary to determine the password through repeated brute-force,
active, guessing attacks. Users of the dragonfly key exchange SHOULD
ensure that the size of the pool from which the password was drawn,
"d", is sufficiently large to make this attack preventable.
Implementations of dragonfly SHOULD support countermeasures to deal
with this attack-- for instance, by refusing authentication attempts
for a certain amount of time, after the number of failed
authentication attempts reaches a certain threshold. No such
threshold or amount of time is recommended in this memo.
It is RECOMMENDED that an implementation set the security parameter,
k, to a value of at least forty (40) which will put the probability
that more than forty iterations are needed in the order of one in one
trillion (1:1,000,000,000,000).
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
7. References
7.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
7.2. Informative References
[RANDOR] Bellare, M. and P. Rogaway, "Random Oracles are Practical:
A Paradigm for Designing Efficient Protocols", Proceedings
of the 1st ACM Conference on Computer and Communication
Security, ACM Press, 1993,
<http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~mihir/papers/ro.pdf>.
[RFC5433] Clancy, T. and H. Tschofenig, "Extensible Authentication
Protocol - Generalized Pre-Shared Key (EAP-GPSK) Method",
RFC 5433, February 2009.
[RFC5996] Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., and P. Eronen,
"Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)",
RFC 5996, September 2010.
[RFC6090] McGrew, D., Igoe, K., and M. Salter, "Fundamental Elliptic
Curve Cryptography Algorithms", RFC 6090, February 2011.
[SP800-108]
Chen, L., "Recommendations for Key Derivation Using
Pseudorandom Functions", NIST Special Publication 800-108,
April 2008.
[SP800-56A]
Barker, E., Johnson, D., and M. Smid, "Recommendations for
Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete
Logarithm Cryptography", NIST Special Publication 800-56A,
March 2007.
[hash2ec] Coron, J-B. and T. Icart, "An indifferentiable hash
function into elliptic curves", Cryptology ePrint
Archive Report 2009/340, 2009.
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 14]
Internet-Draft Dragonfly February 2013
Author's Address
Dan Harkins (editor)
Aruba Networks
1322 Crossman Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1113
United States of America
Email: dharkins@arubanetworks.com
Harkins Expires August 28, 2013 [Page 15]