Efficient password authenticated key agreement using bilinear pairings

For providing a secure distributed computer environment, efficient and flexible user authentication and key agreement is very important. In addition to user authentication and key agreement, identity privacy is very useful for users. In this paper, we propose an efficient and flexible password authenticated key agreement scheme using bilinear pairings. The main merits include: (1) there is no need for any password or verification table in the server; (2) users can choose or change his own password freely; (3) both the server and a user can authenticate each other; (4) it can protect the user’s privacy; (5) the user and the server can generate a session key; (6) it does not have a serious synchronization-clock problem; (7) even if the secret information stored in a smart card is compromised, it can prevent the offline dictionary attack. c © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.