• caglararli@hotmail.com
  • 05386281520

Is This Perfect Forward Secrecy?

Çağlar Arlı      -    18 Views

Is This Perfect Forward Secrecy?

I have a textbook that contains the following problem:

In practice, one master key, KM, is exchanged in a secure way (e.g. Diffie-Hellman key exchange) between the involved parties. Afterwards, session keys, kx, are regularly updated by using key derivation. Consider the following three different methods of key derivation:

a. k0 = KM; ki+1 = ki+1

b. k0 = H(KM); ki+1 = H(ki)

c. k0 = H(KM); ki+1 = h(KM || i || ki)

where H() represents a secure hash function, and ki is the ith session key.

The question goes on to ask which method(s) provide Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), with the answer key stating that b and c do.

As I understand it, a requirement of PFS is that past sessions are secure even if the long-term secret is compromised [1]. However, in this case, if KM (the long-term secret) is compromised, then all session keys can be computed.

Do any of these key derivation schemes provide PFS? Does the particular wording of the problem, ...exchanged in a secure way..., remove my assumption that KM could be compromised? Is KM not a long-term secret in the context of PFS?